Indian Food as Part of a Weight Loss Regime

Most people think that you can’t possibly eat Indian food, if you’re on a slimming diet. That’s a fair statement if you always eat Indian food in restaurants, because many traditional Indian recipes involve either deep frying or the use of ghee (clarified butter). However, if you cook Indian food at home, it can easily form part of a weight loss regime, just the same as any other food. You just need to follow a few simple general rules.
- Avoid altogether recipes which involve deep frying.
- If you need to seal meat before braising it for a curry, use a good non-stick pan and a spray bottle with sunflower or vegetable oil in it. Lightly spray the surface of your pan with oil and that should be enough to prevent the meat from sticking while you brown it.
- If a recipe includes cream or coconut cream, substitute plain yoghurt and another flavouring to replace the coconut.
Tandoori recipes are great as part of a low calorie or low carbohydrate diet. Just marinade some fish (cubed or whole), chicken (cubed or in pieces) or prawns (shrimp) in a mixture of low fat plain yogurt, ground turmeric, ground coriander, ground cumin, crushed garlic, grated root ginger and a little chilli powder (or to taste) for at least an hour. If you’re using cubed meat, thread onto skewers. Grill or barbeque with a medium heat until done. Serve with mixed salad and wedges of lemon to squeeze over. If your diet isn’t too severe, you can also have a pitta bread, a baked potato or some boiled rice with this.
Curry dishes are fine too (preferably fish or chicken). If you use a recipe which has just a spice and water base or a tomato base, it certainly won’t do your calorie intake any harm but be sure to keep the oil you use for frying onions, spices or whatever, to an absolute minimum.
For vegetarians or those trying to cut down on meat because of its relatively high calorie content, Indian cooking is ideal. There are so many recipes for vegetables and pulses which are really tasty that you won’t even know you’re on a diet!
Don’t forget paneer (Indian cottage cheese), which can be cooked as per the tandoori idea above, or in a spicy sauce. If you can’t get paneer, try substituting tofu.

Indian Snack Food

Indian children love the Khomcha-Wallah. He wanders the streets, the busier the better, basket of goodies on his head and a cane stool under his arm. When he encounters a likely crowd he sets down his basket on the stool and starts to trade. The basket will contain the half-prepared ingredients of what is known in northern India as chaat - savoury snacks from traditional Hindu cuisine - which may be served in a banana leaf bowl.
One item might be Aloo Chaat which is fried, golden-brown potato cubes tossed with chilli powder, roasted cumin powder and chaat masala**.
Another, Dhai Baras which are split-pea patties. They will be already fried and softened in warm water. To complete the dish the Khomcha-Wallah may add beaten, creamy plain yoghurt with salt on top, and a choice of spice mixes. One mixture will be aromatic and probably contain roasted cumin, black pepper and dried mango powder, another will be hot a fiery with chillies, another sweet and sour like tamarind chutney.
Some Indian cities have become renowned for a certain sort of chaat - Jaipur for Paapri Chaat (similar to Dhai Baras but served with cubed potatoes chick peas) and Mumbai for Pau Bahji (spicy potato and vegetable curry served in a bun) but it is Delhi which is the chaat capital of India.
Some other chaats are:
Aloo Samosa - little pastry triangles filled with a spicy mixture of small diced potatoes and peas with chillies, chilli powder, fresh coriander, cumin and garam masala.
Keema Samosa - similar to above but including minced beef or lamb.
Aloo Tikki - mashed potato mixed with peas, cumin powder, corn flour, chilli powder and salt, formed into patties and fried until crisp and golden.
Tandoori Chicken Chaat - Tandoori chicken, shredded and mixed with diced green mango, onions, green chillies, coriander leaves and chaat masala**, dressed with lemon juice, oil and chilli powder.
**Chaat Masala is a spice mix made by combining the following ingredients.
4 tsp powdered dried mango 3 tsp cumin seeds, roasted and ground 3 tsp salt ½ tsp ground black pepper 1 tsp garam masala 1 tsp coriander seeds, roasted and ground ½ tsp ground ginger ½ tsp fennel seeds, roasted and ground (optional) ¼ tsp cayenne pepper