by Susan Greatorex

Sauce (sôs) n. A liquid dressing served with food.

The dictionary makes sauce sound simple, but it can be many things. A sauce can be hot or cold — think gravy or salad dressing — chunky or creamy, sweet or savory. You can put it over, under or on the side, depending on your mood and your food.

The idea is to dress up a meal’s look as well as its flavor. Picture burgundy cranberry sauce with fresh turkey or zesty red cocktail sauce with shrimp.

What you don’t want is too many sauces at one time with competing sensations. Other than that, you can be a saucier cook by using your imagination to combine color and ingredients you like.

“I’m always trying to help people find ways to add veggies to their meals, and putting them in sauces is a great way to do it,” says Philadelphia dietitian Althea Zanecosky, R.D. (The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s guidelines call for 21/2 cups of vegetables a day.)

“Tomatoes are a great source of vitamin C and the cancer-fighting compound lycopene as well as potassium,” she says. But the best thing about your own sauce is how good fresh ingredients taste with no added salt or sugar.

Being smart about sauces doesn’t mean you can never have the rich ones again, she adds. Just go easy on how much you eat at one time and how often you treat yourself.

Sauce on the Side

• What’s in a name? Salsa is what Mexicans call sauce. Coulis is a French word for any thick, strained sauce. Pesto is Italian for what the French call pistou — they’re both uncooked sauces made with fresh basil, garlic, olive oil and grated cheese. A little goes a long way.
• You say tomato ... Tomatoes play a big role in Italian sauces — from the simplest marinara to the heartiest Bolognese meat sauce. But watch the lingo. The elegant vitello tonnato isn’t tomato at all, but veal in a sauce made with puréed tuna.
• Something fishy. Tartar sauce and remoulade have the same mayonnaise base, minced pickles, onions and herbs. Remoulade adds anchovies and might call for homemade mayo. You can make a healthy tartar sauce by stirring a tablespoon of India relish into a half-cup of reduced-fat mayonnaise and adding a squeeze of lemon juice.
• The rich classics. Hollandaise — think asparagus or eggs Benedict — is always a rich, creamy sauce made with butter, egg yolks and lemon juice. Add tomato purée and minced parsley to hollandaise sauce and you get figaro sauce, perfect for fish or poultry.
• Tools of the trade. You can use a mortar and pestle or a blender to grind the ingredients for your pesto. Inexpensive strainers take out the seeds. A food mill is a nice, nonelectric tool to purée cooked vegetables. To serve with flair, use a plastic condiment bottle to squirt your sauce on the plate in an appealing design.

FRESH MUSHROOM SAUCE
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup chopped onions
2 cups chopped mushrooms
1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
¾ cup vegetable broth
½ cup fresh parsley
½ cup reduced-fat sour cream

Skip high-sodium canned soups and make your own with fresh mushrooms. You can use white buttons, portobellos, shiitakes or an assortment. Darker mushrooms add more flavor. You can vary the herbs, but add them and the sour cream after your mushrooms are cooked to retain flavor and color. Don’t cook the sour cream — it will separate.

Directions
Heat olive oil in saucepan. Add onions. Cook until translucent. Add mushrooms and soy sauce and cook about five minutes over medium heat. Add vegetable broth. Cook for two more minutes. Put the cooked mixture in a blender, add parsley and blend on high for 10 to 15 seconds or until you get the desired consistency. Stir in sour cream.

Makes two cups of sauce. Pour over pasta or serve with grilled meat, chicken or fish. Each half-cup serving contains about 52 calories, 1.5 grams protein, 4 grams fat, 6 milligrams cholesterol, 4 grams carbohydrate, 1 gram fiber and 161 milligrams sodium.

FRESH TOMATO SAUCE
1 14 ½ -ounce can of no-salt added diced tomatoes (or 11/2 cups fresh chopped tomatoes — seeds and skin removed)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
1 tablespoon finely chopped red onion
½ teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil

You can buy tomato sauce in a jar, but why do that when you can make your own? In summer, use fresh ripe tomatoes. But for a fresh taste any time of year and easy fixing, use a can of diced tomatoes. Be sure to get the no-salt-added variety. You can use this sauce for bruschetta, as a spread on crackers, as a side to grilled chicken or fish, or in a mix with chunky pasta. Blend it and it becomes a perfect dipping sauce for vegetables, breadsticks and garlic rounds.

Directions
If using fresh tomatoes, chop to desired size. If using canned tomatoes, drain juice. (Petite-cut diced tomatoes are the ideal size for bruschetta.) Mix all ingredients and refrigerate until ready to use, or use immediately. To make the dipping sauce, put it in a blender and blend on high about 10 seconds.

Makes four servings. Each serving contains about 24 calories, less than a gram protein, 1 gram fat, no cholesterol, 3 grams carbohydrate, 1 gram fiber and 5 milligrams sodium.

FRESH LEMON BROCCOLI
PESTO-STYLE SAUCE 1 cup cooked broccoli pieces 1 tablespoon lemon zest 1 tablespoon chopped walnuts 1/4 cup vegetable broth 1/3 cup plain nonfat yogurt
1 cup cooked broccoli pieces
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1 tablespoon chopped walnuts
¼ cup vegetable broth
⅓ cup plain nonfat yogurt

If you only serve broccoli florettes, here’s a good way to use the stems. You can use this sauce on top of steamed vegetables or thinned with additional broth as a salad dressing. For a dessert sauce, substitute fresh fruit (pineapple, peaches or mangoes) and juice for broccoli and broth.

Directions
If you’re using the broccoli stems, peel them and cut them into chunks. Rinse, cover dish with plastic wrap and microwave for three minutes. Put all ingredients in blender and blend for about 20 seconds. If mixture is too thick, add a little more vegetable broth. Serve hot or cold.

Makes four half-cup servings. Each serving contains about 39 calories, 3 grams protein, 1 gram fat, no cholesterol, 5 grams carbohydrate, 2 grams fiber and 90 milligrams sodium.

INTEGRIS Health 3300 N.W. Expressway, Oklahoma City, OK 73112 (405) 949-3011 | HealthLine: (888) 951-2277