Cutting those calories from Indian dishes...

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MutterGans
MutterGans Posts: 44 Member
in Introduce Yourself
I'm Erika, and I've been away from MFP for a loooong time, but back with determination. I'm not in India...or from India, but I usually cook many dishes from India and I'm wondering how I can modify these to do without the roti/rice and reduce the pulses. Currently living on plain veg and salad, but thoughts of chole bhature, dahi bhalla and kottu roti are beginning to dance in my head. Please add me and tell me how you modify your recipes :)

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  • pnrbor
    pnrbor Posts: 56 Member
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    Oh my I love Indian dishes. I think we are going to have to cut then from our diet if we won't to lose weight and leave them for a special treat?
  • rheddmobile
    rheddmobile Posts: 6,840 Member
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    What is wrong with pulses? They are a good low calorie source of protein and fiber. The way to reduce the rice and breads is to eat smaller portions of them. Cauliflower rice isn’t really a good substitute in Indian food.

    I’ve found that the big culprit as far as calories is usually the oil, butter, and ghee. Often you can greatly reduce it without altering the taste much.

    I like the site vahrehvah.com and he has a section on healthy recipes.

    Plain veg and salad shouldn’t be necessary for weight loss. Since many Indian dishes use little meat, they are often low calorie to begin with. It can be a very healthy way of eating. Eating nothing but salad is a recipe for getting fed up and quitting!
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,127 Member
    edited September 2021
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    Can't you just reduce your portion sizes?

    If you make the dishes yourself, you should have a pretty good idea on what the calorie dense ingredients are if you log your recipes, perhaps you can tweak them to reduce the calorie density? Fat is calorie dense so reducing the amount of fat should be a good way to reduce calories if the dishes are high fat.

    I don't understand why you want to reduce the pulses, they are high in fibre (good for gut health and filling for a lot of people) and also contain protein. Rice isn't bad either, it's just a matter of reducing your portion.

    Living on plain veg and salad sounds like a really bad idea honestly, you need protein and (healthy) fats too.
  • cowsanddogsarecute
    cowsanddogsarecute Posts: 156 Member
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    I'm not from India but my partner is Punjabi. He cooks dal for us and that's usually my dinner everyday - dal with rice. It's delicious and filling. I just make sure to properly measure everything so I know what's in it and how much.

    You really just need to focus on portion control and watch out for oil, ghee or butter and reduce them. Pulses are amazing and really no reason you should cut them out!
  • Tito_Tim
    Tito_Tim Posts: 72 Member
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    I was vegetarian for 27 years, and cooked at an Indian restaurant for a while. About half my food was Indian for a long time. It can be deceptively fattening. Cream sauces, cheese, milk sweets, coconut milk... lot of calories. I got so fat! (but it sure was delicious)

    There are alternatives to some of the cream & cheese but most taste pretty bad. I found recipes that simply do not call for the goodness. Portion control is also very important, and for me at the time, not a thought was given to portions.

    Things like aloo gobi can be very good without all the milk or cream. I have low fat recipes for it... and recipes that put 2 kilos on you just while you read about it. Dal & rice is great. I tend to eat much fewer chapati, a stack of 6 was just a beginning of a meal... we used chapati instead of flatware...

    Also, since I went back to eating meat, I get satisfied with a meal easier and do not need all the extravagant sauces. B)

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