If you've decided to cook up some delicious duck breast for dinner, figuring out some slimming world tasty side dishes to pair it with is important so you can keep within your syn allowance.
We've done the hard work for you below, rounding up some tasty sides to cook with your delicious duck dinner below, along with their syn values to keep you on track with your diet.
Before we get into some convenient side dishes to have with your duck meat, let's quickly discuss if duck meat itself is healthy to help with your weight loss.
Most of the time, duck breast is low in calories as long as it is cooked without olive oil and the fat is all trimmed off, duck ordered from takeaway restaurants is likely, not healthy, the same goes for a duck with sauce since it often has extra calories.
If you wondering what to serve with your duck roast or duck breast, we've listed some excellent sides for you to pair with your meal below.
Slimming world chips/air fryer chips make a fantastic side dish to pair with duck breast, whether you are following the SW plan or not.
These chips are healthy and syn free since they are air fried with little to no oil, you can also make duck-fat fries with the fat from duck when cooking, these however are more unhealthy.
You can add a few sprays of low cal cooking spray to crisp them up or cook them in the oven, avoid traditionally fried chips since these are high in syns due to the fat content.
If you're having roasted duck instead of turkey or chicken at the weekend, you could easily pair this juicy duck meat with some Yorkshire puddings.
You can also make your Yorkshires at home with oat flour and milk, making them much healthier and syn free!
Quinoa is often raved about in the health world due to it being a wholegrain, full of fibre and protein. It also makes a great pairing to duck, combined with some roasted vegetables.
If you are buying microwave packets from the supermarket, they will often have extra calories since they contain oil inside to keep the grains separate.
If you're looking for a great side to soak up all the flavour from the duck juices on your plate, simple mashed potatoes are a great choice and healthy too as long as you are not using butter to mash it with. You can add milk and crushed garlic to make it creamier.
Have you ever tried a duck breast wrap? This could be an excellent weeknight comfort meal with some stir-fried veggies thrown inside and hoisin sauce for flavour.
Roasted vegetables make a healthy and nutritious side, to spice up the flavour with your duck you could add balsamic vinegar or spices and roast them together for a quick and spontaneous meal.
Garlic mushrooms complement roasted meat like duck breast well, avoid butter if you're trying to cut back on syns and calories.
Pair with rice or couscous for some healthy carbs and garlic seasonings.
Noodles with some homemade soy sauce or hoisin sauce can make a great Asian-style meal, throw in some stir-fried or roasted veggies for extra nutrition.
Cooking up some rice in some spices or mixed with some sauteed veggies makes a colourful side dish to your duck breast and soaks up all the lovely juices.
Saying this, we recommend cooking your savoury rice as a simple dish since microwave savoury rice packs are often higher in fat due to the additional ingredients and oil in them, plus home-cooked always tastes better!
Honey-roasted carrots are the perfect summery meal addition to duck breast, you can use baby carrots and oven-roast them in a few tablespoons of honey to make sweet caramelized carrots.
Couscous is a popular dish to have with any kind of roasted meat, it's a lighter side dish and healthy too, you could mix it with veggies or have the dish with citrus for a great summer-inspired meal.
If you're not keen on having a heavy dish as a side, you could always whip up a simple crispy vegetable dish for some greens and a quick side dish. All veggies are a great source of fibre and nutrition.
You could use apple cider vinegar or even balsamic vinegar as a dressing, do note that some store-bought dressings and balsamic glaze contain extra oil and sugar, however.
Dauphinoise potatoes make a great holiday side dish and an accompaniment to meat, the creamy rich potatoes cut through the duck juices making a wholesome dish and can even be made in advance for an easy dinner.
If you're looking for a complete meal to make at home with your duck breast, we have an excellent recipe below for an Asian-style dinner with noodles.
This whole recipe serves four people.
To conclude, duck breast is healthy lean protein once the skin and fat are removed from the meat and can be a good dish to have on diets like the SW plan when paired with a vegetable sides dish like salad, honey roasted carrots or potatoes.
We recommend cooking duck breast by either searing it or roasting it, this ensures the meat doesn't dry out upon serving.
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