Lativa Sakina
It is your turn to lower cholesterol and you do not know what to cook to get it, but with these recipes, it will be much more bearable.
You just did some tests after the holidays and, as you already suspected, your cholesterol has skyrocketed. The doctor has told you that you have to take care of yourself. You already knew that that’s why you have gone to the doctor, to guide you in the changes. They give you a list of things that you cannot eat and another of the things that you can. It seems easy, things that cannot be eaten are automatically removed from the shopping list.
But, when you start to think of recipes with the things that you can eat, you realize that each one of those foods that you can are used to cooking with three or four of which you cannot now. Don’t worry, it’s not unusual, in fact, if it weren’t, surely your cholesterol wouldn’t have risen. And now, don’t despair, keep reading and write down the recipes that we give you, with ingredients from the good list and to lick your fingers.
Recipes to lower cholesterol and prevent it from rising
In the brand new piece of paper the doctor has given you, you should eat legumes, and several times a week. But friends, chickpeas from the stew or tripe are not worth, or fabadas beans or lentils in stews with all their sacraments. The good news is that there are also healthy recipes with legumes that are to lick your fingers.
Low Cholesterol Avocado Hummus for Vegetarian
If you hurry me a little, you can eat legumes even with breakfast toast, because hummus, thanks to legumes and good fats that help eliminate “bad” cholesterol and raise “good” cholesterol, is not only the best alternative to anything commercial they sell us to spread on bread (pâtés, cheese creams, margarine, dipping sauces …), but it is almost a cholesterol medicine, like this avocado hummus.
Ingredients (For 6 people)
Canned cooked chickpeas 200 g
Avocado 1
Extra virgin olive oil 45 ml
Garlic clove 1
Lemon 0.5
Dried ground chili 3 g
Salt
Ground black pepper
How to make avocado hummus
We start by grinding the cooked chickpeas with the garlic clove and a tablespoon of olive oil in a food processor or robot. When we have obtained the consistency of a fine puree, we season it with the spices and a little pepper. We peel the avocado, remove the bone and cut it into pieces.
Now add the avocado and the second tablespoon of oil to the chickpea puree and crush everything again for a minute. Add the lemon juice, the dried chili powder and adjust the seasoning with a little salt if necessary. We crush one last time and serve drizzled with the rest of the olive oil and sprinkled with a little more chili if we want it a tad hotter.
With what to accompany the avocado hummus for dinner?
The avocado hummus is perfect to share at dinner time with a few pieces of toast or some Mexican corn tortilla chips. Of course, you could also serve it as a side dish for roast beef or white fish and it will taste just as delicious. You can prepare it in advance and refrigerate it in a covered container for a day or two at most.
Low Cholesterol Lentil Hummus for Breakfast
Virtually any legume is suitable for preparing a delicious hummus that we can use as a spread with bread or with vegetable crudités, and almost everyone can be given a touch to the taste of each one if with avocado than with peppers or with beets, we can make hummus of a lot of colors and flavors, perfect to throw a party in a moment. Go for it with the lentil hummus.
Ingredients (4 servings)
400 grams of cooked lentils
1’5 c / s of tahini
1 large garlic clove (or two small ones)
a splash of lemon juice
3-4 coriander sprigs (or failing parsley, the flavor is very different)
1 c / c sweet and sour paprika (or spicy, if the flakes are not added)
1 c / c cumin powder
a pinch of black pepper
a few flakes of spicy La Vera paprika (optional)
c / n of salt
a generous splash of extra virgin olive oil.
How to make low cholesterol lentil hummus
If you are going to prepare the hummus with canned lentils, drain them and rinse them in a strainer under running cold water. Then drain well again and put them in the mixer glass.
Add sesame or tahini paste, garlic, lemon juice (you can be generous), coriander leaves, paprika, cumin and freshly ground black pepper to the lentils. Also, add a pinch of salt and grind until you get a homogeneous cream.
Test and rectify salt or spices if necessary, and to finish, add a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, a couple of tablespoons may be fine (depending on the fat you want to consume) and grind again to emulsify.
