Skip to main content

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

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.

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

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 is a certified personal trainer and nutritionist with an undergraduate degree from Missouri State University. Her…
Forget avocado toast – why sweet potato toast is the best fall breakfast
This amazing fall breakfast is better than avocado toast (yeah, we said it)
Healthy sandwich on sweet potato for breakfast or snack

For those of us who are good little millennials, avocado toast is a sacred part of our morning routine. Something about our day just feels amiss if it's not started with our trusty trendy toast, scarfed on the go, rinsed down with our favorite morning brew.

This healthy breakfast has been getting us going for a while now, and you're not getting any complaints from us. But what if we told you that the latest trend in breakfast food could add a little fall flavor to your old routine, while still maintaining many of the best parts of your tried-and-true avocado-y favorite?

Read more
Our mashed potato recipe is the only one you’ll ever need (and it’s easy to memorize, too!)
This mashed potato recipe is, dare we say, perfect
Mashed potatoes

It's no secret that mashed potatoes are every bit as much the star of the Thanksgiving table as the turkey. Perhaps even more so in some cases. After all, mashed potatoes are the harbinger of gravy, which, let's be real, is the actual star of the show. As important as they are, though, mashed potatoes can come with some unappetizing setbacks. If your mashed potato recipe is not executed perfectly, this Thanksgiving favorite can be lumpy or gluey, underseasoned and bland, too runny or too stiff. For such a simple dish, it certainly carries its fair share of potential pitfalls.

With this simple mashed potato recipe and method, though, perfect, Michelin-quality mashed potatoes can be easily achieved every single time. The best part? It's extremely simple to remember, so there's no need to bring out the crowded recipe box for this one. The ratio for perfect mashed potatoes is 4 parts Yukon Gold potatoes, 1 part heavy cream, and 1 part European butter. We love this simple 4:1:1 ratio because it's also easily scaled up or down, depending on the size of your gathering. For example, if you have 500 grams of potatoes, you'll use 125 grams of both cream and butter.

Read more
We love these Keto diet Thanksgiving recipes from a professional chef
Celebrity Chef Darryl Taylor gives us his best keto diet sides
keto diet thanksgiving recipes rustic thankgiving dinner

Unless you're one of those psychos who runs a marathon with your family every Thanksgiving, the holiday isn't exactly known for being the healthiest. For most of us, it's a carb-heavy, four-servings-of-mashed potatoes and two-pieces-of-pie kind of day, topped off with a few (many) festive cocktails —not exactly friendly to the keto diet.

But for celebrity chef Darryl Taylor, famed for his incredible catering talents in Atlanta and appearance on Next Level Chef, Thanksgiving is a great way to experiment with beautiful dishes and flavors while still keeping in ketosis. Chef Taylor lost 139 pounds on the keto diet, and his keto-friendly Thanksgiving recipes are a delicious reminder that staying true to your diet doesn't have to mean missing out on wonderful holiday flavor.
Salmon/tuna rounds with lemon cream sauce
Ingredients

Read more