FYI - Thai currys are generally pretty low carb. Who knew?
neohdiver
Posts: 738 Member
Well, I guess technically my daughter did - at least she knew the ingredients, but hadn't put the implications.
We went out to celebrate New Year's Eve at a Thai restaurant. I asked about thickening for the curry sauce, and was assured it was coconut milk and cream. No thickener. I wasn't really convinced (especially since it was not marked as a dish that could be made gluten free). But I decided to try it anyway because my blood sugar has been behaving itself and, according to my daughter, adding thickener to sauces is a Western/European thing.
I really expected to test at an hour and find my blood sugar off the scale - but it was only 109!
So I now have a whole new set of dishes that I really enjoy that are relatively high fat & low carb - and a restaurant I can go to without much hassle.
I'm passing this on since I assumed Thai curries were thickened with some form of starch, and perhaps you did too . . . Dang the search engine that can't be restricted to this group (and apologies if this is duplicate information).
We went out to celebrate New Year's Eve at a Thai restaurant. I asked about thickening for the curry sauce, and was assured it was coconut milk and cream. No thickener. I wasn't really convinced (especially since it was not marked as a dish that could be made gluten free). But I decided to try it anyway because my blood sugar has been behaving itself and, according to my daughter, adding thickener to sauces is a Western/European thing.
I really expected to test at an hour and find my blood sugar off the scale - but it was only 109!
So I now have a whole new set of dishes that I really enjoy that are relatively high fat & low carb - and a restaurant I can go to without much hassle.
I'm passing this on since I assumed Thai curries were thickened with some form of starch, and perhaps you did too . . . Dang the search engine that can't be restricted to this group (and apologies if this is duplicate information).
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same is true for much Indian food. As long as you don't eat the rice or the bread, you'll be fine, mostly.
The only thing to watch out for with Indian food is whether the sauce is based on chickpea flour. These are called kadhi or karhi, and of course it's where our "curry" comes from. But mostly, the gravy is cooked down tomatoes, and/or cream or yoghurt and/or coconut milk (in south india).
One of my favorite Indian dishes is palak paneer, curried spinach with paneer cheese, and that fits my macros beautifully, as long as I don't have rice with it.
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Love thai and indian food. There are some great thai green curry pastes on the market, such as "real thai" which I found in my clean out, dating from pre WOE but still in date and like you, I was surprised it is suited. I add less than recommended as despite 4.5 years in India my chilli tolerance is less than an average Indian 4 year old!! (Based on helping out at slum schools for 3 to 6 year olds that teach an english curricula & feed kids to help break cycle of poverty). Coconut cream and oil and milk are now a firm fave with me. Good luck and thanks both for sharing.0
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That's great to know! Thank you! I LOVE Thai and Indian food but was assuming they wouldn't work for me now (I think based on entering data from the past? Hmm ... I'll have to look again, maybe there were just higher cal than I expected but I thought carbs, too). I did make my own version of crockpot butter chicken that was pretty LCHF.
@SamandaIndia, that's very cool about your time in India. (Was this in the past or are you still there?) I did 4.5 years in Taiwan and a year in China.
I still miss real Chinese food. It was actually in Taiwan that I developed my love for Indian food, since a group of my friends there loved going to Indian restaurants. One of my best friends is Indian and DH and I have learned that the Indian restaurants in town she and her family favor are not our favorite b/c we just can't handle the spice level of the more authentic food! 0 -
same is true for much Indian food. As long as you don't eat the rice or the bread, you'll be fine, mostly.
The only thing to watch out for with Indian food is whether the sauce is based on chickpea flour. These are called kadhi or karhi, and of course it's where our "curry" comes from. But mostly, the gravy is cooked down tomatoes, and/or cream or yoghurt and/or coconut milk (in south india).
One of my favorite Indian dishes is palak paneer, curried spinach with paneer cheese, and that fits my macros beautifully, as long as I don't have rice with it.
spinach also my favorite Indian dish,so I treated myself recently,and didnt check the huge amounts of calories (1792) and carbs (72 - 52 fiber) and salt until it was too late.I thought the chikken tikka was relatively safe too (590 cal 27 carbs)
I just cant be trusted at any restaurant0 -
SamandaIndia wrote: »Love thai and indian food. There are some great thai green curry pastes on the market, such as "real thai" which I found in my clean out, dating from pre WOE but still in date and like you, I was surprised it is suited. I add less than recommended as despite 4.5 years in India my chilli tolerance is less than an average Indian 4 year old!! (Based on helping out at slum schools for 3 to 6 year olds that teach an english curricula & feed kids to help break cycle of poverty). Coconut cream and oil and milk are now a firm fave with me. Good luck and thanks both for sharing.
