Mexican

Authentic-ish Mexican

Name: Authentic-ish Mexican: Abuela's Classics, Lightened
Author: Danny Vale

Abuela's Classics, Lightened

Lard, deep-fried tortillas and the crema on top, handled honestly. Plus the entry in the swap kit that says leave the avocado alone, which is there because otherwise somebody tries.

Not out yet. The swap kit from chapter 2 is free to read now, and it’s the part of the book you’d use most.

What’s in it

Recipes	Chapters	Average calorie saving	Dishes rejected
57	8	40%	3

Every dish, and what came off it

Each figure is per serving, computed from the ingredient list. The traditional column is the real dish, not a strawman: it’s costed from its own ingredient list so the saving is a measurement rather than a claim.

Dish	Chapter	Traditional	This version	Saving	Protein
Tacos al Pastor	antojitos	880 kcal	536 kcal	39%	45.2g
Carnitas	meat	1237 kcal	328 kcal	73%	40.6g
Salsa Roja	salsas	56 kcal	22 kcal	61%	0.9g
Salsa Verde	salsas	101 kcal	33 kcal	67%	1g
Chilaquiles Verdes	antojitos	664 kcal	430 kcal	35%	24.1g
Enchiladas Rojas	antojitos	881 kcal	518 kcal	41%	49.5g
Quesadillas	antojitos	696 kcal	381 kcal	45%	19g
Tinga de Pollo	meat	481 kcal	308 kcal	36%	36.8g
Cochinita Pibil	meat	843 kcal	465 kcal	45%	43.6g
Pozole Rojo	soup	669 kcal	390 kcal	42%	40.9g
Sopa de Tortilla	soup	619 kcal	397 kcal	36%	35.6g
Frijoles Refritos	beans	347 kcal	190 kcal	45%	9.8g
Frijoles de Olla	beans	351 kcal	288 kcal	18%	19.3g
Arroz Rojo	beans	347 kcal	233 kcal	33%	7.8g
Elote	vegetables	332 kcal	194 kcal	42%	10.4g
Rajas con Crema	vegetables	361 kcal	173 kcal	52%	13.2g
Camarones a la Diabla	fish	620 kcal	350 kcal	44%	35.1g
Pescado a la Veracruzana	fish	464 kcal	309 kcal	33%	44g
Ceviche	fish	276 kcal	253 kcal	8%	26.1g
Mole Poblano	meat	598 kcal	425 kcal	29%	51.9g
Tamales	antojitos	578 kcal	352 kcal	39%	23.8g
Sopes	antojitos	535 kcal	369 kcal	31%	26.9g
Esquites	vegetables	370 kcal	207 kcal	44%	11.6g
Calabacitas	vegetables	307 kcal	182 kcal	41%	8.1g
Nopales	vegetables	269 kcal	111 kcal	59%	5.1g
Barbacoa de Res	meat	690 kcal	467 kcal	32%	46.6g
Birria	meat	745 kcal	593 kcal	20%	60g
Huevos Rancheros	antojitos	421 kcal	330 kcal	22%	17.5g
Machaca con Huevo	antojitos	683 kcal	471 kcal	31%	37.5g
Sopa de Lima	soup	485 kcal	320 kcal	34%	38.4g
Caldo de Pollo	soup	431 kcal	365 kcal	15%	46.4g
Chiles Rellenos	vegetables	797 kcal	310 kcal	61%	28.2g
Ensalada de Nopales	salsas	317 kcal	185 kcal	42%	10.8g
Aguachile	fish	391 kcal	228 kcal	42%	32.6g
Tacos de Pescado	fish	848 kcal	392 kcal	54%	41.2g
Flan	pudding	336 kcal	122 kcal	64%	6.9g
Arroz con Leche	pudding	419 kcal	280 kcal	33%	16.3g
Paletas de Fruta	pudding	132 kcal	77 kcal	42%	4.3g
Champurrado	pudding	396 kcal	160 kcal	60%	8g
Tres Leches	pudding	617 kcal	277 kcal	55%	13.8g
Pollo con Mole Verde	meat	573 kcal	432 kcal	25%	52.6g
Albondigas en Chipotle	meat	518 kcal	316 kcal	39%	33.9g
Fajitas de Res	meat	868 kcal	652 kcal	25%	50.9g
Enfrijoladas	beans	751 kcal	444 kcal	41%	22.7g
Tostadas de Tinga	antojitos	744 kcal	483 kcal	35%	47.1g
Coctel de Camaron	fish	397 kcal	271 kcal	32%	42.4g
Chile Verde de Puerco	meat	642 kcal	391 kcal	39%	43.2g
Papas con Chorizo	vegetables	687 kcal	376 kcal	45%	24.9g
Nopalitos con Huevo	antojitos	266 kcal	121 kcal	55%	13.6g
Sopa de Frijol	soup	472 kcal	389 kcal	18%	24.1g
Camarones al Mojo de Ajo	fish	521 kcal	210 kcal	60%	31.8g
Torta de Milanesa	antojitos	983 kcal	597 kcal	39%	46.3g
Pollo en Escabeche	meat	382 kcal	321 kcal	16%	48.4g
Ensalada de Betabel	salsas	222 kcal	96 kcal	57%	7.4g
Budin Azteca	antojitos	663 kcal	373 kcal	44%	41.8g
Tacos de Carne Asada	meat	685 kcal	533 kcal	22%	46.8g
Capirotada	pudding	643 kcal	290 kcal	55%	12.6g

