Indian cuisine is aromatic, warm, and loaded with healthy spices and ingredients. However, many Indian dishes are also loaded with fat, butter, oil, and cream. When dining at a your favourite Indian restaurant it can be tricky to avoid high-fat meals, especially if you don’t know the menu vocabulary. One option to eating healthy Indian food is to learn the lingo, and avoid the items that will ruin your diet.
Low Fat Indian Recipes
The best way to enjoy Indian cuisine and not stress about how many fat-laden calories you are consuming at a restaurant is to make your own Indian dishes. This way, traditional dishes can be modified, ingredients can be substituted for lower-fat options or omitted altogether.
Aloo Palak
Spinach (palak) adds nutrients to the spicy dish, and there is no oil, fat, butter, or cream in sight. Dry curries, such as this recipe for Aloo Palak, are a great option for those watching their consumption of saturated fats.
- 6 cups uncooked spinach
- 4 large potatoes
- 2 medium tomatoes, diced
- 1 yellow onion, sliced
- 1 tsp ginger root, minced
- 2 large garlic cloves, minced
- ½ tsp tumeric
- 2 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp red chilli powder
Directions:
- Boil potatoes in their skins until almost done. Let them cool, then cut into bite-sized pieces. Meanwhile, remove all stalks from spinach, rinse, and cook for 10 minutes in a covered pan in just enough water to cling to the spinach leaves. Cool and chop spinach, and reserve any remaining cooking liquid.
- Place onion in a saucepan, and cook with ½ cup fat-free vegetable stock or water until onion is golden brown – if liquid cooks off before onions are ready, simply add more hot water.
- Add ginger, garlic, and spices, and cook for 3 minutes. Add tomatoes and cook for another 5 minutes. Add potatoes and spinach, cover and simmer until potatoes are cooked through, stirring occasionally.
Aloo Gobi
Featuring potatoes (aloo) and cauliflower (gobi), but leaving out heavy cream and butter, Aloo Gobi is a widely popular low fat Indian dish. Often featured in the vegetarian section of restaurant menus, it is also an easy dish to make at home.
- 1 head cauliflower
- 4 large potatoes
- 1 yellow onion, sliced
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 tsp ginger root, minced
- 1 large clove garlic, minced
- ½ tsp tumeric
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 2 tsp ground coriander
- 2 tsp red chilli powder
- 1 tsp garam masala
- Fresh cilantro, for garnishing
Separate the cauliflower into bite-sized florets. Cut potatoes into bite-sized chucks. Heat oil in a large, heavy-bottom pan, at moderate heat. Add onions and fry until soft. Add ginger, garlic, and potatoes to pan, cover and cook until potatoes are half done.
Add cauliflower and all dry powders. Mix and cover to cook. Once potatoes are cooked through, remove from heat. Garnish with fresh cilantro, and serve with steamed rice.
Baingan Bharta
Baingan Bharta is always a safe bet when ordering a low fat dish at your favourite Indian restaurant, but it’s also a great meal to make at home. At 150 calories per serving, Baingan Bharta served with steamed rice is a well-balanced, healthy meal.
- 1 large eggplant
- 1 yellow onion, sliced
- 1 medium tomato, diced
- 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely chopped
- ½ cup plain non-fat yogurt
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp ginger root, minced
- 2 large garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tbsp curry powder
- 1 tsp salt
- Fresh cilantro, for garnishing
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Place whole eggplant on a baking sheet, and bake for 25 minutes, until tender. Once eggplant has cooled, peel and chop into bite-sized pieces.
Next, heat oil in a saucepan over moderate heat. Add cumin seeds and onion. Stir and cook until the onion is soft. Mix in ginger, garlic, curry powder and tomato, cook for 1 minute. Stir in yogurt, eggplant, salt and jalapeno. Cover and cook over high heat for 10 minutes. Uncover and reduce heat to low, cook for 5 minutes. Garnish with cilantro and serve.
Channa Masala
- 2 15-ounce cans chickpeas
- 1 cup sliced yellow onion
- 2 large cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tsp ginger root, minced
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 2 tsp ground coriander
- ¼ tsp tumeric
- 1 tsp garam masala
- ½ tsp red chilli powder
- 1 cup water
- 3 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 15-ounce can tomato puree
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
Rinse chickpeas in cold water and drain. In a large saucepan, add onions and cumin and cook over moderate heat until onion is soft. Reduce heat and add garlic, ginger, coriander, tumeric, and garam masala, cooking for 30 seconds, stirring constantly.
Add water, tomato paste, and tomato puree, stirring and bring to a boil. Add chickpeas, lemon juice and chilli powder, mixing well. Cover saucepan and cook over medium heat for 15 minutes, until chickpeas are soft, stirring occasionally. If mixture is too dry, simply add more water and continue cooking until ready. Serve over steamed rice.
Healthy Cooking Substitutions
Even if the Indian recipe you are following isn’t low in fat, there are usually substitutions you can make to create healthier dishes. For instance, use canola oil instead of coconut oil. Coconut oil is very common in Indian cooking, however it is very high in saturated fat, while canola oil and other vegetable oil varieties are much lower in saturated fat.
If a recipe calls for yogurt, use non-fat yogurt instead. Oil that is needed for frying can often be replaced with water or fat-free vegetable stock. Skip the naan bread as a side, and serve your curry alone, with a low fat raita or kachumber salad, or over steamed rice.
With a little thought, and some creativity, even your favourite Indian recipes can be low in fat, good for the heart, and easy on the waistline. Of course, when eating at a restaurant, you won’t have as much control as when cooking for yourself. So read the menu carefully, and stick to the cream and butter free dishes.
Heather Loney - Heather is a journalist and photographer living in Canada. She graduated from the University of Guelph with a degree in philosophy, and ...
