Though Chanukah is traditionally celebrated with a lot of oily dishes, your cholesterol levels will be just as miraculous as the way the oil kept burning for eight days if you indulge that much! Are you a real Maccabee? Rebel against unhealthy holiday foods and choose these less dangerous options that will still make your entire family and all your guests very happy instead.
Making Latkes Less Oily
If you're Ashenazi, latkes are a must for Chanukah. Latkes just have to be fried, and there is no avoiding a bit of oil. You could experiment with different additions to make your latkes more nutritious, though. We've tried adding lots of garlic and grated carrots, for example. Some people add baking powder, and apparently that makes the latkes “lighter” and it makes them rise a bit.
Latkes aren't nice if you worry too much about them burning, and you keep turning them from one side to the other. You need to let them fry until you can see that the side you are frying is done, from the top. Turn them over just the once for the best results.
Now, how do you get the oil out? The only way I've found is to let them drip out in a metal colander, or to let them rest on some paper kitchen towels — not very environmentally friendly, I know! We usually use washable towels, but getting oil stains out is almost impossible.
Repeat the same two steps if you'd like to serve falafel, which is just as tasty as latkes and makes for a lovely change.
Some people actually fry their latkes a little bit, and then continue the process in the oven. I have heard that this results in a less fatty latke, but I have never tried it myself. If you want to give this a go, make sure your latkes are golden brown before you remove them from the oven.
Latkes aren't complete without sour cream or apple sauce (and that's something you can easily make yourself, with all the addons you might enjoy), but you may also like to serve a healthy, oil-free dinner salad with the latkes. If you offer your guests lots of salad before you bring the latkes in, they will go home with a less oily experience, ultimately making sure that you contribute to a healthier Chanukah experience this year.
Dried Apricot And Fig Chanukah Gelt
If you're playing dreidel, you may like to make your own chocolate covered “Chanukah gelt” by dipping dried figs and apricots into melted chocolate. This only takes a minute, and is bound to impress everyone — from health nuts to small kids! Choose cooking chocolate to make sure that the chocolate dries completely, or you'll get sticky stuff all over your home.
Chanukah Cookies
Doughnuts are the highlight of some people's Chanukah celebrations. Eating some is probably inevitable, but you may like to set up a doughnut-avoidance plan to limit the damage. If you have kids, making colorful Chanukah cookies with colored frosting is a wonderful idea. It's probably a bit too late to order dreidel-shaped cookie cutters now, but you can still create the shapes with your hands and a knife. You can make cookies in the shape of a menorah, Magen David, or Chanukah gelt as well. Get your kids on board for a fun family experience that will later become a treasured memory, and save yourself some work in the process (if you have older kids, at least).
A great frosting is easily created by adding some milk to icing sugar, and adding food coloring in the desired colors. White is obviously the original color, and your cookies will look great if you just have blue food coloring. You can also pipe thin lines of chocolate onto your cookies, using a pastry bag.
Matzo Ball Soup
How can you make your matzo ball soup healthier without actually changing the recipe much? Whole meat matzo meal is a great choice. You use a small amount of oil, like canola oil, instead of chicken fat. Using less salt, and egg whites only rather than whole eggs, will also make your matzo balls a lot healthier but not any less tasty.
Add in any of your favorite vegetables, regardless of whether you think they're a little odd in your soup. Kale, baby corn, Brussels sprouts and chunks of pumpkin are all wonderfully healthy ingredients that I bet you have never included in your soup before!
Low-Fat Hummus
Hummus is, with all its chickpeas, wonderfully nutritious. Chickpeas are an excellent source of protein, zinc, and the B vitamin folate (folic acid), which is essential for any individual who is trying to conceive a baby — men included. The problem with hummus is that it also tends to be very oily.
Do you want to make hummus as a side dish for a Chanukah dinner? You'll need canned chickpeas (well, you can also use dried ones but they are a huge pain, since you have to soak them, cook them, and then remove all the hard skins). Stick your chickpeas in the food processor, add a little bit of olive oil, some tahini, lemon juice, and low-fat yogurt. The yogurt really makes your hummus taste much fresher.
Or hey, just enjoy the holidays the old-fashioned way and set the whole family up with a diet plan later. Your choice.