I eat at one spice level below "Indian hot" - as our favorite restaurant called it, before they went out of business.
I'm generally not at all fond of coconut cream/oil/milk/anything else - so I am really delighted to find a food I can use them in (mostly for when I add calories - since I'm having a very hard time envisioning what I will eat once I can up my calories to maintenance (e.g. adding extra fat calories since I can't bump anything else up.)0 -
macchiatto wrote: »That's great to know! Thank you! I LOVE Thai and Indian food but was assuming they wouldn't work for me now (I think based on entering data from the past? Hmm ... I'll have to look again, maybe there were just higher cal than I expected but I thought carbs, too). I did make my own version of crockpot butter chicken that was pretty LCHF.
@SamandaIndia, that's very cool about your time in India. (Was this in the past or are you still there?) I did 4.5 years in Taiwan and a year in China. I still miss real Chinese food. It was actually in Taiwan that I developed my love for Indian food, since a group of my friends there loved going to Indian restaurants. One of my best friends is Indian and DH and I have learned that the Indian restaurants in town she and her family favor are not our favorite b/c we just can't handle the spice level of the more authentic food!
Taiwan n China- fun!! Wonder what we can have of their cuisines.
My tip is ask to go north indian. Generally more mild. Chaat is one of my faves. Kids are in south India where foods are prefered spicy. I have been in The Netherlands for a year now so "out of India" for a year. Some thai and indian cooks add sugar so worth asking and reading labels as you mentioned. I just had a green chicken curry and asked the chef if he added sugar and he usually added palm sugar but was happy not to.0 -
Good to know! I love Indian food but might have to give Thai a whirl more often. I stuck to the fried chicken wings the last time I had Thai so it is good to know I can branch out.0
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Asian Home Gourmet has some pretty good Thai spice paste mixes in plastic envelopes you can add to whatever richness level of your own coconut cream/milk that you want. Flavour is best if left until the next day to eat.0
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Thanks for the tips, @SamandaIndia!
A lot of Chinese food is keto-friendly if you just skip the rice/noodles. (Authentic Chinese food definitely more so than American Chinese restaurant food.)
When I was in Taiwan at one point, I found out I had candida so a naturopath my mom took me to (on a trip back to the US) put me on a really strict low-carb diet for about 9 months. I was mostly eating meats and vegetables. The diet had different phases where I gradually added fruit and other carbs back in. I would often go to teppanyaki restaurants and just get the meat and veggies and ask for a fried egg in place of the rice. Or I would just get stir-fried meat and veggies with no rice/noodles, or hot pot (soup) and skip the noodles, etc. Or buy lettuce and make my own chef salads (salads definitely weren't as common there but they were at some restaurants.)
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macchiatto wrote: »That's great to know! Thank you! I LOVE Thai and Indian food but was assuming they wouldn't work for me now (I think based on entering data from the past? Hmm ... I'll have to look again, maybe there were just higher cal than I expected but I thought carbs, too). I did make my own version of crockpot butter chicken that was pretty LCHF.
@SamandaIndia, that's very cool about your time in India. (Was this in the past or are you still there?) I did 4.5 years in Taiwan and a year in China. I still miss real Chinese food. It was actually in Taiwan that I developed my love for Indian food, since a group of my friends there loved going to Indian restaurants. One of my best friends is Indian and DH and I have learned that the Indian restaurants in town she and her family favor are not our favorite b/c we just can't handle the spice level of the more authentic food!
Real chinese food is so so good!0 -
macchiatto wrote: »Thanks for the tips, @SamandaIndia!
A lot of Chinese food is keto-friendly if you just skip the rice/noodles. (Authentic Chinese food definitely more so than American Chinese restaurant food.)
When I was in Taiwan at one point, I found out I had candida so a naturopath my mom took me to (on a trip back to the US) put me on a really strict low-carb diet for about 9 months. I was mostly eating meats and vegetables. The diet had different phases where I gradually added fruit and other carbs back in. I would often go to teppanyaki restaurants and just get the meat and veggies and ask for a fried egg in place of the rice. Or I would just get stir-fried meat and veggies with no rice/noodles, or hot pot (soup) and skip the noodles, etc. Or buy lettuce and make my own chef salads (salads definitely weren't as common there but they were at some restaurants.)
