Thanks for taking our quiz on healthier cooking!
1. Which of the following is a reliable way to reduce the salt in a recipe?
(A) Rinse canned beans thoroughly before cooking with them.
(B) Salt every ingredient individually.
(C) Use more spices and herbs.
(D) All of the above.
(A) and (C). Rinsing any ingredient that’s packed in a brine will reduce the salt content of a dish dramatically. Using more spices and herbs can help minimize the need for salt if you taste as you cook. Salting every ingredient as you cook will improve the flavor, but whether or not you end up using less salt depends on the recipe.
2. How much of the flour in most recipes can be swapped out with whole wheat flour?
(A) All of it.
(B) Half.
(C) One-third.
(D) All of the above.
(B) In most recipes, swapping half of the flour with whole wheat or white whole wheat flour will not produce a noticeable difference in flavor or texture. One-third won’t give you as much of a nutrition boost as you could get, while swapping all may alter the flavor or texture significantly.
3. Which of these tricks can be used to reduce the fat content in creamy dishes?
(A) Puree part or all of the veggies and broth for soups.
(B) Swap in plain yogurt for sour cream.
(C) Substitute skim milk thickened with cornstarch for heavy cream.
(D) All of the above.
(D). All of these tricks can be used to lower the saturated fat in creamy dishes. Choose the method that makes the most sense for your recipe.
4. You want to reduce the sugar in a recipe. Which of the following will do the job?
(A) Use brown sugar in place of white sugar.
(B) Use honey in place of white sugar.
(C) Use date puree in place of any sugar.
(D) All of the above.
(C). Honey and brown sugar are still essentially sugar. Date puree is high in natural sugar, tastes like brown sugar and offers the full fiber and nutrients of regular dates. You can also use mashed ripe bananas and applesauce to reduce the sugar in some recipes.
5. Bananas are a pantry must-have for the healthy baker. What can they do for many recipes?
(A) Eliminate or reduce eggs.
(B) Eliminate or reduce oil.
(C) Eliminate or reduce sugar.
(D) All of the above.
(D). Believe it or not, bananas can be used to replace eggs, oil or sugar! Pick one of these ingredients and try using a medium banana in place of 1-2 eggs, 1/2 sugar or 1/2 cup oil. We don’t recommend using bananas to replace all three at once–that may alter the recipe more than you like.
6. Unsweetened applesauce is another go-to item for healthy bakers. How can you use it?
(A) Eliminate or reduce eggs.
(B) Eliminate or reduce oil.
(C) Eliminate or reduce sugar.
(D) All of the above.
(B) and (C). Oil or sugar! Unlike bananas, applesauce does not work as an effective egg replacement, It does, however, do a nice job at cutting down on fat or sugar in many baked goods.
7. Speaking of eggs, they’re high in many nutrients, but also saturated fat. How else can you cut the fat they bring to baked goods?
(A) Use egg whites.
(B) Use flax or chia seed.
(C) Use peanut butter.
(D) All of the above.
(A) and (B). Peanut butter does not an effective egg replacement make. Egg whites (1/4 cup) or either ground flaxseed or chia seed (1 tablespoon of seed soaked in 3 tablespoons of water) can handle the binding work eggs do in most denser baked goods.
8. Which of the following salt labels should you be wary of?
(A) Low sodium.
(B) Sodium-free.
(C) Reduced sodium.
(D) All of the above.
(C). Reduced sodium. All this label means is that the product uses less sodium than a previous recipe of the same product. Low sodium and sodium-free are federally regulated terms.