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Calaloo is a unique and flavorful type of vegetable soup made mainly from taro leaves. In addition to taro leaves, though, calaloo contains an assortment of other vegetables. Finished calaloo is a dark green in color, very thick, and wholesome. The dish is enjoyed widely in the Caribbean and calaloo recipes vary from island to island, and household to household. The dish is also an important part of the culture of some islands. For instance, in Trinidad and Tobago calaloo is traditionally prepared and enjoyed on Sundays for lunch. It is usually served as a side dish accompanied by a macaroni and cheese casserole and baked chicken. On Sundays, there is a 99% surety that in the thousands of homes around the country, families can be found sitting down to a lunch of this meal.

What is calaloo made of?

It is a notable fact that every housewife gives her own signature flavor to her calaloo. Therefore not all calaloo is created equal. The special touch is added either by the addition of special ingredients or by using some unconventional cooking method. However, all calaloo has the same ingredients at its base. The basic ingredients of calaloo are as follows.

Taro leaves. These are the leaves root crops, particularly one called dasheen, and give the calaloo its dark green color. In fact, taro leaves are also know as “calaloo bush” in many islands.

Okras. These provide the prized slipperiness of the finished product.

Pumpkin. There’s no special reason it’s in there, it just is. Everyone adds it out of tradition and no one has ever though to leave it out.

Coconut milk. This adds a wonderful Caribbean flavor and smoothness to the taste.

Fresh herbs and peppers. These include chives, thyme, onions, garlic and hot peppers which provide the wonderful flavor of the dish. Lavish seasoning is an integral part of Caribbean cuisine and calaloo is no exception to the rule.

Additional optional ingredients often include crabs and other meats for flavoring but can be anything desired. Some people even put vegetables like carrots in their calaloo; it’s really all a matter of personal preference and choice.

How is calaloo made?

Now, preparing calaloo is actually remarkably simple. All the ingredients are chopped up and put into the pot at once. Then they are boiled until they are reduced to a mushy mass. At this point salt and a bit more coconut milk are added to taste. Then cooking continues for a short while more. When it is all cooked, the mush is put into a blender and pureed. The result, a thick, smooth, dark green liquid, is delicious table-ready calaloo.

Chinese food traditions have adapted freely with time. Over the course of more than 5000 years, these culinary practices have been devised and improved and have withstood the test of time. For example, steaming, a basic cooking technique, was used extensively long before the creation of the first dynasty. Through trade, non-native ingredients made their way to the kitchens of the court combining with the homegrown harvests to produce exceptional, unusual and surprising dishes.

A well prepared Chinese dish is expected to appeal to more senses than just taste. Its hues should be tantalizing to sight, the ingredients should be of uniform size and it should be fragrant. There should be contrasting tastes and textures within the meal; if one dish is crisp, it should be paired with another one that is smooth. A mild dish is paired with a spicy one, thereby always trying to create a balance. It is important to have this equality of yin and yang.

Real Chinese food is mostly vegetarian. Fats and meats are applied sparsely for punches of flavor and very few dishes involve deep frying. This is because fats and meats can be scarce and expensive in China. As a result, true Chinese food is quite beneficial to your health because most of the recipes are low calorie and low carb. Chinese people also prefer to use soy products instead of meat and dairy. Soy products or tofu is full of good fats and proteins and are a great alternative to meats because its texture can simulate the meats we all love.

Furthermore, Chinese food is quite cheap and easy to cook because it is a style of cooking that is very open to flexible interpretations of recipes and you can often use leftover ingredients to create new dishes. Chinese chefs have learned to make a lot with very little, and this can be applied in our kitchens to save money. Frugality is definitely a virtue in the Chinese culture, and it is sometimes said that a Chinese chef can make dirt and bark taste good. This is a tribute to the ingenuity and practicality of Chinese cuisine.

In conclusion, if you love Chinese food but feel guilty about eating it, then you should make it at home with fresh and healthy ingredients. You will find a new appreciation for the culture and genius of the Chinese people and improve your health at the same time.

