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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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Tabbouleh with bulgur, parsley and tomato — Lebanon recipe

🇱🇧LebanonMedium

Salads

Tabbouleh

Tabbouleh is a Lebanese herb salad — not, as many Western recipes would have it, a grain salad with herbs in it. The correct ratio is roughly four parts chopped parsley to one part bulgur by volume. The bulgur is present for texture and a gentle nuttiness, but the parsley is the point: the salad should be intensely green, assertively flavoured, and taste like fresh herbs dressed with lemon rather than wheat dressed with garnish. Fine bulgur (#1) soaks directly in the lemon-olive oil dressing without any cooking, which keeps the texture light. The tomatoes are salted and drained before going in so they don't flood the salad with watery juice. Everything is finely chopped by hand — a knife, not a food processor, which turns the parsley to paste.

30 min165 kcal4 serves

🌿Vegetarian🌱Vegan⚡Quick

Tahini Sauce with tahini, lemon and garlic — Israel recipe

🇮🇱IsraelEasy

Sauces and Dips

Tahini Sauce

Simple tahini sauce — sesame paste thinned with water, brightened with lemon and garlic. Five minutes, no cooking. The trick is adding water gradually until it goes from thick paste to pourable silk.

5 min80 kcal4 serves

🌿Vegetarian⚡Quick🌱Vegan

Takoyaki with Seafood with octopus, dashi and flour — Japan recipe

🇯🇵JapanMedium

Appetizers and Sandwiches

Takoyaki with Seafood

Traditional Japanese octopus balls made from a light dashi batter, filled with seafood, green onion, and tempura crumbs, cooked in a special round mold until golden. Topped with takoyaki sauce, Japanese mayo, bonito flakes, and aonori.

45 min40 kcal24 serves

🥑Keto

Tamagoyaki (Japanese Rolled Omelette) with eggs, dashi and mirin — Japan recipe

🇯🇵JapanEasy

Breakfast and Brunch

Tamagoyaki (Japanese Rolled Omelette)

A Japanese rolled omelette built in layers: thin sheets of sweetened, dashi-seasoned egg poured into a pan one at a time, each one rolled onto the last while still slightly soft, building up a spiral-layered log that shows the rings when sliced. The flavor is lightly sweet, subtly savory, and distinctly Japanese — nothing like a Western omelette. Tamagoyaki appears at breakfast alongside rice and miso soup, in bento boxes, and as nigiri sushi topping. The technique takes practice but the ingredients are few, the eggs always taste good, and the first imperfect roll is still worth eating.

15 min185 kcal2 serves

🌿Vegetarian⚡Quick

Tandoori Chicken with chicken, Greek yogurt and Kashmiri chilli powder — India recipe

🇮🇳IndiaMedium

Meat Dishes

Tandoori Chicken

Bone-in chicken thighs and drumsticks scored deeply, marinated overnight in spiced yogurt, then cooked at high heat until the outside chars and the inside stays completely juicy. No sauce, no gravy — just the marinade working directly against the heat. The red-orange color comes from Kashmiri chilli powder, the flavor from ginger, garlic, garam masala, and kasuri methi. This is the dish that butter chicken and tikka masala are built on top of. On its own it's simpler and better. Serve with pickled onion, lime wedges, and mint chutney.

50 min340 kcal4 serves

🌾Gluten-free🌶️Spicy💪High protein

Tanghulu (Chinese Candied Fruit) with strawberries and sugar — China recipe

🇨🇳ChinaEasy

Sweet Dishes

Tanghulu (Chinese Candied Fruit)

Tanghulu has been sold on Beijing streets since the Song dynasty, but most people outside China discovered it through TikTok — where the cracking sound became its own genre. Fresh fruit on a stick, sealed in boiling sugar that sets like glass. Three ingredients. You will probably mess it up the first time. The instructions below exist so you don't.

30 min145 kcal5 serves

🌿Vegetarian🌱Vegan⚡Quick

Tempura with flour, seafood and vegetables — Japan recipe

🇯🇵JapanMedium

Appetizers and Sandwiches

Tempura

Vegetables and shrimp dipped in ice-cold batter and fried until shatteringly crisp. The batter must be barely mixed — lumps are good — and the oil held at 170–180°C. Done right, tempura is light enough to eat endlessly.

25 min320 kcal4 serves

⚡Quick

Tepache (Mexican Fermented Pineapple Drink) with pineapple, piloncillo and cinnamon sticks — Mexico recipe

🇲🇽MexicoEasy

Beverages

Tepache (Mexican Fermented Pineapple Drink)

Tepache is a traditional Mexican fermented pineapple drink built on pineapple rinds, piloncillo (unrefined Mexican cane sugar), Mexican cinnamon, and cloves. Wild yeast living on the pineapple peel does the work over 48 to 72 hours, producing a mildly sweet, lightly tangy, naturally carbonated drink with a little alcohol — usually around 1 percent, up to about 2 with a long, warm ferment. It goes back to pre-Hispanic Mexico, where the drink was first made from corn (the name comes from Nahuatl 'tepiatl', meaning corn drink); today street vendors in Mexico City sell it in big glass jars with ice. Active work is 20 minutes, fermentation handles the rest. Makes 2 liters, 8 servings of about 250 ml each.

20 min110 kcal8 serves

🌱Vegan🌿Vegetarian🌾Gluten-free

Teriyaki Sauce with soy sauce, mirin and sake — Japan recipe

🇯🇵JapanEasy

Sauces and Dips

Teriyaki Sauce

A glossy, deeply savory-sweet glaze built from soy sauce, mirin, sake, and sugar, thickened with a cornstarch slurry until it coats a spoon. Homemade teriyaki takes ten minutes and tastes nothing like the bottled kind — the fresh garlic and ginger give it a brightness that disappears completely in shelf-stable versions. I keep a jar in the fridge and use it on everything from grilled chicken to roasted vegetables.

10 min60 kcal4 serves

🌿Vegetarian⚡Quick

Thai Iced Tea (Cha Yen) with Thai tea mix, sweetened condensed milk and evaporated milk — Thailand recipe

🇹🇭ThailandEasy

Beverages

Thai Iced Tea (Cha Yen)

Cha yen is the Thai street tea built on condensed milk. Strong tea is sweetened while hot, chilled, poured over a glass packed with ice and finished with a float of evaporated milk. Sweet, strong and layered: orange below, cream on top.

20 min170 kcal4 serves

🌿Vegetarian⚡Quick🌾Gluten-free

Thai Spicy Beef Salad with beef, lime and mint — Thailand recipe

🇹🇭ThailandMedium

Salads

Thai Spicy Beef Salad

Thai spicy beef salad, yam nuea (ยำเนื้อ) in Thai, is thin slices of seared steak tossed while still warm with red onion, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, mint and cilantro in a lime, fish sauce and chili dressing. You sear the beef, rest it, slice it and dress it in about half an hour. Serve it on lettuce leaves or with jasmine rice.

30 min250 kcal2 serves

🌶️Spicy⚡Quick🌾Gluten-free

Thai-Style Salmon with salmon, lime and garlic — Thailand recipe

🇹🇭ThailandMedium

Fish and Seafood Dishes

Thai-Style Salmon

Pan-seared salmon with a fragrant ginger-lime marinade and a glossy soy-honey glaze inspired by Thai flavors. The sweet-sour sauce enhances the richness of the fish without overpowering it.

40 min300 kcal4 serves

🌶️Spicy💪High protein🥑Keto

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