I had to buy a bag of Yukon Gold potatoes for the last recipe. Well, I had 4 pounds of the bag I bought. Needless to say I had some potatoes to use. So I searched for a recipe that I could make in my slow cooker that featured potatoes. I found a recipe for Chorizo Potato Stew from the Food Network and figured this would be a perfect comfort food that I could make healthy. I did an initial calculation of the nutrition and the calories and the sodium are pretty high per serving. Because they use a pre-made sausage, the sodium is over 1000mg per serving. Pre-made sausage is also lower in protein so if you are looking to get more protein in your diet, sausages while tasty do not do a very good job of this. The rest of the recipe is pretty healthy. Potatoes and Swiss Chard are pretty healthy. I think with a few small changes, we can make this a healthier dish. Here are the original stats:
- 576 Calories
- 27g Fat
- 53mg Cholesterol
- 1023mg Sodium
- 1438mg Potassium
- 57g Carbohydrate
- 22g Protein
- 52% Vitamin A
- 77% Vitamin C
- 10% Calcium
- 24% Iron
Here’s what I changed:
- I deleted the added salt to reduce the sodium.
- I replaced the chicken broth with a low sodium variety to lower the sodium.
- I replaced the sausages with ground turkey which I will season like chorizo to reduce the sodium and add protein.
- I replace the russet potatoes with the Yukon Gold to use them up.
- I reduced the olive oil to 1 tablespoon to reduce the calories.
- I increased the servings from 4 to 5 to reduce the calories
- Added a can of pure pumpkin puree to increase the vitamin A.
- Added red bell pepper to round out the vitamin C without adding a ton of calories.
- Using the slow cooker to cook this rather than the stove.
What I learned while writing this post is that Yukon Gold potatoes give 150% of your daily value per serving of vitamin C. I had no idea. I will remember this for future recipes. Sweet potatoes for vitamin A. Yukon Golds for vitamin C. Otherwise, the changes are pretty standard. I also ended up using kale instead of the Swiss chard. The only reason is because they didn’t have any at the grocery store. So if you don’t have Swiss chard available, any leafy green like kale or turnip greens will work.
Here are the final stats:
- 289 Calories
- 9g Fat
- 76mg Cholesterol
- 232mg Sodium
- 621mg Potassium
- 30g Carbohydrate
- 23g Protein
- 240% Vitamin A
- 149% Vitamin C
- 10% Calcium
- 23% Iron
Here is the final recipe:
Chorizo Potato Stew
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 recipe for turkey chorizo sausage (see below)
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 pound Yukon Gold potatoes
- 1 red bell pepper, chopped
- Freshly ground pepper
- 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon smoked Spanish paprika
- 1 small bunch Swiss chard, leaves and stems separated and chopped (about 6 cups)
- 1 15 ounce can of pumpkin puree
- Chopped parsley
Turkey Chorizo Sausage (adapted from an All Recipes recipe posted by Andrew Rocco)
- 1 pound ground turkey
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 2 teaspoons chili powder
- 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- Place turkey, vinegar, chili powder, paprika, garlic powder, cumin, coriander, oregano, pepper, and red pepper flakes in a medium bowl. Mix well using your hands. Refrigerate for best flavor, 8 hours to overnight.
- Heat the olive oil over medium heat. Brown the turkey chorizo in a pan until cooked through. Add to a slow cooker.
- Add the onion, garlic, potatoes, pepper, chicken broth, bay leaves, paprika, pumpkin puree, and the stems of the Swiss chard to the slow cooker.
- Set the slow cooker to low and cook for 4 to 5 hours.
- Add in the leaves of the Swiss chard. Cover the slow cooker and cook until the leaves are wilted.
- Add the parsley and serve
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