Low Carb Indian food?
gingerkelly93
Posts: 9 Member
hi- my flatmate is ordering Indian takeout tonight and while it is my favourite i'm not sure if it'll fit into my diet!
Anyone have advice for low carb Indian foods/ best things to recommend or should I give a miss?
Anyone have advice for low carb Indian foods/ best things to recommend or should I give a miss?
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Stay away from rice and naan, obviously. Tandori chicken should be OK.0
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sag paneer (the spinach cheese thing) almost all the grilled meats (they don't use sugar in most of their marinades)
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If you want to feel really bad for a group of people, try checking out the desi keto subreddit. That is probably the saddest bunch of posts I have ever seen.
From what I can figure, about the only thing you can eat at an Indian place that isn't going to completely destroy your diet is going to be the palak / saag paneer, or the tandoori meats. They suggest asking for "light onions" in anything you order.
If egg curry is available, that might be an option...but go light on the sauce.
If gobi masala is available, that might also be an option (gobi is cauliflower).
I've made a version of palak paneer at home with extra cream that was pretty good, but it doesn't really stand up to what you get at the restaurants.
-T.
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I'd go for any meat based curry with a creamy sauce. Would just not eat the veg.0
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You should be able to do some sort of curry with broccoli.0
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Oh my goodness, saag pander is my favorite! I had no idea I could still eat it!0
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I've been having 'curry' for my dinner each night for about 4 nights. It's a sad rendition of Indian food - probably insulting actually, but it's easily made, which is what I love.
Grab a large china bowl, pour into it a tin of tuna, 100 grams coconut milk, however much curry powder I want, and other things if I fancy them like black sesame seeds, cinnamon, turmeric (they're both really healthy I believe), additional cumin to what's already in the curry powder. A little onion and maybe small sprigs of cauliflower, broc or a few beans if you want to add veg.
It's quick and easy but a loooong way from traditional true Indian food.0 -
GrannyMayOz wrote: »tuna
...
curry powder
Whoa -- this is the 2nd time this morning I've read about people doing fish & curry, and heretofore it wasn't even something I'd ever considered! The universe must be telling me something
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Tuna with curry mayo is tasty!0
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I've had real fish curry before now, in a real Indian restaurant. My version uses tuna because it's easy. And I forgot to say microwave it once assembled to heat it through, but I hope everyone presumed that anyway. Fish curry (one that's properly done) is really nice. Mine isn't bad for what it isWhoa -- this is the 2nd time this morning I've read about people doing fish & curry, and heretofore it wasn't even something I'd ever considered! The universe must be telling me something
Curry mayo? Hmmm that actually does sound nice. I found a lowish carb mayo today so I'll try adding curry powder to it. It's turning Autumn here so curry will be my friend until Spring.wheatlessgirl66 wrote: »Tuna with curry mayo is tasty!
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I used to have / make an awesomely delicious curried tofu salad before I switched to keto. I imagine it would be equally awesome with chicken or maybe tuna. Not sure.
Goa dishes often use seafood:
http://indianfood.about.com/od/fishandseafoodrecipes/r/goafishcurry.htm
I think Trader Joe's was selling Thai style curry with tuna for a while, too. There was red, yellow, and green (that's the kind I typically associate with coconut milk). Pretty tasty.
The flavours of Indian and Thai curries are VERY different. I like both. I was happy to discover that Thai curry paste doesn't have sugar, and might be low carb enough to manage. Indian curries, however, tend to have a lot of onion, tomato, garlic, ginger...and that all adds up to MOAR CARBS. If used just for flavourings and not slurped up with tons of rice, naan, roti, puri, chapati, (all popular Indian carbs served with meals) etc., I imagine it would be ok, though.
-T.
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Thanks to this thread, we had saag paneer and chicken tikka tonight. That was good. 0
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I would say anything without rice and bread. I went to a buffet (local) that had a lot of dishes and most I could have. Even the sauces are not usually sweet, it is the Chai and desserts to look out for really. I think Chapati are even low carb as they are garbanzo flour usually, but you would have to check on that.0
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I'm indian and let me tell you....the STRUGGLE is real. I have access to pretty much all the curries, naans and rice thanks to my amazing mother. Needless to say, I do not eat home cooked anymore lol.
Anyway - if you have to eat indian food, go for the meats (high protein, low carb) - Tandoori chicken, Butter Chicken is okay too (it's got whipped cream in it, I mean it's not the best but hey).