Excited to hear that. Both because I love Chinese / asian food and because I started my strict Candida diet on 16 October and I am still on strict meat and veg. Dr appointment Friday 4 Jan so might get to reintroduce some foods. Love to hear more details of your journey @macchiatto. Please message me if you want to share in private. Love to learn what the path ahead may look like and what to avoid; without derailing this interesting string of posts on great food that low carbers can eat.0 -
same is true for much Indian food. As long as you don't eat the rice or the bread, you'll be fine, mostly.
The only thing to watch out for with Indian food is whether the sauce is based on chickpea flour. These are called kadhi or karhi, and of course it's where our "curry" comes from. But mostly, the gravy is cooked down tomatoes, and/or cream or yoghurt and/or coconut milk (in south india).
One of my favorite Indian dishes is palak paneer, curried spinach with paneer cheese, and that fits my macros beautifully, as long as I don't have rice with it.
spinach also my favorite Indian dish,so I treated myself recently,and didnt check the huge amounts of calories (1792) and carbs (72 - 52 fiber) and salt until it was too late.I thought the chikken tikka was relatively safe too (590 cal 27 carbs)
I just cant be trusted at any restaurant
I never eat Indian food in restaurants, I'm in a culture that makes their own. My one experience with Indian restaurants is that they serve their food as a "dish". This would never happen if you were in India: you'd probably get a plate with rice, daal, a vegetable dish, a savory item and a sweet, plus a chutney and raita. But the quantity of food per item would be very much smaller. Next time, ask for the thali if they have one and ask if they can leave out the rice (and perhaps the daal if you go very low carb). Usually they serve mango chutney, because they think westerners like the sweetness, but you might ask for mint chutney if they have it, and leave out the sweet.0 -
Next time, ask for the thali if they have one and ask if they can leave out the rice (and perhaps the daal if you go very low carb). Usually they serve mango chutney, because they think westerners like the sweetness, but you might ask for mint chutney if they have it, and leave out the sweet.
Thanks!
I haven't been back to our local Indian restaurant since decreasing carbs. That may need to be my next treat.0 -
I did a thai take away green chicken curry. Asked chef not to add sugar. Manually removed carrots so it had eggplant (aubergine), beans and chicken. I weighed the chicken: 220g cooked. Unless on a steak feast, I usually eat 80 to 120g of meat at a meal so halved the curry and ate over 2 dinners
Beware portion sizing!
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SamandaIndia wrote: »Beware portion sizing!
Yup. I had already decided I wasn't worried about how much I ate for that meal (or day, really) - as long as I stayed within the carb limit. But the meat portion was on the high side.
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Yum, Thai curry is one of my favorite takeout meals. I give the rice to hubby and the kids and just eat the curry by itself.0
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We have jarred curry paste at the local supermarket, so I started making lazy curry - throw a broccoli/cauliflower mix bag in the slow cooker, browned meat of choice, garlic, ginger, a bit of lemon juice and a mixture of curry paste and one can of coconut milk, let everything go for 6-8 hours. As a matter of fact, a beef version of that was in my lunch bag today.0
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We have jarred curry paste at the local supermarket, so I started making lazy curry - throw a broccoli/cauliflower mix bag in the slow cooker, browned meat of choice, garlic, ginger, a bit of lemon juice and a mixture of curry paste and one can of coconut milk, let everything go for 6-8 hours. As a matter of fact, a beef version of that was in my lunch bag today.
Sounds yummy. I have some jarred curry paste in the fridge. I may have to try it.0 -
@Lillith32 Dang, that recipe needs a bookmark: Tx!
Lazy curry - throw a broccoli/cauliflower mix bag in the slow cooker, browned meat of choice, garlic, ginger, a bit of lemon juice and a mixture of curry paste and one can of coconut milk, let everything go for 6-8 hours.0 -
@slimzandra, if there is one thing I am good at, it's bastardizing recipes down to as few ingredients and cooking steps as possible.0
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We have jarred curry paste at the local supermarket, so I started making lazy curry - throw a broccoli/cauliflower mix bag in the slow cooker, browned meat of choice, garlic, ginger, a bit of lemon juice and a mixture of curry paste and one can of coconut milk, let everything go for 6-8 hours. As a matter of fact, a beef version of that was in my lunch bag today.
This sounds great. I may have to give this a try. Thanks!0
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