Dinner in an Insta!

Humans have shared recipes as long as we’ve had fire. Today, social media’s mouthwatering photos and one-click sharing have made it possible to spread recipes faster with more people than ever before. The result: instant classics on a grand scale. What qualifies as an Insta hit? Easy-to-make recipes that taste as amazing as the photo looks. We’ve revamped three such recipes. All are delicious and a breeze to make, but each could be a bit lighter. Our revamped versions of these Insta classics make it easy to eat healthy without sacrificing flavor.

Alison Roman’s Spiced Chickpea Stew

Cookbook writer and New York Times columnist Alison Roman is an Instagram star. Her first Insta hit was a recipe for Salted Chocolate Chunk Shortbread Cookies (now known as #thecookies). Then this savory chickpea stew dish (#thestew) made even bigger waves.

Recipe remodel: We tried to recapture Roman's magic in our version, which cuts the calorie and fat content almost by half, and the sodium way down, too.

Urvashi Pitre’s Instant Pot Butter Chicken

Notoriously labor-intensive to prepare, Butter Chicken is a classic — and delicious — Indian dish. Urvashi Pitre, a food blogger (and founder of a global consulting firm), went viral in 2017 when she adapted her recipe for the Instant Pot. We knew we couldn’t eliminate its namesake ingredient entirely, so we looked for other ways to slash fat, but not richness.

Recipe remodel: We were able to cut the fat in this dish by about half, from 23g, the amount in Pitre's version, to 11g.

Chrissy Teigen’s Banana Bread

Known for her comfort food recipes, model, mom, cookbook author and Twitter star Chrissy Teigen makes a decadent cake-like banana bread that certainly satisfies the sweet tooth. In fact, her bread — which bakes in a bundt pan — looks and tastes like a dessert and contains a nutrient profile like one, too, with one slice clocking in at 500 calories, 22g fat, 7g saturated fat, and 43g of added sugar.

Recipe remodel: We adore Teigen's bread, but made ours slightly less sweet. Our high-fiber take cuts added sugars, fat, and saturated fat by almost half.

CAROLYN WILLIAMS, PHD, RD
Rally Health