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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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Cucumber and Tomato Salad with cucumber, dill and garlic — Mediterranean recipe

🌊MediterraneanMedium

Salads

Cucumber and Tomato Salad

Cucumber and tomato salad with yogurt dressing is a cold side dish in the eastern Mediterranean manner: sliced cucumber, tomato wedges and red onion under plain yogurt stirred with garlic and lemon, with mint, parsley and dill scattered over. It is a relative of khyar bi laban, the Levantine cucumbers in yogurt, with tomatoes added. Cut the vegetables, stir the dressing in a separate bowl and bring the two together just before serving, because salted vegetables give up their juice fast.

15 min100 kcal4 serves

🌿Vegetarian🥑Keto⚡Quick

Daigaku Imo (Japanese Candied Sweet Potatoes) with sweet potato, sesame seeds and soy sauce — Japan recipe

🇯🇵JapanMedium

Sweet Dishes

Daigaku Imo (Japanese Candied Sweet Potatoes)

Daigaku imo (大学芋, literally "university potato") is a Japanese snack and bento side of bite-size sweet potato pieces fried until crisp at the edges, then coated in a thin, glossy syrup of sugar, mirin and soy sauce and finished with black sesame. Where the name comes from is not settled: there are several stories, most of them about students, and none is proven. The potatoes are fried in a shallow layer of oil rather than deep-fried, slowly at first so the middle turns soft and sweet, then hotter for a crisp skin. The syrup takes about three minutes and sets into a thin shell as it cools. Active time is about 35 minutes including a 10-minute soak, and the pieces rest another 5 minutes on parchment. Serves four as a snack or a bento side.

35 min220 kcal4 serves

🌱Vegan🌿Vegetarian

Dense Bean Salad with chickpeas, cucumber and feta — USA recipe

🇺🇸USAAdvanced

Salads

Dense Bean Salad

Three types of beans, crisp vegetables, briny olives, crumbled feta, and a sharp oregano-garlic vinaigrette. This recipe went viral on TikTok in 2024 because it actually works as a full meal. About 13g of protein and 11g of fiber per serving. No cooking required, 15 minutes of prep, holds 4 days in the fridge — and tastes noticeably better the next day.

15 min330 kcal4 serves

🌿Vegetarian🌾Gluten-free💪High protein

Deviled Eggs with Chipotle with eggs, mayonnaise and chipotle — USA recipe

🇺🇸USAMedium

Appetizers and Sandwiches

Deviled Eggs with Chipotle

Deviled eggs are one of the easiest appetisers to make badly and one of the most satisfying to get right. The filling needs to be smooth — not grainy, not lumpy — and seasoned assertively enough that you taste it rather than just fat. Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce do two things at once: they add smokiness and heat, and the sauce itself adds a tomato-tinged depth that plain hot sauce doesn't. The lime brings brightness. This is not a subtle dish, which is exactly the point at a table that also has glazed ham and couscous salad.

35 min110 kcal12 serves

🌿Vegetarian🌾Gluten-free🌶️Spicy

Éclair with butter, flour and egg — France recipe

🇫🇷FranceAdvanced

Sweet Dishes

Éclair

An éclair is a French pastry: a finger of choux pastry about 12 cm long, baked hollow, filled with cream and glazed on top. This home version uses vanilla crème pâtissière and a glaze of chocolate melted with cream. A Parisian éclair au chocolat is built differently, with chocolate pastry cream inside and chocolate fondant icing. The pastry cream chills for at least 2 hours, so make it first; the work and the baking take about 90 minutes. The recipe makes 8 éclairs.

90 min300 kcal8 serves

🌿Vegetarian

Edamame with edamame, sesame oil and soy sauce — Japan recipe

🇯🇵JapanEasy

Appetizers and Sandwiches

Edamame

Young green soybeans boiled in salted water — a classic Japanese snack. Simple, nutritious and delicious as is, or elevated with sesame oil, chili flakes and soy sauce.

15 min180 kcal4 serves

🌿Vegetarian⚡Quick🌱Vegan

Egg Roll in a Bowl with pork, cabbage and garlic — USA recipe

🇺🇸USAMedium

Meat Dishes

Egg Roll in a Bowl

Ground pork with garlic, ginger and shredded cabbage in a soy-sesame sauce — all the filling of a Chinese egg roll, none of the wrapper, done in 20 minutes in one skillet. Low-carb, high protein, better than takeout.

