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Low-calorie recipes

Under 350 kcal per serving, without the sad-diet energy. Real flavour, careful fat, plenty of vegetables — the kind of light cooking you actually want to make again.

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Obatzda with camembert, butter and cream cheese — Germany recipe

🇩🇪GermanyMedium

Appetizers and Sandwiches

Obatzda

Obatzda is the Bavarian beer-garden spread of over-ripe soft cheese mashed with butter, sweet paprika and onion, eaten on dark bread or torn off with a pretzel. It began as a way to use up camembert that had gone too far to serve in slices, and since June 2015 the name has carried an EU protected geographical indication: the finished spread has to be at least half cheese, built on camembert or brie. The work itself takes twenty minutes and needs nothing but a fork. What it does need is planning: an hour out of the fridge before you start so the cheese and butter are soft, and an hour back in it afterwards so the spread firms up.

20 min305 kcal5 serves

🌿Vegetarian🥑Keto⚡Quick

Oden (Japanese Simmered Hot Pot with Daikon and Fish Cakes) with daikon, eggs and chikuwa — Japan recipe

🇯🇵JapanAdvanced

Soups

Oden (Japanese Simmered Hot Pot with Daikon and Fish Cakes)

Oden is a Japanese one-pot of daikon, boiled eggs, konnyaku and fish cakes such as chikuwa, satsuma-age and ganmodoki, all simmered slowly in a clear dashi seasoned with light soy sauce, mirin and salt. Written おでん and read the same way in every region, its broth changes colour from region to region. The pale kombu-and-katsuobushi broth used here, seasoned with light soy sauce, is closer to the Kansai habit — light usukuchi soy is the everyday soy of Kyoto and Osaka — while classic Kanto oden is simmered with regular dark koikuchi soy and comes out a deeper brown. Today both versions turn up all over Japan. Convenience stores across Japan start selling it from simmering vats in mid-September, long before real winter arrives, because the smell alone is enough to make people want a bowl. Nothing here is quick-cooked. Daikon needs a pre-boil before it ever touches the broth, and the whole pot tastes better the day after it is made, once it has cooled down and been reheated so the flavor has time to soak all the way through.

150 min305 kcal4 serves

Okroshka with bread kvass, radishes and cucumbers — Russia recipe

🇷🇺RussiaMedium

Soups

Okroshka

Okroshka (окрошка, オクローシカ, 俄式冷汤) is a cold Russian summer soup: finely diced raw cucumber, radish, green onion and dill, boiled potatoes, eggs and beef or boiled sausage, in a tangy base of bread kvass. The name comes from the Russian verb for crumbling, which is the whole technique. It is served with sour cream and a little mustard. With ready-cooked beef or doctor's sausage it takes about 45 minutes; simmering the beef yourself adds about an hour. The chopped mix then needs an hour in the fridge, and all of that can be done the day before.

45 min316 kcal5 serves

Olive Tapenade with anchovy, basil and caper — France recipe

🇫🇷FranceMedium

Appetizers and Sandwiches

Olive Tapenade

Olive tapenade is a Provençal paste of chopped black and green olives, capers and anchovies, bound with olive oil and lemon juice. This version also has red onion, parsley and chili flakes. Spread it on crusty bread or serve it with grilled vegetables or fish. Makes about 450 g (roughly 2 cups), enough for 8 as a spread. A little goes a long way.

15 min85 kcal8 serves

🥑Keto⚡Quick🌾Gluten-free

Olivier Salad with potato, egg and chicken — Russia recipe

🇷🇺RussiaMedium

Salads

Olivier Salad

The Russian potato salad — boiled potato, carrot, egg, pickles, peas, and chicken in a mayonnaise dressing. Cut everything to the same small dice. Tastes better the next day.

50 min340 kcal6 serves

💪High protein🌾Gluten-free

Onion Ring Chips with sweet onions, panko breadcrumbs and buttermilk — USA recipe

🇺🇸USAMedium

Appetizers and Sandwiches

Onion Ring Chips

Onion rings cut thin and baked instead of deep-fried, so they crisp all the way through and eat like a chip rather than a side dish. Panko and parmesan do the crunching, and a 15-minute stint in the freezer before baking is what keeps the coating on the onion instead of on the tray.

