Indian Food...suggestions?

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Mctraill
Mctraill Posts: 6 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
What is the best thing to have at the Indian restaurant that won't do to much damage. Usually I go for tikka masala or korma with pilau rice and nan bread...any suggestions?

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  • HappyStack
    HappyStack Posts: 802 Member
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    Tikka masala and korma are both two very creamy sauces.

    When I eat Indian food I either treat it as a cheat meal and eat what I want, or I go for lots of tandoori meat, a chapati and channa palak (I think?) which is spinach and chickpeas.
  • herblackwings39
    herblackwings39 Posts: 3,930 Member
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    I don't get to eat Indian food often so I usually just have smaller portions of my favourite dishes. You can order your korma or tikka masala bring part of it home for another meal.
  • suziepoo1984
    suziepoo1984 Posts: 915 Member
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    You can take anything tandoor..thats grilled and should be less oily for starters. Main course- Tandoori roti(you can ask without butter/oil) , dal and some non-cream based gravy. You can ask them to cook it in as less oil as possible. Some good restaurants do this. You can also take a side of raitha -which is yoghurt based.
    You can ask me if you need more inputs :)
  • taso42
    taso42 Posts: 8,980 Member
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    BUFFET!
  • UrbanLotus
    UrbanLotus Posts: 1,163 Member
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    Sorry to break this to you buy korma is very high cal! The gravy is made of nuts and cream - heavenly deliciousness but lets put it this way, I'm Indian and haven't had it since I started this journey in January lol. Tikka masala also has lots of cream in the gravy.

    You can keep it really low cal with tandoori items (chicken, fish, veggies; paneer is cheese so that will be higher cal), a tandoor is a clay oven so its similar to grilling, and tandoori marinade generally just has spices, maybe a bit of yogurt. Daal is very low calorie (though not daal makhani - "makhani" means butter so watch out for those dishes), also any kind of dry vegetable (gobi aloo or anything like that) will be low cal. Saag is low cal as long as it isn't "malai saag" (malai is cream...ask if they put cream in the saag) or it may have paneer in it so you need to account for that. If you want chicken/meat look for a dish with no cream, they may have like masala chicken or chicken curry which are more like the healthy dishes we cook at home - though most restaurants don't have them.

    Naan (not "naan bread" please, pet peeve! Same goes for "chai tea"!) has a good number of cals too, I usually count about 200-250 per naan, and at restaurants they usually brush them with butter before serving so you can ask them not to do that. Chapatis/rotis are a lower calorie bread you can have. Pulao is higher cal than plain rice as it is sauteed in oil, so I'd stick with plain rice.
  • pamelak5
    pamelak5 Posts: 327 Member
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    Chicken Tikka is usually the best bet - a nice hunk of lean protein. Everything else really depends on the restaurant. The palak paneer i make at home is pretty light, the palak paneer at most restaurants is pretty heavy (thanks to ghee and heavy cream). My tactic is to usually share with someone else, get one order of chicken tikka, and then have a bit of whatever else we're eating. Also ask for roti or chapati instead of naan or rice. (whole wheat flatbread)
  • KANGOOJUMPS
    KANGOOJUMPS Posts: 6,473 Member
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    yum! love me a indian
  • danieladrianhorner
    danieladrianhorner Posts: 1
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    If you're following a low-carb approach, limit or omit the rice and naan and just eat meat and vegetable dishes
  • laserturkey
    laserturkey Posts: 1,680 Member
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    Tandoori chicken is a pretty safe bet for meat-eaters. As a vegetarian, I lean toward aloo gobi or chana masala, and try to avoid things with paneer. Go easy on the naan because that is usually loaded with butter.
  • laylaness
    laylaness Posts: 262 Member
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    Aloo Gobi is good, too. It's potatoes, cauliflower, and peas in yellow curry that isn't cream-based.