The ones I wouldn’t touch

Dishes drafted for this book that didn’t survive. If every dish survived lightening, that chapter would be a marketing device and you should trust none of the rest.

Guacamole. I drafted a version of this with 300g of frozen peas in place of the avocado. It's on page 12 of this book that you should leave the avocado alone. I wrote that entry into the swap kit specifically because I'd seen guacamole made with peas, with courgette and with cottage cheese, by people who should know better, and I wanted to say so before somebody tried it. Then I tried it. In fairness to the peas, it's a perfectly good green dip. It's sharp, you can eat a lot of it, and with enough lime and jalapeno in there it tastes of something. What it isn't is guacamole, and putting it in the book under that name would make me exactly the person the swap kit warns you about. Avocado is 160 kcal per 100g. It is fat, and the fat is the entire texture and most of the flavour, and there is nothing to swap it for because nothing else in the vegetable aisle does what it does. Make it properly. Ripe avocado, lime, white onion, coriander, green chilli, salt. Mash it with a fork rather than a blender so it stays rough. Eat less of it if you must. The pea dip is fine. Call it a pea dip.
Pico de Gallo. Pico de gallo is literally just raw tomatoes, onions, coriander, chillies and lime juice chopped up and mixed together. There's absolutely no fat to cut. There's no heavy starch to remove. It's just water, acid and crunch. If I try to force more protein into this by throwing in chunks of chicken breast or a handful of tinned tuna, I'm not making a salsa anymore. I'm making a salad or a bizarre ceviche, and that completely ruins what this dish is supposed to do. You can't hack a bowl of raw vegetables to make it leaner than it already is, and trying to do so is a massive waste of time. I refuse to wreck a perfect salsa just to hit a target, so this one stays exactly as it's always been. Make the traditional recipe, eat it with everything, and get your protein from the meat you serve it with.
Ensalada de Jicama. There's nothing here to take out. A jicama salad is jicama, orange, lime, chilli and coriander, and it comes in around 130 kcal a serving before I touch it. The only fat in the bowl is a slick of olive oil, and taking that out saves you about 60 kcal across 4 people while making the salad drier and duller. I drafted a version that added 400g of prawns to it, and it worked, but look at what that actually is. The original is a side dish you put next to something. Mine was a main course that happens to contain jicama. Comparing them and calling the second one a lighter version of the first is the sort of arithmetic this book exists to avoid. If you want the prawn version, it's a good plate of food and it's basically an aguachile, which is on page 100 and has been Mexican for a lot longer than my idea was. Make the salad as it is. Use the oil. It's already the lightest thing in this book.

Where the numbers come from

FoodData Central, SR Legacy Release (April 2018). U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. Public domain (U.S. Government work).
McCance & Widdowson's Composition of Foods Integrated Dataset (CoFID) 2021. Public Health England / Office for Health Improvement and Disparities. Open Government Licence v3.0.

Retrieved 2026-08-21. Nothing in these books is dietary or medical advice. Danny Vale is a cook.