If you are not going to serve it right away, you can store it in the refrigerator tightly closed. This means that you can also make a larger amount than what you are going to consume and have it in a taper to eat a little every day.
Finish and presentation
Transfer the lentil hummus to a bowl and decorate with a sprig of parsley or coriander, with a little ground paprika, some paprika flakes (optional) and a few drops of extra virgin olive oil. Accompany the hummus with papadums or whatever you have chosen this time. Bon Appetite!
Lentils with vegetable recipes for vegetarian
Vegetable and legume stews at CrockPot are another story. If you do not have one yet, it is possible that when you try it it will become your best ally to help you eat healthier and keep cholesterol at bay. And when you prepare these lentils with vegetables, it will become your best friend.
Ingredients
400 gr of extra brown lentils
2 potatoes
6 carrots
2 large onions
2 cloves of garlic
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon (dessert) of sweet paprika de la Vera
Salt and freshly ground black pepper (to taste)
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1 large leek
Water
1 green bell pepper
2 large tomatoes
1/2 red pepper
Before cooking lentils
One of the important steps is the choice of lentils. I use the most common: the extra brown lentil, found in any market or supermarket.
The best thing about this class of lentils is that they do not need soaking prior to cooking. Although I usually do it to save cooking time.
We put the lentils in a bowl with cold water and leave them to soak overnight, normally 12 hours. It is not necessary to add salt at the time of soaking.
If for any reason you don’t have time you can do it directly. As long as they are brownish and do not forget to wash them to remove impurities. Just remember to cook them for 1/2 more hour.
The day after putting them to soak we remove the lentils that are floating in the water.
They are usually not suitable for preparing the stew. Drain them and set aside until ready.
Preparation of vegetable lentils
These lentils, unlike traditional lentils, do not have meat and many vegetables do. We introduce more pepper and a leek that gives it a very rich flavor.
To do this, chop the onions, garlic, leek, and peppers into very small pieces so that they melt in the cooking.
At the end of cooking, we will hardly notice any texture of any of the ingredients but its flavor.
Peel the carrots, potatoes and tomatoes. We cut the tomatoes into 2 parts, cut the carrots into thin slices and the potatoes into small pieces, this will be done much earlier.
In a saucepan, add a dash of extra virgin olive oil, onions, leek, and garlic cloves. We fry everything for 10 minutes so that the flavors mix well.
Add the bell peppers, sliced carrots, tomatoes, and bay leaf. We also fry for 2-3 minutes.
Add a teaspoon dessert type of sweet paprika de la Vera (we can mix sweet and spicy if you like a point to the lentils.
Here it also goes by tastes, at home we like that they taste quite like paprika because it does not have chorizo. So, add to your liking.
We stir with a wooden spoon quickly so that it does not burn.
We add the lentils already drained. We stir again so that everything comes together well, about 3 minutes.
The final presentation of widowed lentils. Tasting
We cover with cold water (important, so that it begins to boil slowly) until the casserole is almost full, remember that we have to add more ingredients.
I like them with broth, if you want them thicker put a little less water, then you can always rectify with hot water (so as not to break the cooking).
When it takes 1/2 hour to cook we add salt and pepper to taste and the potato pieces.
Let them cook slowly over medium heat for the next half hour, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon.
In the last half hour, we cook the lentils over low heat, testing from time to time in case they do not need more cooking.
That easy. Plating and eating. You can also add a chopped hard-boiled egg on top to make it a more complete dish.
Lentil and tuna salad for dinner
Not all legumes have to be eaten in a pot, nor do they always have to be accompanied by hypercaloric foods. Another proof of this is this delicious lentil salad with bonito, perfect for when the cold is gone.
Ingredients to make lentil and tuna salad
1 cup lentils
Water
Salt
1 chopped onion
2 tomatoes, chopped
2 boiled eggs
1 can of bonito from the north of our land
60 g of black olives from Aragon De Nuestra Tierra
Extra virgin olive oil Sierra Magina De Nuestra Tierra
Preparation of lentil and tuna salad
We start by cooking the lentils in water – if your local water is hard, it is advisable to use mineral water – with salt for about 40 -50 minutes until they are tender. We can also cook them in a pressure cooker following the times indicated by the manufacturer of the pressure cooker for this vegetable. When they are tender, drain them and let cool.
