Indian food is known for its rich aroma and mouth-watering taste. In India, we have a wide variety of masalas and curry mixes which make use of potent food stuffs like coconut, peanut, cashew nuts and more. We also do not have much control over the quantity of oil or ghee we use for curries as well as sweets. Much worse, we do not have the practice of eating partially cooked or raw vegetables as salads.
When you eat a north-indian dish like Paneer Butter masala or Makhani you are probably giving nothing nutritional to your body. A lot of chutney or coconut based south Indian dish is just in fact contributing well to your cholesterol! North Indian dishes are made of a lot of oil, cream or pasted cashew. Though they contain vegetables and spices they are mostly deep fried or nearly soaked in oil.
If you are watching over your weight o planning to lose weight here are some tips to use in your own kitchen.
- It always works best if you stop eating out and start trying out delicious recipes at home. You can limit the use of ingredients like oil or salt when you cook on your own.
- Use vegetable oil instead of coconut oil, ghee or the like. Saute them in little oil or stir-fry them instead of deep-fry. This will prevent them from over-cooking and losing their vitamins and minerals.
- Do not overcook vegetables.
- Always cook your food on low heat.
- If you like dal or lentils cook them without oil or thadka with salt and green chillies. Use coriander leaves for garnish and have this dal along with rice or chappathi.
- Add some spinach and spices to your rice and make some spinach rice (pulao) for lunch.
- Have a carrot salad.
- Limit non-vegetarian especially red meat. For protein, you can take tofu which also replaces paneer in a healthy vegetarian diet.
Leave a Reply