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I would say anything without rice and bread. I went to a buffet (local) that had a lot of dishes and most I could have. Even the sauces are not usually sweet, it is the Chai and desserts to look out for really. I think Chapati are even low carb as they are garbanzo flour usually, but you would have to check on that.
Im half Indian ☺ chappatis are made with wheat flour, well traditionally they are. So I'd avoid those. The real trouble with most of the curries I make at home are the large number of onions. I'm working on some less carby ones
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@Spush can you just massively reduce the onion to allow some flavour to go through but not increase the carbs as much?0
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That's why the Desi keto forum was suggesting ordering food with less onions. You'd be surprised at how much carbs are in onions. And tomatoes. And vegetables. And beans.
Even the pappadums (made with lentils and chickpeas traditionally) are going to be too much carbs.
When I say too much carbs, keep in mind that for me, I am targeting UNDER 16 g of carbs per day TOTAL. I do allow some wiggle room for net carbs, but I do not like to see it go over 20g total because I'm likely to get knocked out of ketosis and gain weight.
I feel you. The struggle IS real.
-T.
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Wow, I'm surprised at this thread. I love eating out at our local Indian, it's great for this woe. They specialise in Nepalese food so not sure if that may make a difference. They have loads of tandoori options, different meats, shashlick, mixed grills etc Loads of suitable veggie side dishes too, sag paneer, various bahjis with cauliflower, mushroom etc I obviously stay away from Naan and Poppadoms but other than that there's loads to choose from.0
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Thanks for this thread.
I can relate to the challenges one faces when trying to go low carb with Indian cuisine. I am a vegetarian and that only makes it doubly different. Before this WoE, my regular fare would be roti, rice, sabji, chick pea based fried stuff, lentils, Paneer and dairy. My cooking now has almost completely changed: Tofu, stir fry veggies, Greek Yogurt, lots of cheese, egg plant based recipes and ofcourse Salads. Our wheat flour consumption is almost zero. We still use lot of Indian spices though, which gives the flavor.
It is very different way of cooking. I have been doing this for almost 3 months and now seem to be liking it. Will be interesting to see if it is sustainable in the long run.0 -
GrannyMayOz wrote: »@Spush can you just massively reduce the onion to allow some flavour to go through but not increase the carbs as much?
Yes, sort of, most curries I make (and was taught to make) use a ground onion, ginger and garlic paste fried till golden which ends up thickening the sauce.
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DissLocated wrote: »Wow, I'm surprised at this thread. I love eating out at our local Indian, it's great for this woe. They specialise in Nepalese food so not sure if that may make a difference. They have loads of tandoori options, different meats, shashlick, mixed grills etc Loads of suitable veggie side dishes too, sag paneer, various bahjis with cauliflower, mushroom etc I obviously stay away from Naan and Poppadoms but other than that there's loads to choose from.
I guess it depends on what your carb target is. Bahjis would totally be too high for me because one serving would put me at my total carbs for the day.
I had to look up shashlick because I've never heard of that one. Looks like it's a kebab variety. Nope, we don't have those at the restaurants here. I'm often wary of kebabs because:
1) I don't know what they're marinated / brushed with.
2) Some of the "formed" meats are mixed with wheat (huge no-no for me) and/or onions which up the carb content.
All this talk about Indian food had me craving some, so I hit up the local buffet. The tandoori chicken was amazing, and the saag (creamed spinach) hit the spot. There was a cabbage dish that I thought I'd try, but it was infiltrated with a ton of cilantro which put me off (HATE cilantro - parsley's evil twin!). There was also some chicken tikka masala that I thought I'd try, but it tasted SO SWEET from the tomato sauce that I took one bite and just fished the chicken out and did my best to wipe off the sauce.
Again, really depends on what your carb target is. Most of the options are way too high for me to fit in.
-T.
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My target is under 20g net (I'm in the UK so we only have net carbs over here, thankfully!) 'Bahji' can mean different things, in this case it's not the fried stuff in chick pea flour but fairly dry vegetable curries. Shashlick is a kebab but a tandoori version so the marinade is fairly safe and they're made just of meat, nothing formed. I'm lucky in that our local Indian is a good one, good quality ingredients, no cheap fillers etc.0
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Our 2 local Indian restaurants have been serving less and less chunks of meat in more and more sauce - though still only a little over half full in those typical rectangular take-away containers as it used to cost for one full of meat! I guess this means I'm better off to make my own at home because the sauce will be heavily laden with flour and sugar?0