When we go to prepare the salad, we put the lentils in a bowl and add the chopped onion, the tomatoes, the chopped hard-boiled eggs, the drained and crumbled bonito and the olives.
We water with extra virgin olive oil to taste.
We can serve it immediately or leave it in the fridge until it is consumed.
Result
It is still a variant of typical rice or pasta salads, highly recommended for those who have to monitor carbohydrate intake because by using lentils we are reducing them significantly.
White beans with clams, low cholesterol recipe that taste good
Not only is it a finger-licking white bean recipe with clams, but it’s also a recipe for hitting the holidays. A highly recommended recipe not only if you suffer from high cholesterol, but if you are one of those people who think that they like vegetables because they only eat stew.
Foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids such as avocado or salmon are also good allies when it comes to lowering cholesterol.
Ingredients for 4 servings
400 g of round white bean
400 g of clams
Half an onion
4 cloves of garlic
A piece of red pepper and another green one
A bay leaf
A leek
A teaspoon of sweet pepper
Salt, pepper and chopped parsley
How to cook white beans with clams
The first thing we have to do is soak the beans well covered in water from the night before.
At the time of preparing our dish, we remove that water from the beans and put them in a saucepan with clean water and the bay leaf. We take to the fire until the boiling breaks and remove all the foam that is formed on the surface.
When the surface is clean, we put a little cold water to ‘scare’ the beans, and when it starts to boil again we repeat the operation.
Season and let the beans cook over medium-low heat until tender. The time will depend on the quality of the bean, but calculate a minimum of one hour. You can speed up the process in the pressure cooker.
Meanwhile, we prepare a sofrito by sautéing the onion, leek and chopped peppers in oil. Season with salt and pepper, leave the vegetables to sauté until they are tender and add the paprika, stirring the whole. We reserve out of the fire.
To clean the clams, you can consult our tricks to remove the sand from the clams. Then you pass them under the cold water tap and the reserves until the beans are tender.
We are going to make the clams in garlic. We put the minced garlic in the bottom of the oil and wait for it to begin to brown. Add the clams and chopped parsley on top and wait for them to open. They should not be allowed to become too much, they withdraw as soon as they are open.
At the moment the beans are to the point. Very tender, add the sofrito (move the beans carefully so that they do not fall apart). The whole must be boiled so that the beans take on flavor.
Finally, we incorporate the clams with the sauce they have released, we take a couple of turns and we will have them ready. If you let them rest a few minutes before serving, they will have more flavor.
Homemade guacamole vegetarian recipes for lunch
Along with hummus and tomato with oil, guacamole is the richest of all that can be spread on bread. Of course, any of the three that are homemade.
INGREDIENTS TO MAKE HOMEMADE GUACAMOLE
2 avocados
1 tomato
1 chive
The juice of a lime
Salt
Jalapeños
Coriander leaves (optional)
PREPARATION OF THE HOMEMADE GUACAMOLE
1.- Peel the avocados and put them in a bowl. Chop the chives and tomato.
2.- Crush the avocado with a fork. Add the tomatoes, chives and lime juice. We rectify salt. I put a spice that I have that gives it a spicy touch, but you can add jalapeños.
But since avocados cannot be lived alone, we can also use them to bring joy to a lot of salads, just as we have done with this rice and guacamole salad.
Ingredients
For the vinaigrette
Extra virgin olive oil, 3 tablespoons
Lemon juice, 2 tablespoons
Tabasco, 1/2 teaspoon
Salt, 1/2 teaspoon
Chopped red and green bell peppers, 3 tablespoons
Chopped onion, 3 tablespoons
Chopped parsley, 3 tablespoons
For the salad:
Boiled rice, 1 cup
Small diced tomatoes, 2
Chopped avocado, 1
Chopped lettuce, 4 leaves
Black or green olives, 10 or 12
Hard-boiled eggs, 2 (*)
Low-fat fresh cheese, 100 g (*)
(*) If you are going to serve the salad as a garnish for meat or fish, or even as a starter, you can omit these ingredients, but if you are going to take it as a single dish, they will provide you with the necessary protein ration.
