Lasagne, 469 kcal · was 648

The cookbook series that admits it changed the recipe

Less authentic.
More protein.

The classics you already cook, with the calories cut and the protein kept, and exactly what each change cost you printed beside it. Every number traced to a public database. Every dish that could not be saved, named.

Browse every dish Start with the swap kit

Cover of Authentic-ish Christmas

New for Christmas

Authentic-ish Christmas

2,184 calories for a traditional Christmas dinner. 1,394 for this one.

54 festive dishes from all 17 books: roasts, Christmas Eve suppers, party plates and the sweet things, each lightened with the cost printed beside it. A gift for the cook in your life.

See every dish

Roast GammonAranciniPickled HerringStollen

Fewer calories, protein kept

All 916 dishes

One from each book: the biggest cut where the protein stayed, at 25g or more a serving.

Duck a l'Orange, lightened. 275 kcal a serving.-71%

Duck a l'Orange

Now
275 kcal
Was
961 kcal
Protein
31 g

35 minutes · serves 4 · French

Melitzanes Papoutsakia, lightened. 349 kcal a serving.-70%

Melitzanes Papoutsakia

Now
349 kcal
Was
1162 kcal
Protein
31 g

75 minutes · serves 6 · Greek

Braised Duck with Star Anise, lightened. 280 kcal a serving.-68%

Braised Duck with Star Anise

Now
280 kcal
Was
885 kcal
Protein
33 g

2 hours · serves 6 · Chinese

Kaczka z Jablkami Roast Duck, lightened. 418 kcal a serving.-65%

Kaczka z Jablkami Roast Duck

Now
418 kcal
Was
1186 kcal
Protein
41 g

2 hours 30 minutes · serves 4 · Polish

Paidakia, lightened. 264 kcal a serving.-63%

Paidakia

Now
264 kcal
Was
717 kcal
Protein
36 g

30 minutes plus 2 hours marinating · serves 4 · Cypriot

Smothered Pork Chops, lightened. 284 kcal a serving.-61%

Smothered Pork Chops

Now
284 kcal
Was
720 kcal
Protein
41 g

1 hour · serves 4 · Soul Food

Three things this series does that the others don't

Every number is traced

No estimated calories. Every figure is computed from the ingredient list against USDA FoodData Central and McCance & Widdowson, and the appendix prints the exact database row used for each ingredient.

Every swap has a price

Cutting the guanciale in a carbonara costs you crisp salty bits, and the book says so in the same breath as the swap. A change sold as free is a change you'll resent by the third time you cook it.

Some dishes don't survive

Every book has a chapter of dishes that can't be lightened without ruining them, named plainly. Cacio e pepe is two ingredients and both are the calories. Make the real one.

Who's writing this

Danny Vale cooked for the best part of 20 years. First as a civilian cook feeding a forces base, three meals a day for a full hall. Then for fighters making weight, where a dietitian set the numbers and he made the food.

Cook for people on a number long enough and you learn precisely which part of a recipe is the flavour and which part is fat that got there out of habit. That is the whole idea behind these books.

He is not a celebrity, he is not your nonna, and the books don't pretend otherwise. More about Danny.