Alternative to cream/ice cream

[LeeLee]

I like my strawberries smothered in sweetened whipped double cream or ice cream. Not conducive to either a healthy diet ot weight loss. Until now, I've been using fat free fromage frais with vanilla essence and sweetener, but the texture isn't right. Now I've found something that's really just as good as the naughty stuff (not just a poor relation!)

Tesco have started selling Lake District Quark, in plain, lemon and vanilla flavours for ?1.25 (250g). I thought I'd try the vanilla one first... and it's LOVELY. A generous 50g dollop on my strawberries was 48 calories, 7g carbs, 0.2g fat, 1 syn. The lemon flavour is lower cal/carb/syn.

Now that I know how creamy the 'mouth feel' is, I'll get the plain one and add my own flavouring and stevia sweetener. Meanwhile, I've still got 200g of the yummy stuff in the fridge!

 

[LeeLee]

My experiments with the plain Lake District quark have been an unqualified success. 🙂

As expected, mixing it with some granulated sweetener and a few drops of vanilla essence (the real stuff) is just fabulous as a topping for fresh fruit salad or strawberries.

Yesterday I bothered to make coleslaw: 3 tablespoons of quark with one of ultra-low fat mayonnaise and a finely grated clove of garlic stirred into shredded white cabbage and grated carrot. Yummy! Eleanor loved it (but then again she is a rather unusual 3-year-old). I'll have to make another batch today - I thought I had made enough for leftovers but we ate the lot!

 

[Northerner]

What is quark? Is it soy?

 

[LeeLee]

It's a fat-free soft cheese. The reason I'm raving about that particular brand is that it's spoonable and has a creamy smooth texture a bit like extra thick double cream. The other quark brands I've tried are a lot more solid, and very slightly grainy. It's worth a special trip to a large-ish Tesco.