Preparation of the rice and guacamole salad
It is not easy but the following. In a bowl mix well all the ingredients of the vinaigrette.
In another larger bowl or in the source in which we are going to serve it, put the boiled rice, the washed and chopped tomatoes, the chopped avocado, the well-chopped lettuce leaves, the olives, the chopped hard-boiled eggs, and the fresh cheese indices. Mix everything well, add the vinaigrette and mix so that everything is well impregnated.
We serve immediately.
Creamy Salmon Casserole
Fish like salmon do not always have to be grilled or steamed to be healthy. We can prepare a more comforting complete dish for cold days like this salmon casserole.
Ingredients
2 cups of milk
500 grams of salmon
4 tablespoons of butter
3 tablespoons of wheat flour
4 big-headed onions (small)
250 grams of mushrooms
1/4 cup of white wine (dry)
1/2 Cup of Parmesan cheese (grated)
1/4 teaspoonful of nutmeg (grated)
1/4 teaspoon cloves (ground)
Pepper (ground) (ground) to taste
Salt to taste
1 tablespoon of dill (chopped fresh)
Instructions
Put a saucepan over the medium heat with the salmon covered in water and a little salt. Cook for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat, drain and strip it.
Meanwhile, put half of the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Once completely melted, add the flour, stirring well with a wooden spoon for 2 minutes. Add the milk little by little, stirring constantly. Add the nutmeg, cloves and pepper, and a little salt. Simmer for 12 minutes and reserve this white sauce.
Cut the onions into medium pieces. Wash the mushrooms, dry them and cut them into quarters.
Put a saucepan over medium heat the butter along with the onions and dill. Cover and fry for 4 minutes. Add the mushrooms and fry for another 4 minutes. Add the wine. Put on high heat and cook for 3 minutes. Add the white sauce and cook for 3 minutes. Add a little salt, if necessary.
Add the salmon, stir well and transfer it to a refractory pan. Sprinkle the cheese and take it to the preheated oven. Bake for 8 minutes. To serve.
Orange salmon with almonds sauce
Another recipe rich in omega-3 with salmon and nuts, perfect to accompany some boiled potatoes is this salmon with an orange and almond sauce.
In a diet to lower cholesterol, meat should not be removed from the diet, but it should be limited to white meats such as chicken or turkey and lean pieces of red meat, such as loin or pork or beef tenderloin.
Ingredients
1 salmon tail (or 1 slice per diner)
40 gr. unsalted butter
1 onion
1 clove garlic
2 oranges
150 g almonds
Salt, pepper, and dill
This recipe admits any type of cut of the salmon, although I prefer the loins, with skin and without central bone.
You can have this salmon preparation cooked in advance, and it is perfect to take in a Tupper to work since the salmon is kept very juicy.
Preparation of orange salmon with almond sauce
In a saucepan, melt the butter and sauté the chopped garlic and onion, with a little salt.
When the vegetable is poached, add the almonds, which we will have previously chopped, so that they are also browned.
Add a teaspoon of flour and stir well to roast.
Next, we add the natural juice of the two oranges and let it boil. We lower the heat and let it thicken a little. We taste and season.
When the sauce is done, we pass it through the mixer, but at half power, because we do not want to turn it into a “puree”, but rather make all the ingredients go well together, but continue to find the almonds in very small pieces.
In another frying pan, cook the salmon over high heat for two minutes on each side, to seal it.
We pass the salmon to the casserole, cover the orange sauce, and sprinkle with the dill. Let it cook for about 4 minutes with the container covered so that it is finished making and soaking up all the flavors well. The time will vary depending on the thickness of the salmon.
We serve the salmon with its sauce and decorate with a little orange zest.
Roasted chicken breast with tangerine sauce, Delicious low cholesterol meals with chicken
Chicken breasts tend to be a little dry, so cook them as little as possible and, if possible, accompany them with some light tangerine sauce that is to lick your fingers.
