If you’re on a diet, or just a general mission to eat healthy, dessert can be a sore subject. At most restaurants, you’re forced to settle on a bowl of fresh fruit (which is, usually, overpoweringly comprised of various melons). At office parties, you watch passively as everyone else gorges on cake. You can’t even remember what your mother’s famous apple pie tastes like – despite the fact that she makes it for every major holiday. You’ve given up on the idea of a “safe” dessert, one that doesn’t dose your body with toxic amounts of sugar or blow your calorie count for the rest of the week.
The bad news is that you’re right. There’s no such thing as a safe dessert. The good news is that Dallas has some delicious options that are pretty darn close: they’re not perfectly healthy, but they’re great alternatives that’ll sate your sweet tooth while saving on sugar, calories, and unhealthy fat. Here are five spots to enjoy better desserts:
- Spiral Diner
This restauraunt has a great selection of homemade i-scream (vegan ice cream) selections, including sundaes, floats, and banana splits. Their vegan shakes and almond milk–based dessert smoothies are awesome, and they always have delicious baked goods (cookies, cake, brownies, etc.) in their baked goods case. All their desserts are 100 percent vegan and created with unbleached flour, organic unrefined sugar, and non-hydrogenated oil. - Seasons 52
I love this spot for its selection of alternative diet menus. Try one of their colorful mini dessert options – like the s’more (290 calories, 8 grams of fat) or the lemon curd with fresh blueberries (190 calories, 11 grams of fat). - Red Mango
There are plenty of frozen yogurt chains in the Dallas area, and they’re a great enjoy to get a feel-good dessert without a lot of calories. Red Mango’s menu includes “Skinny Sorbettos” – their large dark chocolate is only 190 calories and even contains probiotics. TCBY lists the nutritional values of all its gluten-free flavors on its website, and has four dairy-free options (vanilla, chocolate, almond nog, and coconut). - Reverie
This Richardson-based, all-vegan, cholesterol-free bakeshop that serves dairy-free ice cream, cookies, pastries, and other treats, including the Raw Vegan Red Velvet Donut. - Rise no1
For a low-calorie but still-filling dessert, try a sweet soufflé from this shop. Their selection includes apricot, bread pudding, chocolate, and strawberry, and the desserts range from 122 to 317 calories. Warning: Soufflé is made from eggs (both white and yolk), so if you’re looking to avoid animal products, this isn’t the dessert for you.
And of course, don’t forget to talk to the employees of these fine establishments. They can provide exact nutritional information or help you find something that suits your specific dietary constraints.
