Sam Wood: Six smart ways to give your favourite comfort foods a healthy makeover

After a long day at work, a brutal workout, a stressful meeting or a long commute there’s not much better than arriving home to your favourite comfort food.

Whether it’s dad’s signature spaghetti, nan’s chocolate pudding or pad thai from your local takeaway joint, everyone has their go-to food that’s like a hug from the inside out.

There’s nothing wrong with enjoying your favourite hearty foods here and there, but when they’re not necessarily ticking all of the health boxes you need to indulge in moderation.

This does not mean you need to say goodbye to these meals altogether to meet your health goals. In fact, you can actually eat your favourite comfort foods more often than you think. You might just need to be a little bit creative in the kitchen to make them healthier.

Here are some of my favourite comfort foods and easy ways to tweak them so they’re more than just ‘‘sometimes’’ foods.

Pizza

There’s no better way to end a big week of work – and workouts – than curling up on the couch with my girls, watching my beloved Hawks and enjoying a pizza.

We often make the pizza ourselves and love to get creative in the kitchen with our toppings.

Sometimes we’ll use a wholegrain wrap as a lighter base or if we really feel like dusting off our aprons, you can’t go wrong with a good cauliflower base.

Pancakes

How good are pancakes on a Sunday morning? Especially ones that don’t send you into a sugar coma afterwards. Almond meal and mashed banana are two ingredients I use to whip up my pancakes – no half cups of sugar or flour required!

Spag Bol

My partner Snez is a sucker for a good bowl of pasta and you won’t hear any complaints from me when it is on the menu at our place.

If I’ve had a particularly carb heavy day but still need my spaghetti fix, zucchini noodles are a good substitute. Sometimes I do half zoodles/half pasta or if I need a little more substance I’ll go for wholemeal pasta instead.

Parent hack: bolognese is a great way to hide vegetables from kids in the sauce. Finely diced veggies can easily be overlooked by little ones so why not try making your sauce from scratch and sneaking them in?

My final tip is easier said than done, but try not to overdo it on the cheese.

Fish and Chips

You might think of the beach when you think about fish and chips but that doesn’t mean they’re not a great comfort food year round.

Crumbed fish is delicious but unfortunately not such a healthy meal when fried in lots of oil.However, you can easily make your own crumbed topping with almond meal, coconut, quinoa flakes or even multigrain bread crumbs.

Snez and I like to fry or grill our fish in olive or coconut oil and then drizzle with lemon. Swap your beloved chips for oven-baked sweet potato wedges tossed in a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil.

Burgers

Burgers are super easy meal to make healthier which is great because I LOVE them. Sometimes I even like to make a burger salad but if going roll free gives you nightmares, try using only one side – ‘‘open burger’’ style. Skip the chips and fill your plate with a side salad instead.

Curries

Nothing says warm like a big, hearty curry. Curries are so flavoursome, but not always the healthiest option. The good news is they’re seriously easy to modify to keep them as a staple in your diet.

Go for brown rice or, even better, cauliflower rice, and add as many veggies into the curry as you can. Make the curry sauce yourself and bulk up your meal with extra steamed veggies.

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