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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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Ratatouille with eggplant, zucchini and tomato — France recipe

🇫🇷FranceMedium

Vegetable and Mushroom Dishes

Ratatouille

Ratatouille is a wonderful dish that combines the bright flavors of fresh vegetables and the aromas of spices. Suitable for both everyday dinners and special occasions.

55 min130 kcal4 serves

🌿Vegetarian🌾Gluten-free

Ribollita (Tuscan Reboiled Bread and Bean Soup) with cannellini beans, cavolo nero and stale bread — Italy recipe

🇮🇹ItalyAdvanced

Soups

Ribollita (Tuscan Reboiled Bread and Bean Soup)

Ribollita is a thick Tuscan soup of cannellini beans, cavolo nero (black kale), and stale bread — one of the central symbols of cucina povera (peasant cooking). The name means 'reboiled' (from the Italian ribollire), and that is the whole point of the dish: it is born from leftovers. Tuscan peasants would cook a simple vegetable soup called minestra early in the week, then the next day reheat what remained with the addition of stale bread, turning minestra into ribollita. The paradox of the dish is that it gets better the longer it sits and the more times it is reboiled. On day one it is still a brothy minestra di pane; on day two, after reboiling, it becomes true ribollita — dense and almost semi-solid. Its roots reach back to the Middle Ages in the plain of Pisa and the lands of Arezzo and Florence, where it was the main winter nourishment of the poorest. The three non-negotiable elements are cannellini beans, cavolo nero, and saltless Tuscan bread (pane sciocco), which stales within a day. By tradition the cavolo nero should have 'taken the frost,' which makes its leaves sweeter and more tender. Key techniques: blend half the beans for a creamy base without any cream, tear the stale bread by hand, and use potato plus bread as a double thickener until the soup is dense enough to serve almost on a plate. Yields 6 servings in about 2 hours of active and simmering time. Best the next day, served hot over garlic-rubbed toast with a generous pour of extra virgin olive oil and a glass of Chianti.

120 min280 kcal6 serves

🌱Vegan

Rice Paper Bacon & Egg Wrap with rice paper, bacon and egg — USA recipe

🇺🇸USAMedium

Breakfast and Brunch

Rice Paper Bacon & Egg Wrap

A crispy envelope of two rice paper sheets filled with bacon, a fried egg and melted cheese, all made in one pan. It is a skillet version of the Vietnamese street snack bánh tráng nướng (grilled rice paper with egg) that spread on TikTok. No bread and no tortilla: the dry paper first softens from the egg's moisture and gentle heat, then crisps into a shattering shell once the packet is folded and turned. Easy to customise, and surprisingly filling for a one-pan breakfast.

15 min280 kcal1 serves

⚡Quick🌾Gluten-free🌶️Spicy

Rice Pudding with rice, milk and sugar — UK recipe

🇬🇧UKMedium

Sweet Dishes

Rice Pudding

Rice and milk, slowly simmered until the starch releases and everything turns thick and creamy. One of the oldest comfort foods there is. This stovetop version takes about 40 minutes. Serve warm with a dusting of cinnamon, or cold the next morning straight from the fridge.

45 min280 kcal4 serves

🌿Vegetarian🌾Gluten-free

Roast Chicken with chicken, butter and garlic — France recipe

🇫🇷FranceAdvanced

Meat Dishes

Roast Chicken

A whole chicken roasted with herb butter under the skin, lemon and garlic in the cavity. The skin crisps at high heat first, then the bird finishes low and slow — the simplest way to get juicy meat and a proper crackling skin.

90 min340 kcal4 serves

🥑Keto💪High protein🌾Gluten-free

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with brussels sprouts, shallot and cream — France recipe

🇫🇷FranceMedium

Vegetable and Mushroom Dishes

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Roasted Brussels sprouts are halved sprouts baked at 220°C until the cut sides turn deep golden and the loose outer leaves crisp, then finished with a light shallot cream sauce scented with nutmeg. The oven does the browning, and the sauce takes five minutes on the stove while the sprouts roast.

35 min120 kcal4 serves

🥑Keto🌿Vegetarian🌾Gluten-free

Romesco Sauce with roasted red peppers, almonds and tomato — Spain recipe

🇪🇸SpainMedium

Sauces and Dips

Romesco Sauce

A thick, brick-red Catalan sauce of roasted red peppers, toasted almonds, garlic, tomato, stale bread, and sherry vinegar, pounded together into a rustic paste with smoked paprika and good olive oil. Romesco is one of those sauces that makes everything it touches better — grilled vegetables, fish, roasted chicken, even a fried egg. It originates from the fishermen of Tarragona who needed a bold sauce for their catch, and it has not changed much since.