40 min215 kcal4 serves

🌿Vegetarian

Onion Rings with onion, flour and beer — USA recipe

🇺🇸USAMedium

Appetizers and Sandwiches

Onion Rings

A classic American appetizer that has conquered the world. The secret lies in the beer batter and the contrast of textures: a crispy golden shell and tender, almost caramelized onion inside.

25 min290 kcal4 serves

🌿Vegetarian⚡Quick

Oven-Baked Brie with Honeyed Nuts with cheese, dried fruit and honey — France recipe

🇫🇷FranceMedium

Appetizers and Sandwiches

Oven-Baked Brie with Honeyed Nuts

Baked brie is a whole wheel of brie warmed in the oven until the inside turns into molten, spoonable cream while the white rind holds it together like a bowl. It is a party starter built for sharing: the cheese goes to the table in its dish and everyone dips bread straight into it. Here the top is scored and studded with garlic and rosemary before baking, then finished with walnuts toasted in honey, a pinch of flaky salt and a little dried fruit. It takes about twenty minutes and needs almost no work beyond watching the clock.

20 min265 kcal4 serves

🌿Vegetarian⚡Quick

Overnight Chia Pudding with chia seeds, milk and maple syrup or honey — USA recipe

🇺🇸USAEasy

Breakfast and Brunch

Overnight Chia Pudding

Five minutes of actual work, and breakfast is waiting for you in the fridge by morning. Chia seeds absorb ten times their weight in liquid overnight, transforming into a thick, creamy pudding with no cooking whatsoever. I use a simple ratio — two tablespoons of chia seeds to 150ml of liquid — and the result is somewhere between tapioca pudding and panna cotta. Sweeten with maple syrup or honey, add a splash of vanilla, and top with whatever fruit is in season. It keeps for three days in the fridge, so I usually make a double batch on Sunday night.

5 min280 kcal2 serves

🌿Vegetarian⚡Quick🌾Gluten-free

Pad Kra Pao (Thai Basil Chicken) with chicken, basil and garlic — Thailand recipe

🇹🇭ThailandMedium

Meat Dishes

Pad Kra Pao (Thai Basil Chicken)

Thailand’s most popular everyday street food — minced chicken stir-fried with garlic, fresh chili, and holy basil in a savory oyster-fish sauce glaze. Finished with a crispy fried egg on top and a drizzle of runny yolk over jasmine rice. Ready in under 15 minutes.

25 min300 kcal2 serves

🌶️Spicy💪High protein⚡Quick

Pakora with chickpea flour, onion and cauliflower — India recipe

🇮🇳IndiaAdvanced

Appetizers and Sandwiches

Pakora

Crispy spiced fritters made by coating vegetables in a thick chickpea flour batter and deep-frying until audibly crunchy. The batter starts deliberately thick — when vegetables are added, the salt draws out their moisture and the batter reaches the right consistency on its own. The mix rests for 15 to 20 minutes before frying. Rice flour in the batter adds crunch and keeps the pakoras from soaking up oil. The vegetables here are onion, cauliflower and spinach; potato is another classic choice. Serve immediately with the quick mint-coriander chutney below and, if you have it, shop-bought tamarind chutney.

35 min290 kcal4 serves

🌿Vegetarian🌱Vegan🌾Gluten-free

Pan con Tomate with country bread and ripe tomatoes — Spain recipe

🇪🇸SpainEasy

Breakfast and Brunch

Pan con Tomate

Pan con tomate is the Catalan bread-and-tomato preparation known in Catalan as pa amb tomaquet. A thick slice of open-crumbed country bread is toasted until its surface is dry, rubbed with a cut garlic clove and then with the flesh of a ripe tomato until only the skin is left in your hand, and finished with extra virgin olive oil and coarse salt. The tomato works as a seasoning rather than a topping, so what you get is a crisp warm slice under a thin, cool, faintly acidic layer. In Catalonia it accompanies tapas and grilled meat; in Andalusia the same combination turns up at breakfast, usually with the tomato grated into a bowl instead of rubbed.

15 min235 kcal4 serves

🌿Vegetarian⚡Quick

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