This is no way to say other food varieties aren't diet friendly. On the contrary, I only know a lot about Indian, that too, South Indian cooking, and thus I thought I will post little bit about it. But I have to tell you, they are very rich in Carbohydrates and thus not too good for those doing low-Carb.
In South India, the main staple food is rice (White rice). This is usually boiled without any prior processing in 2 portions of water. This serves as the basic to which other sauces and sides are added to give us the full meal. Thus you have the main element prepared oil-free!
The side sauces, which you would add to the cooked rice, are of different varieties. There is a thick one (called 'Kuzhambu') and a thin, watery one (called 'Rasam'). Usually people eat the thick one with rice in a serving first, and then the thin one in the next serving, again with rice. The thick, gravy like one is prepared with Tamarind paste and a generous serving of cooked 'dhal' (pulses) such as 'Bengal Gram Dhal'. The pulses and legumes are rich in protein and since White rice by itself is not a complete protein, mixing the dhal this way with the White rice is believed to enhance the quality of overall proteins by substituting each other and this way the end product is said to have high quality proteins in them. The thick gravy-like 'Kuzhambu' is prepared with just a tsp or 2 of oil, if you will, for as much quantity of the liquid you want to prepare! The oil is just for frying few mustard seeds, some chillies and some fenugreek seeds, so it does not really take much oil even if you were to prepare a load of this thick soup like gravy that could serve 4! And you add a lot of vegetables to this gravy -- so it tastes good. There is a special spice powder for this available at the market and provided you have Tamarind paste, Bengal gram dhal (which you have to pressure cook) and this spice powder, you can prepare this gravy (called 'Sambar') in a jiffy (< 20 min). There are variants (traditionally known by the name 'Kuzhambu') to this Sambar which do not use the dhal (pulses) and they too do not need much oil. You traditionally mix a scoop or 2 of this gravy in a bowl-full of White rice and bingo! you have a very fulfilling high-carb, nearly 0 fat recipe that would leave you feeling full the entire afternoon!
And next the 'Rasam' - the 'soup'. This also needs Tamarind paste and boiled Bengal gram dhal but the spice mix (sold at the market) for this is different and this is watery without vegetables. Again this uses close to 0 oil, except for 1/2 tsp for an entire can of soup for cracking mustard seeds for seasoning!
To both the above rices, we typically have a curry for sidedish. The curry is prepared with about 1 tbsp of oil for a serving size of 4, to which cut vegetables are added along with salt, red chillie powder and Turmeric powder. The whole meal uses a little bit of oil only from this sidedish, since it involves oil for preparation. If you want to avoid oil, you can boil the vegetables and spice them up!
For breakfast, typically in South India, we cook 'Idlis' - these are steamed Rice + Urad dhal patties, pressure cooked to give them soft consistency. They need absolutely no oil and thus have no fat in them, rich in protein coming from the dhal and easy to digest. A variant to 'Idli' is 'Dosa' - which uses the same batter (actually with slight variation during processing) but this dosa needs oil as it is individually prepared like pancakes in the pan. Other breakfast varieties that would use minimal oil are 'Kichadi' also known as 'Upma' (prepared with 'Sooji'/'Rava'), Rice sticks known as 'Sevai' or 'Idiappam' and other variants of Upma prepared with Vermicelli sticks called 'Vermicelli Upma'.
Our typical South Indian dessert is 'Payasam' prepared with a tiny bit of 'Ghee' for processing/frying cashews ( little bit) and dry raisins, but other than that, need totally no fat in them extra even if you were to prepare a big bucket full of them!
But Indian food in general, are still rich in calories coming from Carbohydrates. Up in North India, people prepare 'Wheat Chapathis' which are like Tortillas and 'Pulkas' which are totally devoid of oil. There are a lot of North Indian side dishes typically used with these Chapathis which can be made with very, very little oil and can give tremendous filling satisfaction, such as the famous Chick peas curry (Chana Masala), Dhal Makhani, Palak Paneer and so forth...
