Jewish

Authentic-ish Jewish

Name: Authentic-ish Jewish: Bubbe's Classics, Lightened
Author: Danny Vale

Bubbe's Classics, Lightened

Chicken soup is a chicken and some water; cucumbers in salt water are free. The other half runs on schmaltz at around 900 kcal per 100g, and it existed for a reason. Where a change turns a pareve dish into a dairy one, the recipe says so on the page rather than in the small print.

Not out yet. The swap kit from chapter 2 is free to read now, and it's the part of the book you'd use most.

What's in it

Recipes	Chapters	Average calorie saving	Dishes rejected
53	8	38%	7

Every dish, and what came off it

Each figure is per serving, computed from the ingredient list. The traditional column is the real dish, not a strawman: it's costed from its own ingredient list so the saving is a measurement rather than a claim.

Dish	Chapter	Traditional	This version	Saving	Protein
Roast Chicken	shabbat	517 kcal	312 kcal	40%	53.2g
Chopped Liver	shabbat	301 kcal	203 kcal	33%	16.6g
Potato Kugel	shabbat	441 kcal	235 kcal	47%	12.4g
Tzimmes	shabbat	345 kcal	307 kcal	11%	4g
Chicken Soup	soup	412 kcal	339 kcal	18%	32.6g
Cold Borscht	soup	129 kcal	86 kcal	33%	5.5g
Mushroom Barley Soup	soup	207 kcal	175 kcal	15%	8.8g
Salt Beef	deli	425 kcal	365 kcal	14%	55.7g
Chopped Egg and Onion	deli	255 kcal	116 kcal	55%	12.2g
Gefilte Fish	fish	150 kcal	125 kcal	17%	24.7g
Pickled Herring	fish	326 kcal	220 kcal	33%	21.7g
Chopped Herring	fish	153 kcal	132 kcal	14%	11.3g
Challah	breads	527 kcal	454 kcal	14%	13.1g
Bagels	breads	484 kcal	280 kcal	42%	7.7g
Beef Brisket	braises	544 kcal	401 kcal	26%	45.4g
Cholent	braises	575 kcal	282 kcal	51%	31.2g
Meatballs in Tomato Sauce	braises	415 kcal	307 kcal	26%	31.2g
Potato Latkes	vegetables	408 kcal	285 kcal	30%	10.3g
Israeli Salad	vegetables	175 kcal	90 kcal	49%	2g
Roasted Cauliflower	vegetables	216 kcal	137 kcal	37%	6.5g
Fried Aubergine	vegetables	200 kcal	74 kcal	63%	1.5g
Honey Cake	pudding	397 kcal	224 kcal	44%	6g
Babka	pudding	531 kcal	290 kcal	45%	9.8g
Rugelach	pudding	377 kcal	219 kcal	42%	8g
Baked Apples	pudding	372 kcal	129 kcal	65%	3.8g
Stuffed Veal Breast	shabbat	700 kcal	598 kcal	15%	48.6g
Roast Chicken with Orzo	shabbat	1093 kcal	658 kcal	40%	59g
Lokshen Kugel	shabbat	477 kcal	305 kcal	36%	14.9g
Schav	soup	238 kcal	102 kcal	57%	8.5g
Cold Beetroot Borscht	soup	180 kcal	111 kcal	38%	6g
Yemenite Chicken Soup	soup	521 kcal	297 kcal	43%	43.9g
Kishke	deli	523 kcal	223 kcal	57%	5.6g
Potato Knish	deli	587 kcal	287 kcal	51%	11.1g
Kasha Varnishkes	deli	471 kcal	399 kcal	15%	23.5g
Kasha Knish	deli	415 kcal	223 kcal	46%	11.1g
Chraime	fish	394 kcal	265 kcal	33%	39.2g
Whitefish Salad	fish	555 kcal	270 kcal	51%	19.3g
Smoked Mackerel Pate	fish	339 kcal	162 kcal	52%	17.9g
Baked Carp with Lemon	fish	408 kcal	193 kcal	53%	31.4g
Bialys	breads	416 kcal	306 kcal	26%	8.3g
Matzo Brei	breads	428 kcal	327 kcal	24%	14.4g
Jerusalem Bagels	breads	548 kcal	523 kcal	5%	15g
Sweet and Sour Meatballs	braises	439 kcal	331 kcal	25%	31.9g
Holishkes	braises	456 kcal	309 kcal	32%	31.5g
Esik Fleisch	braises	450 kcal	321 kcal	29%	41.7g
Braised Duck Legs	braises	1493 kcal	539 kcal	64%	63.9g
Carciofi alla Giudia	vegetables	461 kcal	196 kcal	57%	9.8g
Fried Aubergine Slices	vegetables	197 kcal	79 kcal	60%	1.7g
Beetroot and Walnut Salad	vegetables	369 kcal	146 kcal	60%	3.9g
Apple Cake	pudding	625 kcal	460 kcal	26%	7.3g
Cheese Blintzes	pudding	455 kcal	209 kcal	54%	17.2g
Sufganiyot	pudding	517 kcal	362 kcal	30%	10.9g
Hamantaschen	pudding	351 kcal	182 kcal	48%	5.7g

The ones I wouldn't touch

Dishes drafted for this book that didn't survive. If every dish survived lightening, that chapter would be a marketing device and you should trust none of the rest.

Matzo Balls

A matzo ball is matzo meal, egg and fat, and the fat is what makes it a floater rather than a sinker. Cut it and the ball gets tight and heavy, which is the opposite of what anyone wants. I got 8% off and lost the texture that is the entire argument about this dish in every family that makes it. Make them the way your grandmother did and have one instead of three.

Pickled Cucumbers

Pickled cucumbers are cucumbers in salt water. 24 kcal a serving before and after, because there is nothing in them to remove. They are the best thing on the deli counter and they are free.

Smoked Salmon

Smoked salmon is a fish, salt and smoke. At 436 kcal a serving with 41g of protein it is not light, and it is also not something I can change: there is no third ingredient to take out. Buy the offcuts, serve less of it, and stop reading this page.

Rye Bread

Rye bread is flour, water, salt and time. At 221 kcal per 100g it is bread, and bread is not the problem. Every version I made with more protein in it came out heavier and tasted like a health-food loaf. Buy a good sour rye from a Polish or Jewish bakery and put less butter on it.

Braised Red Cabbage

Braised red cabbage came out 21% lighter with the protein for the calories falling. That is what happens when you take the fat and sugar out of a dish that is otherwise cabbage: a smaller number and nothing gained. At 155 kcal a serving it was never the problem on the plate.

Pumpernickel Bread

Pumpernickel is rye, water and a very long slow bake. Same answer as the rye bread: 198 kcal per 100g, nothing added, nothing to remove. The dark colour is time in the oven rather than treacle, whatever the supermarket version suggests.

Carrot and Orange Salad

Carrot and orange salad is grated carrot, orange and lemon juice, at 60 kcal a serving. It came back at 60 kcal every time. There is nothing here.

Where the numbers come from

FoodData Central, SR Legacy Release (April 2018). U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. Public domain (U.S. Government work).
McCance & Widdowson's Composition of Foods Integrated Dataset (CoFID) 2021. Public Health England / Office for Health Improvement and Disparities. Open Government Licence v3.0.
FoodData Central, Branded Foods (October 2024 release). U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. Public domain (U.S. Government work).

Retrieved 2026-08-21. Nothing in these books is dietary or medical advice. Danny Vale is a cook.