Food & Recipes

Talking Turkey with Elaine Magee, MPH, RD

It's everything you need to know about a healthy holiday feast: lightening up favorite holiday dishes, last-minute dinner tips and tricks, and five healthy things you can fix with leftover turkey. Elaine Magee, MPH, RD, joined us on Nov. 18, 2004, to talk turkey!

If you have questions about your health, you should consult your personal physician. This event is meant for informational purposes only.

MEMBER QUESTION:
How can you make light gravy that still tastes good?

MAGEE:
I love gravy just as much as the next gal. The issue here is that the turkey broth helps contribute the flavor, and also those dark brown bits at the bottom of the pan.
That's where a lot of the flavor is.

Now, neither one of these two things has anything to do with fat, so you can actually make a pretty tasty gravy without a lot of fat. The key is to isolate those brown crusty particles and to get some really good, sort of condensed, flavorful turkey broth that comes out of the turkey. You can use an oil/water separator, if you're concerned, to get the broth from the oil, and then use those dark crusty particles for your flavor.

If you want to make vegetarian gravy, you would brown some mushrooms and onions and that would act like your dark brown crusty particles, and you would use a vegetable broth instead of a turkey broth.

The other key to lightening the gravy is in the cream. You don't have to add flour to fat to make a paste. You just have to use a little bit of turkey broth or fat-free half and half, make your paste, and then whisk in the remaining fat-free half-and-half or skim milk. Even whole milk is better than cream. This will thicken your gravy without a lot of extra fat. Some people don't use cream in their gravy, and that works fine, too.

MODERATOR:
What about getting your broth from cooking the neck and giblets the day before?

MAGEE:
You can do that, too, definitely. I just don't bother with the organs. I'm an antiorgan type of cook. If you do use the giblets, you do tend to get a nice broth, and it's a good way to make your gravy ahead of time to avoid the last-minute gravy rush.

MEMBER QUESTION:
How can you make mashed potatoes ahead of time that don't get gluey?

MAGEE:
Great question, because it's so much easier to not tie up your kitchen at the last minute making mashed potatoes. Here's what I do, and it works out every year.

• I boil my potatoes and mix them up in a mixer.
• I use fat-free sour cream and fat-free half-and-half and some salt and pepper to get the right consistency and flavor.
• Then I add it to a crock-pot and keep it on low for a few hours before dinner.