So, in all, if you can experiment a bit, and love spicy food, you can try Indian food and make it your lunch, breakfast, dinner or dessert during one of those strictly dieting days and still have all the fun eating fulfilling, nutritionally rich food!
However, at Indian restaurants, they add way too much oil, especially to North Indian side dishes (Chana Masala, Dhal Makhani, Palak Paneer...) so dieters need to stay away from restaurant food!
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Thanks for such a thorough post. Do you cook for yourself at home? I work with an Indian lady, and she cooks a lot, and even convinced me to buy a pressure cooker.
I have noticed that Indian restaurant food usually causes me to gain weight unless I stick with tandoori chicken.
Thanks for such a thorough post. Do you cook for yourself at home? I work with an Indian lady, and she cooks a lot, and even convinced me to buy a pressure cooker.
I have noticed that Indian restaurant food usually causes me to gain weight unless I stick with tandoori chicken.
That's correct! I cook at home every single day! In the morn I make the White rice with the curry and gravy and for dinner I make the Tortilla-like thing without oil. (Which is why my kitchen is hardly sparkly clean... it is too much of a chore to cook twice everyday and clean the kitchen alongside).
If you go for veg South Indian food in restaurants such as 'Udupi Bhavan', perhaps you can avoid some extra fattening food... not that all North Indian food served in restaurants are fattening, but I noticed at the restaurants they add more cream, nut-cream, and such to make the gravy tasty which may not be desirable for dieters...
I haven't seen to many slim Indian men? Have you? I disagree and think most their food, The Good Stuff, is high carb, high calorie, and very yummy.But I couldn't live on that diet or I would weigh like 300 Lbs, and spreading slowly even more.........
Last edited by 1Bluerose68; 02-22-2015 at 02:31 PM.
That's correct! I cook at home every single day! In the morn I make the White rice with the curry and gravy and for dinner I make the Tortilla-like thing without oil. (Which is why my kitchen is hardly sparkly clean... it is too much of a chore to cook twice everyday and clean the kitchen alongside).
If you go for veg South Indian food in restaurants such as 'Udupi Bhavan', perhaps you can avoid some extra fattening food... not that all North Indian food served in restaurants are fattening, but I noticed at the restaurants they add more cream, nut-cream, and such to make the gravy tasty which may not be desirable for dieters...
Ouch, I feel like I'm gaining weight just reading about this food.
This is no way to say other food varieties aren't diet friendly. On the contrary, I only know a lot about Indian, that too, South Indian cooking, and thus I thought I will post little bit about it. But I have to tell you, they are very rich in Carbohydrates and thus not too good for those doing low-Carb.
In South India, the main staple food is rice (White rice). This is usually boiled without any prior processing in 2 portions of water. This serves as the basic to which other sauces and sides are added to give us the full meal. Thus you have the main element prepared oil-free!
The side sauces, which you would add to the cooked rice, are of different varieties. There is a thick one (called 'Kuzhambu') and a thin, watery one (called 'Rasam'). Usually people eat the thick one with rice in a serving first, and then the thin one in the next serving, again with rice. The thick, gravy like one is prepared with Tamarind paste and a generous serving of cooked 'dhal' (pulses) such as 'Bengal Gram Dhal'. The pulses and legumes are rich in protein and since White rice by itself is not a complete protein, mixing the dhal this way with the White rice is believed to enhance the quality of overall proteins by substituting each other and this way the end product is said to have high quality proteins in them. The thick gravy-like 'Kuzhambu' is prepared with just a tsp or 2 of oil, if you will, for as much quantity of the liquid you want to prepare! The oil is just for frying few mustard seeds, some chillies and some fenugreek seeds, so it does not really take much oil even if you were to prepare a load of this thick soup like gravy that could serve 4! And you add a lot of vegetables to this gravy -- so it tastes good. There is a special spice powder for this available at the market and provided you have Tamarind paste, Bengal gram dhal (which you have to pressure cook) and this spice powder, you can prepare this gravy (called 'Sambar') in a jiffy (< 20 min). There are variants (traditionally known by the name 'Kuzhambu') to this Sambar which do not use the dhal (pulses) and they too do not need much oil. You traditionally mix a scoop or 2 of this gravy in a bowl-full of White rice and bingo! you have a very fulfilling high-carb, nearly 0 fat recipe that would leave you feeling full the entire afternoon!
