Story of my life as I try to cut my cholesterol
this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2023
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Looks really delish!
But as a short PSA: If you really have high cholesterol, this dish might not be the optimal as the vegan butter and sour cream are high in fat - especially saturated fats. This might bring your cholesterol levels up.
https://www.heartuk.org.uk/low-cholesterol-foods/saturated-fat
If you really need to keep an eye on your cholesterol levels, try not to overdo it with fats in your diet and minimize saturated fats - which are often found in "solid fats" like coconut or palm oil (or any fat derived from an animal source).
You could adapt the recipe quite easily by using a small amount of olive oil to saute the onions & mushrooms. Or you could even go zero-fat by "water sautéing" your ingredients.
The sour cream can be swapped with a "cashew-soymilk-sauce" quite easily. Still has some fat but more on the healty side. And cashews bring a lot of other health nutrients - in contrast to the sour creams.
I was also looking at the vegan butter and saturated fats and felt like I could stick with olive oil.
Olive oil can give a little bit of a bitter taste. However, if you don't use a lot of it, it shouldn't be a problem and would generally be the better choice over the butter.
If you're trying to minimize that taste go with "mild" olive oil over "extra virgin". EV is made from the first cold press of the olives, and has the most olive flavor. Mild is made from olives that have already been pressed once and have been heated to extract more oil. It's just this side of completely neutral. I can feel the spirit of my nonna in the room right now doing the finger thing 🤌🤌 but even she had one or two recipes where she used the mild olive oil to save money when you cant really taste it anyway or in desserts where you dont want to taste it.
Nice tip. Thanks!
Love this post, love the follow up!
"Try this vegan butter! It tastes so much better than regular butter!"
Later; "What is this? I have to buy it!"
"It tastes better because it's significantly worse for you!"
I mean, butter from animal products would be even worse than the vegan version - but that doesn't make the vegan version healthy in any way.
However, I would always default to vegan alternatives, as living and feeling animals are not exploited in the process of making them. And when I can make dishes vegan and more nutrient dense and tasty by using whole food ingredients, it's a win-win for me. 😇
I'm vegan, that's where the convo in my example came from (letting my friends try my vegan butter). The vegan butter I use has like 10x the cholesterol of the dairy-based. I still eat the vegan kind by principle, but the nutrition is significantly worse.