    Tandoori chicken is good, as others have said.
  • grina008
    grina008 Posts: 3
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    you can eat carbs as long as you know how much you need for your diet. Eat naan without the butter. Try not to eat leg piece because its all dark meat dark meat isn't good for you on the tandoori. Yogurt is good little rice is good as well. or You can eat a BUFFECT then Eat a GREEN CHILLI that would take care of the diet problem LOL
  • mithaearon
    mithaearon Posts: 9 Member
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    Thanks for the advice. Indian cuisine is my favourite and have been missing it (I have cooked the odd home made Rogan) so will take the tips here so I can have one soon.
  • OperationSuperKAT
    OperationSuperKAT Posts: 886 Member
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    Chana masala is my absolute favorite!!! Mmmm I could go for some now *drool*

    Aloo gobi is pretty fantastic as well. I generally feel pretty guilt-free if I go for one of those options.
  • taunto
    taunto Posts: 6,420 Member
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    I'm sure if my friends have said something, they've already suggested you go and have fun and don't worry about calories for a day. I say the same thing but will make suggestions regardless.

    Cream based sauces will be heavier. Tikka boti is like spicy bbq and not cream based. Tikka masala will be cream based. Know what you're ordering.

    Haleem will be awesome. Its a really hearty "soup" that we eat as a meal. Lentils, meat, spices cooked for all night.

    One of the best suggestion would be achar gosht. Get the Lamb or beef one NOT chicken (chicken one sucks). Its kinda tart taste and really good. They WILL load it up with oil/butter so when you get the plate, take couple of paper napkins and tilt the plate a bit and put the napkin on the side. This will cut down the calories by a lot and the oil is there purely to make you full and serves no taste benefits. They literally add the oil in the end to make you feel full.

    I would stay away from kababs specially beef kababs. I personally prefer going to Pakistani restaurants versus Indian restaurants because you get more flavor and spice in it and more authenticity typically since most of the Indian restaurants have dumbed down or spiced down their cuisines and typically Pakistani restaurants don't give a damn.

    Enjoy.
  • katorihanzo
    katorihanzo Posts: 234 Member
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    I LOVE Indian food but it's expensive around here so I usually make it at home. I eat it a lot so I do try to make it low cal. I eat chicken vindaloo a lot, it's a thinner sauce but with a tonne of flavour. The chicken keeps it lean. I either eat it with no rice or with cauliflower rice. Not the same but for someone who eats Indian a couple times a week, I have to do SOMETHING lower cal than rice.

    The other thing I do is eat poppadums instead of naan or rice. A nice crunch and something extra but very low cal - only 30 per poppadum.

    when I eat Indian out, I just go for it. I only do it a couple times a year because of the price so I just say to hell with it and eat it all! Spicy butter chicken, pulao rice, garlic naan, samosas. Ohhhhh buddy.
  • AllonsYtotheTardis
    AllonsYtotheTardis Posts: 16,947 Member
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    when I make indian dishes at home, I know exactly what's in it, so it's easy to budget my calories for it.

    When I go out to an indian restaurant though... *shrug* I take my best (high) guess from the database, and order what I like, because I've planned for it.
  • laylaness
    laylaness Posts: 262 Member
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    Ahhhhh! Chana masala!

    I will go alllll out on tikka masala though. I know the sauce is loaded with cream, but it's so delicious, I don't care. And samosas! If I'm eating Indian, I'm getting a lot of it, and spicy. <3
  • suziepoo1984
    suziepoo1984 Posts: 915 Member
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    Another angle to Indian food- South Indian dishes..Can be more "Healthy" based on what you order.. Idly(rice cakes)- Sambhar(dal & mixed veg), Chutney(coconut based) , or Dosas(pancakes)- you get wide varieties of just dosas. Lot of other options to choose from too.
    You can also order stuffed parathas with raitha. They are yummy and pretty low cal comparitively.

    But at the end, i would like to point out, if you are going to have this rarely, i would say- enjoy the best(irrespective of cream/ghee/gravy), because thats when they taste the best ;)
  • elsyoommen
    elsyoommen Posts: 155 Member
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    actually since I started this journey I have gone back to cooking and eating south Indian food which is what I grew up on. There are many stir-frys (e.g. Cabbage Thoran, okra, bitter melon/karela etc), sambars, rasam, idlis, dosas, vadas. You can easily make simple meat curries, with minimal oil. I just avoid all rotis/parottas and stick to small amounts of rice (usually Kerala red rice). I have switched back to coconut oil and coconut milk (rather than butter and cream) and yogurt. There is at least one good south indian restaurant where I live (Ottawa) if I don't feel like cooking. When I go to the restaurant I still consider it a treat and enjoy it accordingly. You might consider getting some south indian cookbooks to get a better sense of the options out there (I suggest "curried favours" or "dakshin" or other books by the same authors of those) or you could also find many recipes on the internet.

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