20 min350 kcal4 serves

⚡Quick💪High protein🌶️Spicy

Empanadas Mendocinas (Argentine Baked Beef Empanadas) with ground beef, smoked paprika and green olives — Argentina recipe

🇦🇷ArgentinaAdvanced

Meat Dishes

Empanadas Mendocinas (Argentine Baked Beef Empanadas)

Mendocinas are Mendoza's version of the empanada — baked, never fried, and distinguished by a milk dough that bakes softer than the standard. The filling is spiced ground beef with smoked paprika, cumin, green olives, and hard-boiled egg. No raisins. The paprika turns the filling and crust an orange-red that identifies these across Argentina. Made in batches, best eaten warm, and freezable before baking.

100 min310 kcal6 serves

💪High protein🌶️Spicy

Espresso Martini with vodka, coffee liqueur and espresso — UK recipe

🇬🇧UKEasy

Beverages

Espresso Martini

Vodka, coffee liqueur, and a shot of freshly pulled espresso shaken hard over ice until the outside of the tin frosts over. The foam on top — that pale, creamy layer that holds the coffee beans — comes from the CO₂ in the espresso crema getting trapped during shaking. You can't fake it with instant coffee. The drink was invented in a London bar in the 1980s by Dick Bradsell for a model who asked for something to wake her up and mess her up at the same time.

10 min190 kcal1 serves

🌱Vegan🌾Gluten-free⚡Quick

Esquites (Mexican Street Corn Salad with Cotija, Lime, and Chili) with corn, cotija cheese and mexican crema — Mexico recipe

🇲🇽MexicoMedium

Salads

Esquites (Mexican Street Corn Salad with Cotija, Lime, and Chili)

Esquites (from Nahuatl ízquitl, "toasted corn"; also sold as elote en vaso, "corn in a cup") is a Mexican street snack of charred corn kernels dressed with mayo, Mexican crema, lime juice, jalapeño, red onion, cilantro and crumbled cotija, then dusted with chili powder or Tajín. It is the off-the-cob version of elote: the same flavours, eaten with a spoon. Street vendors across Mexico sell it in small cups. The method rests on one move: charring the corn until about half the kernels show black spots, which turns boiled corn with mayonnaise into something smoky and layered. Ready in 30 minutes; serves 6 as a snack or 4 as a side for grilled meat and tacos.

30 min270 kcal6 serves

🌿Vegetarian🌾Gluten-free⚡Quick

Extra Crispy Air Fryer Chicken Wings with chicken wings, baking powder and smoked paprika — USA recipe

🇺🇸USAMedium

Meat Dishes

Extra Crispy Air Fryer Chicken Wings

Chicken wings coated in seasoned baking powder and air-fried until the skin shatters like a deep-fried wing, without a deep fryer. Baking powder raises the skin's pH, which speeds up browning and dries the surface into a crisp shell at 200°C. Use wings split into drumettes and flats: pat them bone-dry, toss them in the seasoned powder, and give them 25 minutes with one flip. A basket smaller than 5–6 litres needs two batches. Finish with buffalo, honey-garlic, or BBQ sauce right before serving; the nutrition figures are for the wings without sauce.

35 min290 kcal4 serves

💪High protein🌾Gluten-free

Flour Tortillas (Tortillas de Harina) with plain flour, salt and lard — Mexico recipe

🇲🇽MexicoMedium

Flour and Confectionery Products

Flour Tortillas (Tortillas de Harina)

Tortillas de harina are the defining bread of Northern Mexico — particularly Sonora, where the Sonoran Desert's wheat-growing tradition produced a flatbread entirely different from the corn tortillas of central and southern Mexico. Made from just flour, lard, salt, and hot water, they are rolled thin and cooked on a dry, screaming-hot comal until dark blisters (leopard spots) appear and the tortilla puffs with steam. The result is soft, pliable, slightly chewy, and deeply wheaty — the essential wrapper for carne asada, burritos, quesadillas, and tacos. Lard is the defining ingredient: it coats the flour proteins, preventing excessive gluten development, and produces a tender, flexible tortilla that stays soft even when cold. Vegetable shortening is a practical substitute; butter gives richness but less pliability.

45 min160 kcal8 serves

🌱Vegan

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