Cleaning up your favorite recipes isn't as hard as you might think. It's simply a matter of substituting appropriate ingredients, and being flexible with those ingredients. Today, we will be "Cleaning up" this average recipe for lasagna. I got the following recipe from Allrecipes.com.
Lasagna - Original Ingredients
- 1 pound sweet Italian sausage
- 3/4 pound lean ground beef
- 1/2 cup minced onion
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
- 2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
- 2 (6.5 ounce) cans canned tomato sauce
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 tablespoons white sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil leaves
- 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
- 12 lasagna noodles
- 16 ounces ricotta cheese
- 1 egg
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 pound mozzarella cheese, sliced
- 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Below is the Clean version of the recipe above. We've changed as many of the ingredients to organic, and made sure our canned and processed ingredients are low/no salt, and no sugar added.
Lasagna - Cleaned Up Ingredients - changes are in bold.
- 1 pound sweet Italian sausage ( delete entirely; sausage is unclean. You can potentially add a texturized vegetable sausage substitute product, but I think those are unclean as well )
- 1+ pound lean organic / grass fed ground beef
- 1/2 cup minced onion
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes ( organic, no salt added )
- 2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste ( organic, no salt or sugar added )
- 2 (6.5 ounce) cans canned tomato sauce ( organic, no salt or sugar added )
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 tablespoons white sugar ( delete entirely; or add 4-6 packets of stevia )
- 1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil leaves
- 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1 tablespoon salt ( keep this in - you need a little salt in here to accent the flavor )
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
- 12 lasagna noodles ( organic whole grain )
- 16 ounces ricotta cheese ( organic )
- 1 egg ( organic )
- 1/2 teaspoon salt ( again, keep this in. A small amount of salt in the ricotta is important )
- 3/4 pound mozzarella cheese, sliced ( organic )
- 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese ( organic / low salt )
If you are deleting the Italian sausage, I would recommend adding to the Italian seasonings. You will lose some flavor by not having the sausage flavoring in there. You could also potentially use one of the Clean organic pasta sauces out there in lieu of the canned tomatoes / tomato paste part of the recipe, but you will definitely get a different flavor profile by using a processed product.
I would encourage you to attempt to make your favorite "normal" recipe but instead clean it up so that the end product is healthier. It is easier than you think.