If you’re like a lot of people, you have an interest in eating healthy. Unfortunately, eating healthy and eating your favorite foods are not always in harmony. This is particularly true when talking about Chinese food, which is notoriously high in fat and calories when you order it in your favorite restaurant. This doesn’t need to be the case, though. If you know a few basic tricks, you can learn how to transform high-calorie Chinese dishes into low calorie masterpieces.

By changing your techniques and making intelligent compromises, you can slash the amount of calories in your dish dramatically. For the purposes of this example, let’s consider the popular dish called Sweet and Sour Chicken. If you order Sweet and Sour Chicken in a Chinese restaurant, you will get a plate full of deep fried chicken topped with a sweet, thick sauce. A typical serving of this dish can contain more than a thousand calories, or half a day’s worth of food for one person. Most of the calories in this dish come from deep frying the chicken and from the sugar used in the sauce. To offset these extra calories, we can do a few things.

First of all, we need to eliminate the deep fried chicken element of the dish. Reducing the amount of oil in your food is very important because oil is very high in calories. One tablespoon of oil contains approximately 120 calories and when you deep fry things, they soak up oil in large amounts. If the cook is unskilled and fries at low temperatures, the food can absorb even more fat. One way to get rid of the extra oil is to turn to baking rather than deep frying. To do this, you will need to modify your recipe slightly. Most Sweet and Sour Chicken recipes call for dipping the chicken pieces into a batter and then deep frying. Instead of doing that, eliminate the batter and bread the chicken pieces with some Japanese panko bread crumbs. Once you have done that, put the pieces onto a baking sheet and give them a light spray with vegetable cooking spray, which contains less than 10 calories per spray. From there, place the chicken into the oven till it is golden brown. The final result will be chicken that has a crunchy exterior like the deep fried version but with a whole lot less fat and calories.

Next, you can lower the amount of calories in the dish by making wise decisions on what cut of meat that you use. In this example, you should opt for skinless chicken breasts rather than dark meat, which is higher in saturated fat and calories. If you’re cooking other dishes, switch to leaner cuts of meat. In general, cuts of meat that are named “loin” (tenderloin, sirloin, etc) are lower in fat and thus in calories.

It seems that in recent years, everyone is more concerned about their health. As people are becoming more educated about caloric intake, cholesterol, saturated fat, and sugar, they’re beginning to shy away from eating some of their favorite foods like Chinese takeout from their local restaurant. Indeed, eating at an Asian restaurant or getting takeout is like navigating a culinary minefield, where every misstep is like stepping on a calorie and fat laden bomb. There is hope, however, for those of you that enjoy Asian cuisine and still want to include it in your diet. A lot of the unhealthy elements of Asian cuisine come from bad cooking methods. By learning to use low calorie Chinese cooking methods, you can recreate your favorite dishes at home that are healthier and tastier than anything you can get at a restaurant.

The first thing that you can do to make healthy Chinese food at home is to avoid deep frying. How many times have you eaten at your favorite establishment only to find that your meat and even vegetables are swimming in pools of fat? Unfortunately, this is the norm rather than the exception when eating out these days. Oil is bad for you because it is high in calories and is in some cases high in cholesterol and saturated fats, both of which contribute to heart disease. One tablespoon of oil contains approximately 120 calories. Whatever you do, avoid deep frying as a cooking method. When food is deep fried or cooked in copious amounts of fat, the grease can soak up into the food, creating high calorie dishes that are high in cholesterol and fat. You can prevent this by cooking at home. There, you can control how much and what kind of oil you use. You can even get rid almost all of the oil all together if you invest in a non-stick skillet and use vegetable cooking spray.

Instead of deep frying, try other cooking methods to control the fat. For example, say you’re using a Chinese recipe for sweet and sour chicken. The chicken in sweet and sour chicken is traditionally battered and deep fried where it can soak up a lot of grease. Instead, try breading it in bread crumbs, giving it a light spray with cooking spray, and then baking it in the oven. You’ll still get the textural element of crunch that is similar to a deep fried item, but you’ll get none of the extra oil and grease.

Another low calorie cooking method that you can use in your Chinese kitchen is steaming. Steaming relies on the heat of water vapor instead of oil to cook your food. By using this technique, you don’t have to use any oil at all. On top of that, steaming is also a gentle cooking method that enables you to retain a lot more nutrients and vitamins in your foods than with other techniques.