Taste Of The Town: Home Cooking With Celebrity Chef Ingrid Hoffman

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – We're celebrating the joys of Latin cooking with local celebrity chef and author Ingrid Hoffmann.

She is preparing in her kitchen two recipes from her newest cookbook, her 5th to date.

This one called "Latin Comfort Foods Made Healthy". The idea started with Ingrid wanting to heal herself.

"I am a lupus warrior and changing how I ate I changed my life so I literally got my life back, I was extremely sick. Once I proved to myself that I lived in my own skin how different you can feel when you change how you eat it 's like you can't NOT spread that message.  It becomes your mission to help people," Hoffmann told CBS4's Lisa Petrillo.

"Let's start by putting in green onions, red pepper s mushrooms and instead of doing fried eggs, I only used 1 yolk and egg whites," she said while starting a recipe.

The book, which has a seal of approval by The American Diabetes Association features more than 100 latin inspired recipes like his one called Peruvian Chaufa.

Ingrid has upped the vegetable count for fiber, substituted cooked quinoa for fried rice and has completely lightened up the dish without losing its flavor.

"One of the things I'm telling people is this is not about eating lettuce with lime or grilled fish, I'm telling you lets have a Peruvian Chaufa but come and I'm going to show you how to make it like amazingly healthy, so you can still enjoy all these foods that we love," she said.

The Peruvian Chaufa with grass-fed skirt steak and all those vegetables and quinoa instead of rice doesn't miss a beat, nor do you miss the rice.

"Listen you're not missing anything, you've got all the flavors there. It's guilt-free," said Ingrid.

"We love guilt free!" Said Petrillo.

Tired of the same old salad with heavy dressing?  Her artichoke salad is lettuce free.

It's a bowl of chopped cucumbers, mini peppers, artichokes, and avocado, mixed with greek yogurt and fresh dill.

"I can eat this on a daily basis," said Petrillo.

"Well you're supposed to," said Ingrid laughing.

"For me the spices and herbs and I think the dill makes a difference and the quality of the Greek yogurt is must," Ingrid explained.

This bilingual collection of recipes which include all meals plus snacks and desserts has something for every palette.  For Ingrid, it's about sharing her tips to get you on your way to eating healthy.

"The idea is once you get the hang of the tips and tricks you start applying them to your daily life and your recipes," she explained.

Latin Foods Made Healthy is available locally at Book and Books and online.