Easy tweaks to boost fibre and cut calories from your favourite winter meals

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Winter is all about steaming-hot, hearty comfort foods – mash-topped pies and rich, filling stews. Indeed, one of the few upsides of cold weather is being able to chuck on a chunky jumper and forget about the spare tyre until spring. But what if you could enjoy all your seasonal favourites without piling on the pounds?

The secret is in reducing fat to slash calories (it contains nine calories per gram, compared to four calories for the same amount of protein or carbohydrate) and replace it with fibre. As fibre is not digested in the gut, it doesn’t contribute to our calorie intake, so it plays several key roles in weight loss, primarily by boosting satiety.

It also promotes beneficial gut bacteria, which produce short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) which regulate appetite hormones like GLP-1 (yes, the same hormone that drugs like Wegovy mimic to suppress appetite).

Research published in the Journal of Nutrition found that participants in a weight loss trial who increased their fibre intake by just four grams per day experienced an additional 3.25lbs of weight loss over six months, independent of their diet type.

Here is how I tweak my five favourite winter dishes to boost fibre and keep the waistline in check.

Tomato soup

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Ingredients

• 1 tbsp butter

• 2 cloves garlic

• 1 x 400g can chopped tomatoes

• 250ml vegetable stock

• 100ml double cream

• Served with 1 slice of buttered white bread

You might think a bowl of creamy tomato soup is a healthy option, but this one is high in saturated fat from all that butter and cream, which also ramps up the calories. The small amount of fibre in this recipe comes from the chopped tomatoes, with minor contributions from the shallot and garlic, and just 1g from the slice of white bread.

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Ingredients

• 1 tsp olive oil

• 2 cloves garlic

• 1 x 400g can chopped tomatoes

• 250ml vegetable stock

• 50g red lentils

• 25g toasted mixed seeds

• Served with 1 slice of rye bread (no butter)

A few clever ingredient swaps here make all the difference to the health CV of our soup. Replacing double cream and butter with a small amount of olive oil substantially reduces saturated fat and calories, supporting both heart health and weight loss.

Switching to rye bread and adding lentils and seeds substantially boosts fibre, promoting better digestion, stabilising blood sugar, and increasing satiety, which are key to successful weight management.

Three-egg omelette

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Ingredients

• 10g butter

• 30g cheddar

• 1 slice ham

We all love an oozy, cheesy omelette, but if you also cook with butter and add ham, it quickly becomes a saturated fat-fest. The absence of any vegetables here means that this breakfast clocks up precisely 0g of fibre. A study from the University of Sydney found that a high-fibre breakfast is a better choice than a high-fat one as it keeps you feeling full longer, leading to lower total calorie intake over the day.

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Ingredients

• 1 tsp olive oil

• 20g watercress

• 50g red pepper

• 50g mushrooms

• 1 tbsp ground flaxseed

You might not have thought of adding ground seeds to eggs before, but if you whisk them in before cooking, you’ll barely notice any difference texture-wise, and you’ll be adding 2g of fibre per tbsp. Having ground flaxseeds readily available (keep in an airtight container in the fridge) is an excellent addition to your fibre armoury. Shake them into everything: soups, smoothies, curries, stews or over toast toppings.

Chicken curry

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Ingredients

• 2 tbsp coconut oil

• 3 chicken breasts

• 2 cloves garlic

• 2 tsp finely grated fresh ginger

• 2 tsp curry powder

• 2 tsp coriander

• 2 tsp cumin

• 400g tin chopped tomatoes

• 400ml tin coconut milk

• 250ml chicken stock

There’s nothing like a comforting curry on a cold night, but beware – this recipe’s heavy use of coconut oil and coconut milk drives up the fat content. And while you get a little fibre from the spices and tomatoes, it won’t really scratch the surface of the NHS’s recommended 30g daily goal.

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Ingredients

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil

• 2 chicken breasts

• 2 cloves garlic

• 2 tsp finely grated fresh ginger

• 2 tsp curry powder

• 2 tsp coriander

• 2 tsp cumin

• 400g tin chopped tomatoes

• 400g tin chickpeas

• 250ml chicken stock

• 250g spinach

Now that’s more like it. The fat has been slashed by almost two thirds and very little of it is saturated. Research by Harvard Medical School for the American Heart Association found that replacing saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat (such as vegetable oil) reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease events by up to 19 per cent. The spinach and chickpeas also boost the fibre to just under a third of our daily requirement.

Fish pie

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Ingredients

• 1kg fish pie mix

• 250g béchamel sauce

• 1 tsp lemon juice

• 200g ready-made shortcrust pastry

• 25g cheddar cheese

Anything built from béchamel, pastry, and cheese is not going to be low fat, and this is no exception. With the NHS recommending no more than 30g of fat per day for men and 20 for women, this blows the budget in one meal. With no vegetables in the mix, fibre is severely lacking.

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Ingredients

• 700g fish pie mix

• 300g mixed frozen vegetables

• 250g low-fat crème fraiche

• 1 tbsp Dijon mustard

• 1 tsp lemon juice

• 4 sheets filo pastry

Want a fibre hack? Stock up on frozen veg. Cheap and frozen when fresh to lock in the nutrients, they can be tossed into so many dishes to add interest, colour and 2.5g of fibre per 100g. To cut fat and calories, I’ve replaced the shortcrust top with sheets of scrunched-up filo pastry which has less fat and calories.

Apple and blackberry crumble

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Ingredients

For the crumble:

• 60g plain flour

• 40g caster sugar

• 40g butter

For the filling:

• 300g apples (peeled)

• 100g blackberries

• 30g unsalted butter

• 2 tbsp custard to serve

According to a survey by English Heritage, a mere 2 per cent of British households now make a daily homemade pudding, and probably just as well when you look at the calories and fat you can clock up in a serving of crumble and custard.

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Ingredients

For the crumble:

• 40g wholemeal flour

• 20g sunflower seeds

• 25g brown sugar

• 25g butter.

For the filling:

• 300g apples (unpeeled)

• 100g blackberries

• 1 tbsp honey

• 2 tbsp Greek yogurt to serve

If you occasionally fancy a pud, there are ways to make it healthier. Here, a wholemeal seedy crumble topping and unpeeled apples boost the fibre while reducing butter, and serving with Greek yogurt instead of custard keeps the calories at bay.

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