Healthy French Recipes

The tangy, deep flavor of aged vinegar is a wonderful way to enhance a simple side dish, like this balsamic roasted vegetables recipe. Serve it with roasted poultry or meat for a flavorful, economical meal.

This roasted sunchokes recipe is as versatile as it gets; make them into an easy side dish, fresh from the oven, or toss them with a variety of dressings for a cold salad. Sunchokes, also known as Jerusalem artichokes, are slightly sweet and have a faintly nutty scent. They are native to the eastern United States and have recently popped up on menus at French restaurants.

This easy fresh fig spread recipe is marvelous with goat cheese and baguettes or layered into granola bars. Another creative way to serve this refrigerator fig jam is to mix a few chopped almonds into it and spoon it over yogurt for a quick, healthful breakfast or snack.

If you’re short on time and need a sophisticated appetizer, this herbed white bean puree recipe is wonderful. It takes less than five minutes to prepare and the herbes de Provence accent the silky white beans with understated elegance.

Accompany this luscious honeyed fruit salad recipe with a baguette, assorted cheese, and a bottle of spicy-sweet sparkling dessert wine for a lovely Bastille Day picnic.

This delicious marinated tomatoes recipe sparkles with fresh flavor. Try adding the marinated tomato salad to tartines and spreads, or chop it up and use it in sauces or as a soup garnish.

Easy to make and wholesome, this roasted vegetable and spinach salad recipe makes a great healthy main dish. Roasting the root vegetables until they caramelize and then seasoning them with a light citronette dressing is the simple secret to adding incredible flavor and depth to this effortless, tossed-together entrée salad.

White beans sometimes carry the connotation of being boring. I prefer to view them as a delicious, blank culinary canvas, though. For one, I think their creamy texture is nothing short of addictive; it adds a velvety mouth-feel to any dish, without adding any fat. Combine that with the fact that they’re a great source of inexpensive protein and they’re almost impossible to cook wrong. This herbed white bean soup recipe is punched up with classic Provencal spices to delicious effect.

This nourishing carrot soup recipe is an easy and elegant way to cut costs at dinnertime. Carrots are inexpensive and available year-round, yet they’re tasty and packed with vitamin A, potassium, lutein, and fiber. Roasting the carrots gives extra depth to the flavor, removing the need for rich stock or cream, so it’s both low fat and vegan – a perfect offering for a variety of dinner guests.

For a taste of summer, no matter what the season, make this blackberry sorbet recipe. It uses a bit less sugar than most other versions, so the resultant flavor is one of pure, fresh-picked blackberries.