indian recipes pls

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I make what I call "Indian hobo stew" (and other times just "hobo stew" if it does not have Indian spices in it) out of whatever organic vegetables are on sale, with either paneer, which can be higher in calories, or quorn vegetarian roast cut up in it as good protein, and sometimes Seeds of change organic simmer sauces or even Amy's brand soup which is called something like curried lentil, which might be considered cheating: if so, use whatever your favourite Indian spices are. I enjoy making enough for a few meals during the week, and it runs out before I get sick of it, and is easy to just reheat in the pan.

Check out: www.showmethecurry.com

Great website! Only thing is, the Indian food recipes on most websites are for restaurant versions of the dish which can screw my daily calorie limits. The same thing made at home would taste almost totally different and about a 100 times healthier. Big problem with Indian food recipes online! I have to keep calling my mum for oil-free versions of recipes... Also, they are usually Punjabi dishes which tend to be too heavy for me since I'm south Indian and eat very different food.

Curry Base it will serve 4-6 (recipe taken from the River Cottage TV Series)
2 tsp. cumin seeds,
1 tsp. fennel seeds
2 tsp. coriander seeds
Toast in a frying pan to release the fragrance and until lightly brown
Then add to
1 onion,
1 tsp. fenugreek seeds
1 tsp. turmeric
3 cloves of garlic or less if you don’t like it
1-3 small red birds eye chillies (depending on hotness and taste)
Blend all of the above in a mixer to a coarse paste

If you like it really hot then you can also add Patak's - Vindaloo Curry Paste, 30 ml

Now you have your base dry fry or fry with a little olive oil whatever you want to go into your curry.
I usually fry onion; mushrooms red peppers and chicken then add the paste.

Add a can of chopped tomatoes (400g size) and a can of Light coconut milk/cream (400g) and top one of the cans with water add this and leave to reduce for 1-2 hours.

Indian rice I use Basmati, serves 4
Basmati White Rice, 1 1/2 cup dry
2 tsp. Turmeric
1 tsp. Ground Cumin
1 tsp. Ground Coriander
DO NOT rinse the rice, put in the largest pan you have along with the spices above, add boiling water, to cover the rice and nearly to the top of the pan, bring up to the boil, for 7 minutes, turn the heat off and cover with the pan lid, for a further 8 minutes, then drain and serve.


I have a wholemeal pitta pocket with mine lower in cals and the whole meal works out at 545 cals, (including all of the above and the Patak's paste) but I do this for 4 people and they have 2 spoons of curry to my 1, so if you have more don't forget to adjust the calories

Pretty much everything in Indiana Jones Temple of Doom looked good.

This is my version of chicken kebabs. Very short prep and cooking time and very low fat. They aren't actually kebabs, but they taste like them and look like gyro meat. I made about a kilo of this and we finished it in 2 days... They turned out that good. This dish is about 120 calories for 1/3 cup of chicken pieces.

3 chicken breasts diced into strips
7-8 cloves of garlic and a tsp size piece of ginger and a handful of cilantro crushed into a paste
cayenne pepper (as much as can be tolerated)
salt to taste
juice of 1/2 a lime
very very small pinch of cardamom powder
1 tbsp roasted cumin powder or chicken masala if you have it
4 tbsp fat free yogurt

Mix all the ingredients above in a plastic bag, refrigerate and let the chicken marinade for however long you want. Overnight is recommended, but an hour will suffice. I was in a hurry, so I didn't leave it to marinate at all. It didn't compromise the taste really since the chicken piece were small to begin with.
Spray some cooking oil on a baking dish and arrange the chicken mixture in a single layer on the baking dish. Keep on the upper shelf in the oven and broil on 400-450 for about 20 mins or till you can see the chicken take on a reddish hue. Remove the baking dish and turn the pieces over and broil for another 20 mins till it turns uniformly reddish brown.

Mint Cilantro chutney
Sorry I never measure for this but add stuff according to taste. All the ingredients are blended and crushed in a food processor. Add small amounts of water to facilitate the blending. My processor jams up without some water with this mixture.

1-2 bunches cilantro
1 bunch mint leaves
salt to taste
1-2 cloves garlic
very small piece of ginger
Thai green chillies (1 or 2 are more than enough)
Roasted cumin powder
Amchur powder, small pinch (Optional, can be found in any Indian store. Lends dish a sour taste)

I usually make this chutney in a large amount every month. It goes with literally everything. Mix some of this with fat free yogurt as a dip for the chicken. can be used as a yogurt sauce for homemade gyros made out of oil-free rotis.

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Anxious to see if Butter Chicken is noted?

Hey all!

I am half Pakistani and I make Pakistani food (similar to Indian food) all the time. Use your recipe calculators!! One of the things that I do that is MOST helpful is that I only use about 2 tbs of oil for every curry recipe I make. The first step of a curry is usually to saute onions in the oil. If the onions start getting dry, I only add water. No more oil at all. It still comes out FANTASTIC

At a restaurant, go for grilled items: Tandoori chicken, kebabs and such. Stay away from cream based curries: Tikka Masala, Korma, butter chicken

Most restaurants also serve roti instead of naan. Go for the roti. Usually its made of whole wheat which is A LOT better than the white flour, eggs and butter that is used to make naan.

I will try to post some of my recipes that are in my recipe log.

Dal Makhani/Kali dal

This is one of the most popular Indian lentil recipe around. I tried it out in the crockpot a few times and it never came out as well as I wanted it to. Yesterday I got the quantities of ingredients right!! It tasted amazing and I actually put wayyyyyy less butter and cream than I usually do. I make this in a big quantity and freeze it in batches of 2 cups since it freezes well and my husband and one friend are always asking for it! This does take a long time so its always better to make a big batch.

Total calories: 1462
Makes 11 cups
Cals per serving/1 cup = 130!!!
Per cup: carbs=22gm, fat=2gm, protein=7gm

Soak 1.25 cups whole Urad dal (I think it is sold as black lentil. Indian stores call it kali dal/urad dal) and 1/2 cup red kidney beans together for 8-9 hours or overnight.

Ingredients to put into crockpot together:

Soaked black and kidney beans
2.5 cups diced tomatoes
1/2 cup diced onions
10 cloves of garlic + 3 tsp ginger both + a handful of cilantro all crushed together
4-5 Thai chillies split lengthwise (add more or use less depending on how hot you want it)
2 tbsp roasted cumin powder
1 tbsp cilantro seed powder (available in Indian store as coriander powder/dhaniya powder)
1 tsp sugar
salt to taste
about 5-6 cups water

Cook on high for 1-2 hours. If you're not at home, simply leave it on low for 8-10 hours. I put this on at about 9pm or 10pm and have it for lunch the next day.
Put about 1/2 to 3/4 the contents of the crockpot in a food processor and paste-ify it and put it back in. This gives the dal a creamy texture. You can also do this with a hand blender I think.

Ingredients for Tadka/seasoning:
1 tbsp butter (can put more but it won't make a noticeable difference unless u put like 4-5 tbsp and I can't make myself do that!)
4 tbsp half and half cream
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp garam masala powder (can use more but I like to actually taste the ingredients rather than just the masala)

Heat the butter on the stove in a small pan and when it starts to sizzle, add the cumin seeds, turmeric powder, garam masala and the cream. heat it for a bit and add the whole mixture to the crockpot. Adjust salt according to taste. Throw in a handful of finely chopped cilantro for garnishing and to give it that fresh taste...

Can be eaten with rice, bread, roti, nan or even just like that as a soup! It is unbelievably filling!