25 min150 kcal6 serves

🌿Vegetarian⚡Quick

Ropa Vieja with beef, tomato and onion — Cuba recipe

🇨🇺CubaAdvanced

Meat Dishes

Ropa Vieja

Flank steak braised until it pulls apart into long fibrous strands, then simmered in a sofrito of peppers, onion, tomatoes and green olives. Cuba's national dish — the name means 'old clothes', which is exactly what the shredded beef looks like.

150 min350 kcal4 serves

💪High protein🌾Gluten-free

Rotkohl (German Braised Red Cabbage) with red cabbage, apple and onion — Germany recipe

🇩🇪GermanyAdvanced

Vegetable and Mushroom Dishes

Rotkohl (German Braised Red Cabbage)

Rotkohl is the braised red cabbage that sits next to almost every German roast from October onwards: shredded cabbage cooked down for an hour with apple, onion, vinegar and cloves until it goes glossy and deep purple. The vinegar is not only there for taste. The pigment in red cabbage works like a pH indicator, and without acid the pot turns a murky blue-grey, which is also why the same vegetable is called Blaukraut in Bavaria and Rotkohl in the north. It tastes better on the second day, so most households cook it the night before the roast and take one job off the table.

80 min150 kcal6 serves

🌿Vegetarian🌾Gluten-free

Rouille (Provençal Saffron Garlic Sauce for Bouillabaisse) with egg yolk, garlic cloves and saffron threads — France recipe

🇫🇷FranceMedium

Sauces and Dips

Rouille (Provençal Saffron Garlic Sauce for Bouillabaisse)

Rouille (literally 'rust' in French — for its rusty-red color) is a Provençal garlic, saffron and hot pepper sauce, the usual partner of bouillabaisse. There is no single canonical recipe: older versions are bound with soaked bread or a boiled potato, many modern ones with egg yolk. This one uses both bread and a yolk, with saffron for color and perfume and hot pepper (traditionally cayenne; piment d'Espelette is a milder choice). Spread on baguette croutons floating in fish soup, used as a dip for seafood, or as a sandwich spread. Active work is about 20 minutes; the finished sauce then rests for 30 minutes. Makes about 300 ml; a serving is about 2 tablespoons.

20 min240 kcal8 serves

⚡Quick🌶️Spicy

Russian Bliny (Thin Pancakes) with wheat flour, milk and eggs — Russia recipe

🇷🇺RussiaMedium

Flour and Confectionery Products

Russian Bliny (Thin Pancakes)

Classic Russian thin crepes made with milk, eggs, and baking soda for a light, lacy texture. Versatile and beloved, they are served with sour cream, jam, butter, or honey.

40 min350 kcal5 serves

🌿Vegetarian

Russian Fermented Pickles (Solyonye Ogurtsy) with cucumber, dill and garlic — Russia recipe

🇷🇺RussiaMedium

Appetizers and Sandwiches

Russian Fermented Pickles (Solyonye Ogurtsy)

Solyonye ogurtsy (солёные огурцы) are Russian sour pickles: small whole cucumbers fermented in a cold salt brine with dill, garlic and horseradish, blackcurrant and cherry leaves, and no vinegar. Russians call this the cold method, kholodny zasol, and pickles made this way in wooden barrels are called bochkovye ogurtsy, barrel pickles. This version fits one 3-litre jar. They are not malosolnye ogurtsy, the lightly salted cucumbers eaten within hours or days while still green, and not marinovannye ogurtsy, which get their sourness from vinegar. Here the acid is made by the ferment itself. This is the Russian home method: about a week in the warm, then the cold. It is shorter than the fermented pickle process tested in the United States, which runs 3 to 4 weeks at 21 to 24 °C, and US food safety services advise against the shorter one; the note below explains what that means and who should not eat these pickles. The hands-on work is about 40 minutes. The rest is waiting: 3 hours of soaking, 5 to 7 days of fermenting at room temperature and 4 weeks in the fridge, about 5 weeks in all. The jar is kept cold from the day the bubbling stops and is never stored in a cupboard.

40 min10 kcal15 serves

🌱Vegan🌿Vegetarian🌾Gluten-free

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