And next the 'Rasam' - the 'soup'. This also needs Tamarind paste and boiled Bengal gram dhal but the spice mix (sold at the market) for this is different and this is watery without vegetables. Again this uses close to 0 oil, except for 1/2 tsp for an entire can of soup for cracking mustard seeds for seasoning!
To both the above rices, we typically have a curry for sidedish. The curry is prepared with about 1 tbsp of oil for a serving size of 4, to which cut vegetables are added along with salt, red chillie powder and Turmeric powder. The whole meal uses a little bit of oil only from this sidedish, since it involves oil for preparation. If you want to avoid oil, you can boil the vegetables and spice them up!
For breakfast, typically in South India, we cook 'Idlis' - these are steamed Rice + Urad dhal patties, pressure cooked to give them soft consistency. They need absolutely no oil and thus have no fat in them, rich in protein coming from the dhal and easy to digest. A variant to 'Idli' is 'Dosa' - which uses the same batter (actually with slight variation during processing) but this dosa needs oil as it is individually prepared like pancakes in the pan. Other breakfast varieties that would use minimal oil are 'Kichadi' also known as 'Upma' (prepared with 'Sooji'/'Rava'), Rice sticks known as 'Sevai' or 'Idiappam' and other variants of Upma prepared with Vermicelli sticks called 'Vermicelli Upma'.
Our typical South Indian dessert is 'Payasam' prepared with a tiny bit of 'Ghee' for processing/frying cashews ( little bit) and dry raisins, but other than that, need totally no fat in them extra even if you were to prepare a big bucket full of them!
But Indian food in general, are still rich in calories coming from Carbohydrates. Up in North India, people prepare 'Wheat Chapathis' which are like Tortillas and 'Pulkas' which are totally devoid of oil. There are a lot of North Indian side dishes typically used with these Chapathis which can be made with very, very little oil and can give tremendous filling satisfaction, such as the famous Chick peas curry (Chana Masala), Dhal Makhani, Palak Paneer and so forth...
So, in all, if you can experiment a bit, and love spicy food, you can try Indian food and make it your lunch, breakfast, dinner or dessert during one of those strictly dieting days and still have all the fun eating fulfilling, nutritionally rich food!
Just thought of sharing!
Thanks for reading & regards.
Well, the Buffets which I have visited serve only white rice, and very heavy meat, and almost all the veggies are fried, and the juices to put over the rice and main dish is very heavy too. The only light ingredient i have seen is the tea.
Well, the Buffets which I have visited serve only white rice, and very heavy meat, and almost all the veggies are fried, and the juices to put over the rice and main dish is very heavy too. The only light ingredient i have seen is the tea.
That is correct! The food they serve at Indian restaurants are all made with many times the needed amount of oil/fat, cream, etc. May not be a good idea for dieters to dine in them.
The South Indian foods mentioned in the OP (Idli, etc) are very low in fat or use 0 fat. Home-cooking these recipes or ordering only these when in restaurants may be good.
Well, the Buffets which I have visited serve only white rice, and very heavy meat, and almost all the veggies are fried, and the juices to put over the rice and main dish is very heavy too. The only light ingredient i have seen is the tea.
I feel like that's because what you're eating is the "Americanized" restaurant food. That being said, most restaurants have at least one or two low(ish) calorie options.