Ingredients
Sauce
one can (11 oz) mandarin orange segments, drained
one can (8 oz) pineapple juice, crushed and drained
two tablespoons fresh lemon juice
one tablespoon jalapeño pepper, seeded, chopped
1/4 teaspoon of salt
Chicken
one tablespoon olive or canola oil
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1 1/4 lb)
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne red pepper, ground
Instructions
Preheat the gas or charcoal grill. In a medium bowl, mix all the ingredients for the sauce. Set aside.
Oil all sides of chicken breasts. Sprinkle with a quarter teaspoon of salt, pepper, and ground red pepper.
Place the chicken on the grill rack over medium heat. Cover the grill; cook 15-20 minutes, turning chicken once, until chicken juice is clear by cutting into the thickest part (170 ° F). Serve the sauce with the chicken.
Turkey stew
In these cold days, the typical meat stew is a classic that cannot be missed, and it can be made much healthier if the meat we use is turkey.
Ingredients
500 gr of chopped turkey
1 onion
1 clove garlic
1 golden apple
2 carrots
2 potatoes
1 sprig of fresh rosemary
Ground black pepper
Salt
2 tablespoons of EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)
100 ml of cognac or white wine
½ liter of water
Instructions
Chop the onion and garlic and sauté them in a saucepan over high heat with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Peel the carrots, cut them and add them to the casserole.
Add the turkey and cook for a couple of minutes without stirring until the meat changes color.
Incorporate the wine you have chosen, in my case, it was cognac, and let it boil until it is almost completely consumed so that the alcohol evaporates.
Add the apple and the peeled and chopped potatoes. Season and add the water.
When it starts to boil, add a sprig of fresh rosemary and let it cook over medium heat for 20 minutes.
Notes
Stews are always richer prepared overnight. The sauce will thicken and gain flavor.
If you want to fatten the sauce, mash a few pieces of potato.
Beef sirloin in onion sauce
As I was saying, there are many ways to cook that reduce cholesterol without having to eat hospital food with everything cooked or grilled. With recipes like this one for beef sirloin, you will lick and suck your fingers.
Ingredients:
1 beef sirloin
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 glass of white wine
Oil
Salt
Pepper
Spices
Cornstarch
How to prepare sirloin in onion sauce
We start this recipe with the main part, the pork tenderloin. We clean it, salt it and add a little pepper. We will remove any excess fat that may have been left and we will have it ready for the next step.
We continue with the vegetables, cut and peel the onion and the garlic cloves. We will chop them finely so that they integrate better in the sauce.
In a frying pan with a little oil, seal the sirloin. We will brown it for a few minutes on each side until it is perfect, inside it all the juices will remain to finish cooking with the sauce.
In the same pan where we have cooked the sirloin and that has all its flavor, we will add a little more oil and we will prepare to cook the vegetables. We will poach the onions and garlic until they are tender.
We will add a tablespoon of cornstarch diluted in water so that our sauce takes a little consistency. Next, we will add the glass of white wine, let it cook and evaporate the alcohol.
Add the sirloin to the pan again and cover it to cook. We can incorporate a little meat broth, to give it more flavor. We will let your own juices be the first to act.
If it is a little thick, we can add a little more liquid or vice versa add more cornstarch. The dish will be ready, to give it a more elegant touch, remove the sirloin and grind the sauce. We can add more spices if we like the intense flavor, although here the protagonist will be the onion.
We serve the fillet steak and sauce with a little steamed broccoli or a good mashed potato. We will have a five-star dinner ready.
Grilled beef sirloin
And even so, when it comes to noble cuts such as good beef sirloin, a portion of grilled meat with a tasty garnish like the one we propose in this low cholesterol recipe is also an option that you will love.
Ingredients
800gr of Beef Sirloin
Ground Black Pepper
Fat Salt
1 hour before cooking the sirloins, you have to take them out of the fridge to bring them to room temperature.
We prepare some good embers on the barbecue and place the grill about 12cm from the embers, we have to have very live and powerful embers.
We roast the sirloins for about 2 minutes on each side, it will depend on their thickness; when we see that they start to release juice it is time to turn them around.
Let the meat rest for another 2 minutes and season to taste.
We can accompany the dish with some fried potatoes and some green peppers.
