1. Keeping it Green
One way to pick low-calorie vegetables is to judge the vegetable's color. Green veggies offer many options which contain very little calories. As an example, one cup of romaine lettuce has approximately nine calories without any dressing. Additional low-calorie green vegetables include celery, spinach, cabbage and cucumbers. If you eat a half of a large cucumber or a cup of celery, you're consuming as few as 20 calories. Eating one cup of cabbage contains only 32 calories while a cup of spinach has 40 calories.
2. Stay Away From the Starches
Vegetables that contain a lot of starch often have more calories than their low starch counterparts. If you're counting calories, you'll want to steer clear of the starchy veggies. On average, one cup of a starchy vegetable contains 150 calories compared to an average of 25 to 50 calories for non-starch vegetables. In the starch group, you'll find butternut squash, acorn squash, any variety of potato, corn, peas and parsnips. Non-starch vegetables consist of lettuce, broccoli, turnips, green peppers, celery, cucumbers and cauliflower.
3. Pick the Summer Vegetables
You can pick low-calorie vegetables by sticking to summertime vegetables. As an example, a cup of summer squash contains about 30 calories. Enjoy zucchini in the summer and rest assured that it has less than 30 calories as well. Additional low calories veggies include mushrooms, radishes and tomatoes. If you like your mushrooms cooked, you can prepare them in a pan with non-fat cooking spray. After cooking, a cup of mushroom has about 40 calories. Radishes have very few calories and you can eat a 1/2 cup and take in only 10 calories. Many people enjoy eating tomatoes during the summer months. Enjoy an entire medium sized tomato and take in only 25 calories.
4. Keep the Veggies Low-calorie
Although you may pick out low-calorie vegetables to serve, you need to watch how you prepare them after you bring them home. Many dishes start out low-calorie, but end up with a high caloric count after preparation. To keep your veggies low-calorie, cook them in non-fat cooking sprays instead of butter or oil. You can also keep calorie count low by grilling or roasting your vegetable dishes. Use seasonings instead of high-calorie dressings to season your veggies. Herbs and ground pepper can add a lot of flavor to low-calorie vegetable dishes.
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