Food Tip: Marinade your meat

Many people have the impression that food when dieting has to be bland and tasteless. This could not be further from the truth. The key to a successful diet is taking in the correct nutrients for your body and using a few low calorie condiments are not going to spoil your diet.

One way to improve the flavour of your food is to marinade the meat or fish. Leaving the marinade to soak in for a few hours will make the meat very soft and tender.

Acidic condiments such as lemon or lime juice and vinegar will help tenderise the meat, breaking down the fibres and improving the texture. You can also manually tenderise the meat by using meat hammer. This works especially well if you are preparing pork or beef.

With this you can use mustard, horse radish, tomato puree, soy cause, oyster sauce or many types of herbs and spices to add flavour. These will only add a negligible number of calories and make the food you are eating so much more flavoursome.

Spending 5 minutes marinating the meat in the morning and then refrigerating it will mean you have quick and very tasty meat to cook in the evening after work

Here are some marinade combinations-

Chinese style

Lemon Juice
Small amount of oyster sauce
Soy sauce

Indian Style

Lemon Juice
Cumin
Coriander
Turmeric

French Style

Balsamic Vinegar
Mustard
Salt + Black Pepper

Italian Style

Lemon Juice
Basil
Tomato Puree
Salt + Black Pepper