Hanukkah Un-fried

Enjoy traditional Hanukkah foods without any frying.

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Photo by: Matt Armendariz ©2013, Television Food Network, G.P. All Rights Reserved

Matt Armendariz, 2013, Television Food Network, G.P. All Rights Reserved

Greasy latkes and jelly-filled doughnuts top the list of traditional foods eaten during the festival of lights. But after you’ve eaten these fried goodies for eight straight days, it starts to take a toll on your waistline. Instead, you can enjoy these traditional Hanukkah foods without all that oil-frying.

Latkes

Also known as potato pancakes, these babies can be baked instead of fried. They can also be pan-fried in a few tablespoons of oil to give them crispiness, and then finished in the oven. Or, shake things up by using sweet potatoes or a combo of shredded parsnips, carrots or zucchini and potatoes. Here are two latke recipes to try, plus a few homemade applesauce recipes for dunking:

Oven-Fried Latkes (pictured above)
Doughnuts

These sweet pieces of goodness that are usually fried can also be baked, and still taste just as delicious. Make sure you have a doughnut pan so you can easily drop in the dough and pop it in the oven. You can add fiber by swapping 50 percent of the all-purpose flour for whole-wheat pastry flour. Other creative spins on un-fried doughnuts include making doughnut muffins with the same flavor profile, or making cookies topped with a touch of jelly, as the cookie is much thinner than the doughnut (and therefore has fewer calories).

Baked Pumpkin Doughnuts (pictured above)

Toby Amidor, MS, RD, CDN, is a registered dietitian and consultant who specializes in food safety and culinary nutrition. She is the author of  The Greek Yogurt Kitchen: More Than 130 Delicious, Healthy Recipes for Every Meal of the Day .

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