With the reopening of his restaurant Les Prés d’Eugenie and the opening of his new bistro, Mère et Poule & Cie, Michel Guérard is launching his cookbook ‘Eat Well and Stay Slim: The Essential Cuisine Minceur’, promoting his healthy cuisine in March.

Having pioneered gastronomic slimming cuisine and collected three Michelin stars along his fourty year-long culinary career, chef Guérard is launching ‘Eat Well and Stay Slim’. Part of a public campaign and written under the authority of the French Health Ministry, Michel Guérard’s recipe book aims to combine gourmet cuisine with healthy cooking techniques to offer readers a sustainable approach to food that is both healthy and delicious.

With over 140 exquisite recipes fusing the best traditional flavours with the global influences that are redefining French cuisine, all with low calorie counts, Michel uses vegetable and fruit purées to produce light sauces. Flavours are intense, nutritional values high and all recipes bear the gastronomic hallmarks of a three-Michelin-starred creator-chef, yet main course dishes carry a calorie count of 240 Kcal or less.

Read more about chefGuérard’s career and buy the book here.

The recipes include…

• Crunchy vegetable spring rolls with a spicy sauce / 70 calories
• Ceviche of white fish with mango and ginger / 70 calories
• Beef salad with red onion and red cabbage / 185 calories
• Mushroom tarts with asparagus tips / 165 calories
• Warm Thai chicken salad with potatoes / 140 calories
• Raspberry tiramisu / 205 calories

Recipes

165 calories per person

Cooking and preparation: 40 Minutes

Level of difficulty **

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

100g puff pastry

500g white button mushrooms, wipes

750ml semi-skimmed (2%) milk

200g duxelles of mushroom

Salt and pepper to taste

Garnish

12 asparagus tips

1 tbsp fromage blanc or Greek yoghurt (0% fat or low-fat)

2 tbsp snipped chives

METHOD

Divide the puff pastry in 4 quarters and roll into balls. Using a rolling pin, roll out each ball into a circle 14cm (5½ -6in) in diameter and 1mm thick. Put the circles onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and put into the refrigerator.

Put the white button mushrooms in a large saucepan and cover with the milk. Season with salt and pepper and bring the mixture to a simmer over a medium heat. Let it simmer gently for 10 minutes or until the mushrooms are cooked. Drain the mushrooms, setting aside the milk. When the mushrooms are cool enough to handle, cut them into 3-4mm slices and set them aside.

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Spread the duxelles of mushrooms onto the chilled puff pastry, leaving a ½ cm border. Carefully lay the slices of mushrooms on top of the duxelles in rows, slightly overlapping each row. Bake the tarts in the oven for 12 minutes or until the pastry is golden and slightly puffed.

While the tarts are baking, simmer the asparagus tips in lightly salted water for 3-4 minutes or until bright green and just tender or until al dente. Drain the asparagus gently so as not to break them, and refresh in cold water; drain again and set aside.

Pour 300ml of the reserved milk into a medium sized saucepan and bring to a gentle simmer. Allow the milk to simmer until it is reduced by half. Whisk in the fromage black and adjust the seasoning. Cover the sauce and keep it warm, preferably in a bain-marie, until ready to serve.

To serve

Have ready 4 warm serving plates. When the tarts are done, put one on each plate and decorate with the asparagus pits. Using a spoon, gently drizzle the sauce over the tarts and garnish with the fresh chives.

Variations

There tarts can be an attractive feature of the main dish when served with chicken breasts or cooked shellfish, such as clams or mussels.

70-310 calories per person, depending on the sweetener you use

Preparation: 40 Minutes

Level of difficulty *

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

4 organic lemons

500ml plus 3 tbsp water

6 heaped tbsp. plus 1 pinch of fructose or sweetener

200g fresh raspberries

3 tbsp water

To decorate

200g fresh raspberries

4 small bunches of fresh verbena, mint and rosemary

METHOD

To make the syrup for the lemon sorbet, remove the zest from 3 of the lemons using a zester or fine grater over a saucepan. Add 500ml water and 6 heaped tablespoons of fructose, and bring the mixture to the boil. Remove the saucepan from the heat.

Cut all 4 lemons in half and squeeze their juice. Stir the juice into the warm lemon syrup.

Transfer the lemon syrup to a sorbetière and churn to a soft-textured consistence. Alternatively, put the mixture in a shallow freezing tray and stir it thoroughly every half-hour with a fork. The sorbet will be ready when, after several hours, it has a soft, scoopable, consistence. Put the sorbet in an airtight container and freeze until you are ready to serve.

To make the raspberry coulis, put the rasperries and 3 tablespoons of water in the bowl of a food processor and blend to a puree. Taste and adjust the acidity of the fruit by adding a pinch of fructose if required. For a smooth coulis, pass the puree through a fine sieve – preferably a chinois – an discard the pips. Pour the coulis into an airtight container and place it in the refrigerator until needed.

To serve

Have 4 ready-chilled shallow dessert bowls or glass dishes. Remove the lemon sorbet from the freezer. Scoop out each portion of sorbet using 2 dessertspoons and pass the sorbet between the spoons to make over quenelle shapes. Put one quenelle into each bowl. Drizzle a little of the chilled raspberry coulis over each helping. Add a few fresh raspberries and decorate with small mixed bunches of fresh verbena, mint and rosemary. Serve straight away.