Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Food & Drink

The Manual may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site.

Try these fantastic healthy recipes for a low-cholesterol diet

Tasty recipes to help your cardiovascular system

Christine VanDoren
By
low cholesterol cauliflower foods.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Looking for some new healthy recipes to support your low-cholesterol diet? In this article, we’re going to cover a few tasty low-cholesterol recipes that can boost your health in numerous ways. We’ll also address the reasons to follow a low-cholesterol diet in the first place!

What are the benefits of a low-cholesterol diet?

Reduces the risk of heart disease

Heart disease can occur when there is a buildup of plaque in your arteries. This plaque comes from LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol), so lowering these levels by following the low-cholesterol diet and eating well could help reduce your risk. Keep in mind that there is still good cholesterol, and that is HDL.

Recommended Videos

You may also experience a lessened risk of heart attacks, strokes, and other cardiovascular ailments.

Related

Promotes weight loss

Because the low-cholesterol diet encourages you to eat healthy meals and cut out processed and high-fat foods, you will likely naturally consume fewer calories on a daily basis. This can lead to weight loss. Of course, factors like exercise, daily movement, age, weight, gender, and genetics, will also play a role in how your body could change.

Healthy low-cholesterol breakfasts to try

Essential green smoothie

Recipe from

Nutrition Facts:

  • Calories: 170
  • Fat: 6 g
  • Sodium: 110 mg
  • Carbohydrates: 29 g
  • Fiber: 7 g
  • Sugar: 19 g
  • Protein: 3 g

Ingredients:

The following makes 1 serving:

  • 1 cup packed baby spinach
  • 1/2 medium apple, cored
  • 1/4 medium avocado, peeled and pitted
  • 1 cup unsweetened raw coconut water
  • 3 ice cubes

Instructions:

  1. Place all ingredients in a high-speed blender. Blend on high for 30 seconds or until smooth.
  2. Pour into a large glass and drink immediately.

My Thoughts

This is one of my favorite green smoothie recipes because it’s simple and dense with nutrients! I personally reduced the coconut water to 1/3 cup, and I added one scoop of vanilla protein powder to turn it into a post-workout shake. 

Salmon shakshuka

Recipe from

Nutrition Facts:

  • Calories: 370
  • Fat: 15 g
  • Sodium: 1,310 mg
  • Carbohydrates: 32 g
  • Fiber: 4 g
  • Sugar: 8 g
  • Protein: 27 g

Ingredients:

The following makes 4 servings:

  • 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 large red onion, peeled and diced
  • 1 medium red bell pepper, seeded and diced
  • 2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
  • 2 tablespoons tomato paste
  • 2 teaspoons sweet smoked paprika
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 (14.5-ounce) can petite diced tomatoes
  • 1 (15-ounce) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1 (5-ounce) can red salmon, drained and flaked
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
  • 4 large free-range eggs
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
  • 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese

Instructions:

  1. Heat oil in a large deep skillet over medium heat. Saute onion, bell pepper, and bird’s eye chili until softened, 3 to 5 minutes. Add garlic, tomato paste, paprika, and cumin. Cook, stirring continuously, until fragrant, about 1 minute.
  2. Stir in tomatoes, beans, salmon, and salt. Reduce heat to medium-low and bring to a low simmer. Use the back of a large spoon to make four hollows in the tomato mixture. Crack 1 egg into each hollow and cover skillet.
  3. Maintain a gentle simmer for 2 to 3 minutes until eggs are lightly poached but yolks are still runny.
  4. Remove from heat and top with parsley, cilantro, and feta. Serve immediately.

My Thoughts

I was a fan of this recipe as well. I was worried it would taste a bit “too healthy,” but the ingredients all really complement each other, and I thought it was delicious! With this recipe, I switched out the red bird’s eye chili for crushed red pepper flakes, and I used fresh salmon instead of canned. I also doubled the amount of recommended salmon to get more protein.

Overall, this salmon shakshuka took quite a bit of time to prepare, but I thought it was worth it, considering it got me to enjoy various protein sources and veggies for breakfast!

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Christine VanDoren
Christine VanDoren
Contributor
Christine is a certified personal trainer and nutritionist with an undergraduate degree from Missouri State University. Her…
Upgrade your next barbecue with elk, the healthy red meat you should be eating
First Light Farms is raising high-quality pasture-raised elk deliverable to your front door.
cooked elk with cup

First Light Farms elk backstrap. Marilynne Bell / First Light Farms

If you're looking for a red meat alternative to beef that's delicious and packed with nutrients like Omega-3 fatty acids, protein-packed elk might be the answer. A great place to get pasture-raised elk delivered is First Light Farms. This New Zealand-based company raises 100% grass-fed wagyu, venison, and, most recently, elk, all deliverable to your front door. First Light Farms sent us several of their items to try, and we interviewed them to learn all about this must-try red meat.

Read more
The 11 best grill and smoker recipes to make now
Tasty recipes to cook on your gas, charcoal, or pellet grill
Ducks in the Pig Pen

It's that time of year again when we neglect our Dutch ovens, slow cookers, and air fryers for our outdoor char-grilling and smoking devices. It doesn't matter if you're cooking with gas, charcoal, or pellets. The main is you're outside enjoying the nice weather with a a cold beer.

While everyone loves a tasty burger or hot dog, they can get boring after a while. Sometimes, we want to flex our culinary muscles at our grills and for anyone else who may be just hanging around us for the cold beer.

Read more
Your guide to the pescatarian diet for healthier living
If you're considering a new way of eating, this may be the perfect diet for you
Pea puree with fish

Are you thinking of changing your diet? If a healthier you is on the to-do list this year, you might consider the pescatarian diet. At its core, the pescatarian diet eliminates all meat except for fish and seafood. Plenty of research tells us eating red meat increases your chances of heart disease and even death by 3% to 7%. The study even suggests that eating poultry twice a week increases these risks by 4%.

You may have heard of the Blue Zone Diet. If you're not familiar, Blue Zones are areas around the world where people live the longest, healthiest lives. The research was conducted by Dan Buettner, a National Geographic fellow and bestselling author. These zones are located in Japan, Italy, Costa Rica, Greece, and California. There are a number of practices you can put in place to follow the Blue Zone Diet if you wish. However, for our purposes, it's simply important to note that the people living the longest and healthiest lives were neither vegans nor meat-eaters. They're pescatarians.
What is the pescatarian diet?

Read more