Having a fondue evening is not only a great possibility to spend a nice evening together. It can also create very healthy and light meals your whole family will benefit from. It takes some time to prepare, but most things can be done in advance, so when dinner time comes, all you need to do is prepare your stock, put everything on the table and light your fondue.

In case you don’t know what a fondue is: It’s a pot that is placed on a réchaud. Then everyone sits around it and cooks his or her own meat or vegetables in the stock (they are stuck on a fondue fork). There are usually salads, dips and bread served with it.

One of the big advantages of having a fondue is that you eat really slowly since your food first needs to cook. Also, you will be very busy talking in between. The result is that you are very unlikely to eat too much. You will actually be amazed how little food you really need.

As all meals, a fondue can be very healthy or very unhealthy or anything in between. To make sure you serve the healthiest fondue possible, follow these 6 amazing tips:

• use a healthy cooking liquid
• choose lean meat
• serve healthy salads
• serve vegetables or fruit
• prepare low calorie salsas and dips
• choose whole wheat bread or rolls

Use a healthy cooking liquid

Instead of frying your food in liters of oil, prepare a chicken, vegetable or beef stock. This contains way less calories, goes just as quick and tastes just as great. You can keep the stock afterward and use it to make a soup the next day.

Choose lean meat

This is very important to keep calories in form of fat low. Skinless chicken breast is a good option and any kind of filet too. Poultry and beef contain less fat than pork, so you should prefer these.

Serve healthy salads

A potato or pasta salad with heavy mayonnaise tastes certainly great but they are very high in calories. Use fat reduced mayonnaise or salad dressing instead which also tastes very nice. You can also use low fat yoghurt to make your dressing, or use an olive oil dressing for your green salad.

Make sure you use healthy ingredients: green salads, vegetables and fruit. If you have a meat fondue, don’t still add meat to your salads. If you have a vegetable fondue, you can add some meat or boiled eggs.

Serve vegetables or fruit

Having a fondue is a lot like snacking. Make platters with cucumber slices or slices of red or yellow pepper. Have cherry tomatoes and radish. Even raw or blanched vegetables like carrot or celery sticks, or cauliflower or broccoli florets are great with a dip or salsa.

Serve fruit just as it is, or as a colorful mixed kebab on sticks. Grape-cheese sticks are also very popular (choose low fat cheese). Or make a fruit salad or dip.

Prepare low calorie salsas and dips

The products you buy are often high in calories. It’s better to make your own. A salsa of canned tomato, onions and chopped green pepper is quickly prepared. Mix low fat cottage cheese with various spices to make a nice dip. You can also add some chopped onions and garlic. Or mix it with chopped canned peaches to get a sweet dip.

Choose whole wheat bread or rolls

These fill you quicker so you won’t overeat easily. They also contain much more nutrients than white bread. You can serve rolls just as you bought them, or cut them in half. Toast is very nice if you cut it into triangles and roast it in the oven. If you want garlic bread, apply some olive oil with a brush, spread crushed garlic and chopped parsley over it and bake it in the oven. That will have much less calories than the bread you buy.

So, dig out this old fondue set you haven’t used for ages, and enjoy a healthy dinner with your family!