One of my favorite places to get coffee or have lunch is Akasha in Culver City. The restaurant is beautiful, open and full of light. The food is delightful and interesting.
I recently went there for an event for Stonyfield Yogurt where chef and owner Akasha Richmond incorporated yogurt into all of the dishes. My favorite was the dessert, of course. It was a fig tart with homemade vanilla frozen yogurt. She also made hummus with yogurt and an orzo with Greek yogurt instead of feta. The food was all very good and so was the information from Stonyfield.
Green nutritionist Kate Geagan talked to the group about why organic is important and how to make family meals healthier by substituting yogurt. I try to buy mostly organic, but it’s expensive so I pick and choose. I try to follow the Dirty Dozen, a list of foods that consumers should buy organic because of the amount of pesticides, plus I try to always purchase organic milk and yogurt.
Healthy isn’t just about organic. What really got my attention was the Stonyfield Yogurt Substitution Guide. I had recently made a Tres Leches pie for the Good Food Pie contest and tried to put out of my mind how much fat and calories it had. I tested it several times, which may explain the couple of pounds I’ve put on recently. Just by substituting whole milk yogurt for the heavy cream, I could have saved 200 calories. I think it would have tasted okay, too, and made it slightly tart, which is always nice.
Stonyfield gave out fabulous recipes that use yogurt, but my kids and I experimented and came up with our own. These “donuts” turned out well and my boys didn’t notice the substitutions or mind that they weren’t fried.
We needed a birthday present for one of their friends and bought this Wilton Mini Donut Pan and a donut mix. It was so cute (and only $10) that I also bought one for the kids (actually, me). This recipe is adapted from the Wilton donut recipe. I substituted whole wheat flour for cake flour and plain low-fat yogurt for buttermilk. (I usually make everything gluten-free, but my Celiac husband was out of town and we were out of xantham gum. I’ll post the gluten-free recipe soon).
Lemon Donuts
1 ¼ cup whole wheat flour
½ cup sugar
1 ¼ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon lemon zest
¾ teaspoon salt
½ cup plain lowfat yogurt
1 egg lightly beaten
1 ½ tablespoons melted butter
Preheat oven to 425. Spray donut or mini muffin pan with canola oil spray.
In mixing bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, lemon zest, and salt. Add yogurt, egg, and melted butter to the dry mix and stir until just combined. Fill donut cup half full.
Bake for 4 to 6 minutes or until the donuts spring back when you touch them. Let them cool about 5 minutes
Once they are cool, top the donuts with this simple lemon glaze.
Simple Lemon Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Mix until smooth and glaze donuts immediately. If the glaze is too thick, add a little water.