Great post. I looooooove Indian food, and I agree it's a great diet meal Makes me feel like I'm "cheating" even though its usually pretty low calorie. Now if only I was better at cooking (haha) because yeah, the restaurant food is pretty obviously high-calorie/not as quality.
Bignomore71- Thank you for sharing about Indian food and how you cook it! I enjoyed reading your post. We have an Indian Buffet here in my city and it is DELICIOUS. Yes, the choices can be high fat (cream, oil) but after you go a few times you can figure out what is best for your diet. They have chicken w/out curry and a salad bar, plus curries with chickpeas and only veggies. So very delicious!
superherothin and veil - Thanks for your replies! Well, I just thought of making some rather unknown Indian food varieties better known. They aren't that famous because South Indian restaurants aren't as many as those that serve North Indian food.
I was getting little apprehensive whether I had made sort of an offensive post, you eased it!
I only wish I knew as much about other recipes too - Italian, Chinese, etc. since I am a food-lover who likes to cook and if only I knew a lot of different varieties, I can try cooking them in their low-cal version and make really interesting posts in the Food section here...
I apologize if this is a stupid question, but is spicy sort of a staple of Indian food? My boyfriend and I don't really do spicy, but I want to do a curry. I'm pretty inexperienced in the kitchen, so I just go by recipes.. however the curry recipes I've seen all end up spicy. Any suggestions? I'd love to try some stuff.
Also, agreed about restaurant food. I think that goes for all categories though. Mexican food can be awesome for diets, as can some Italian (even pizza!) but getting it from a restaurant it's usually high in fat and oils. Even salads can be on the high calorie side at a restaurant!
Sunarie - Most Indian food are unfortunately on the spicy side... the South Indian ones are even more so! Basically the powder they prepare (Garam Masala, Sambar powder, Rasam powder, etc) for flavor and for taste contains lots of Red Chillies and also Pepper along with it. If you decide to cut down on them to go bland, that does not work with the recipes because they (the South Indian ones which I am most familiar with) invariably use Tamarind paste, and tomatoes which makes the recipe crave for something hot like the Chillies and Pepper!
I think this is the reason they use way much more cream, etc at the restaurants because they neutralize the hotness and give a blander tasting product!
I once tried giving my Italian friend a South Indian dish, as she was a fan of Thai food and was kinda familiar with Asian foods, she became all teary-eyed due to the spice content!
But the recipes like Idli and Upma are pretty bland tasting. If you have tried Indian food and like it, I really suggest you to try eating these recipes -- because they are blander and are low in fat compared to other recipes. (By the way, the Idli is a very interesting recipe - once you make the batter for it, you can store it up to 1 week in the refrigerator and use it as and when you need to make a fresh batch in about 5 - 10 min.).
Sorry I was not too much help, as such I do not know much varieties other than the South Indian ones...
Absolutely loved this post, thank you for sharing. I love Indian food.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 1Bluerose68
I haven't seen to many slim Indian men? Have you? I disagree and think most their food, The Good Stuff, is high carb, high calorie, and very yummy.But I couldn't live on that diet or I would weigh like 300 Lbs, and spreading slowly even more.........
I find this to be a strange inquiry and I won't touch why only men were considered.
The same could be said of any other group of people in the world. Are all Americans overweight and unhealthy? Are all French people slim and healthy? Further, we could each eat the same components of a meal and yet, I'm overweight (healthy or not), but you're slim (healthy or not). The difference between the two meals? Portion size.
Bignomore71- Thank you for your post, I love Indian food. We have a ton of great places in my city, especially in my neighborhood, off the top of my head I can think of 8 that are a 10 minute or less drive for me. There is this spicy onion relish/chutney that most of them serve with the appetizers, I'm obsessed with it. I've tried to find a recipe online for it to no avail. I think it is North Indian but I'm not sure, do you happen to know what I'm talking about?
Indian food is diet-friendly
