Pasta Carbonara 350 calories vs. 750 calories!!!

When making a pasta carbonara – If you follow the typical pasta packet recommendation portion size of 100g, use full fat sour cream & regular rashers with fat, 2 tbsp Parmesan & 1 tbsp oil – your dinner will come to approximately 750 calories.

Compare this to my healthy low cal version!

Carbonara Ingredients & Method

*50g wholemeal pasta

*Absolute minimal oil for cooking (use a not stick pan to help reduce oil usage)

*2 bacon medallions (these have no fat attached and actually more meat and hence more protein)

*Lots of mushrooms

*2 tbsp Quark

*1 tsp finely grated Parmesan

*Lots of garlic

*1/2 tsp dried tarragon

*Squeeze lemon juice

*Seasoning

Quark is an ingenious invention

Quark contains only 1 ingredient – milk, it is naturally 0% fat, 12% protein and low in calories, I only discovered it about a year ago and now I use it everywhere I can. Prior to this discovery I use to use natural yogurt or Greek yogurt instead of sour cream. Reserve a little pasta cooking water to loosen the quark at the end – it basically makes it saucier (this is a Jamie Oliver tip, it’s apparently what the Italians do with all pasta dishes). I poured some of the cooking water into the frying pan that I cooked the rashers and mushrooms in and then added this to the finished dish for extra flavour as well as loosening it up. If reheating a dish containing quark, reheat and then add some fresh quark to freshen it up.

My Weight Management Tips

Don’t underestimate every small change, in other words every single healthy swap you make will make a difference, every reduction in portion size makes a difference. For instance, 1 tbsp oil is 120 cals, measure your oil or use a good quality spray mechanism as it controls the amount you use. Again, quark is 65 cals/100g compared to sour cream which is 195 cals/100g. Use herbs to your advantage – tarragon goes great with mushrooms, the garlic, black pepper & lemon juice all add great flavour.

Bon Appetit!!