Healthy Meat Substitutes

If you're not ready to go vegetarian but you're trying to cut calories from your meat intake, try these healthy meat swaps. With an eye on calories, fat, and protein, we offer smart substitutes for some of the meat world's biggest offenders.

Get our free emergency substitutions chart!

Healthy Substitutes for Meat

Ground Beef: For 1 pound ground beef, substitute 1 pound ground turkey, ground chicken breast, cooked lentils, or black beans. All of these options have less fat and a similar amount of protein. If you choose lentils or black beans for your burgers or meatballs, mash them slightly so they hold shape better.

Hamburger Patty: For each patty, substitute a Portobello mushroom.

Beef Rib-Eye: For 1 pound beef rib-eye, substitute 1 pound beef sirloin, which has half the calories and fat, and more protein.

Chicken Thighs: For 1 pound chicken thighs, substitute 1 pound chicken breast, which has less calories and fat, and an equal amount of protein.

Ground Turkey: For 1 pound ground turkey, substitute 1 pound extra-lean ground turkey. The extra-lean variety has less calories and fat, and more protein.

More Healthy Substitutes

Other ingredient substitutions

Get our free emergency substitutions chart!

Get our free healthy cooking substitutions chart!