Healthy Indian Food at Restaurants and at Home

We are having dinner with good friends tomorrow night. As we made plans, my friend said, “you pick the place, we’ll do anything except Indian.” In no way did I have my heart set on Indian but in a city where even toddlers eat sushi and Thai, I find my friend’s Indian avoidance is way too common. Plus it’s probably my very favorite cuisine. While some people are coming around to Indian food, many remain unfamiliar.  Clients are often flummoxed when they’re headed to Indian either because they’ve never been or perhaps they feel it’s an unhealthy cuisine. Time to clear up the confusion.

Here are some simple suggestions for healthy Indian restaurant food:

• Indian is mainly a carb challenge with the most delicious delicious breads and rice. If you’re having a carb at Indian choose between roti, sort of like whole-wheat naan, and rice but not both. 
• Select items cooked in the tandoor oven. Tandoori salmon, shrimp and chicken are smart selections. These will be flavorful but less caloric as there’s no sauce (less sauce, less carbs to soak up sauce). 
• In terms of vegetables cauliflower, okra and spinach are good choices.  
• For appetizers, soups are your best bet. Mulligatawny is a nice lentil soup. 
• Indian is usually shared so watch your portions; remember the one-plate rule.

Of course, the best way to sure healthy Indian is to take matters into your own hands.

So while we’re likely going to a seafood restaurant tomorrow, I was thrilled to be was sent a copy of “Vegan Indian Cooking” by Anupy Singla. This chef’s “Indian Slow Cooker” book made our ski weekends much more delicious last winter and both the chicken curry and chicken tikka masala were favorites.

I have enjoyed this book just as much. The book starts out with basic recipes such as one for cashew cream to replace dairy in recipes. There are fantastic ways to use grains from dosas (which my family loves from Hampton Chutney in New York) to my new favorite Chickpea Flour Crepes. My kids have been loving the Spiced Stovetop Popcorn. There are also handy recipes for beans and lentils to be cooked in the slow cooker.  And for you Brussels sprout people how about Masala Brussels sprouts? Some of the recipes can be found on Anupy’s blog Indian AS Apple Pie. I can see this book being the go-to resource for healthy Indian home cooking.

I don't usually read the forward in cookbooks but I did in this case. There's a great section in the opening pages entitled Indian Food Myths. Indian food doesn’t have to be spicy, heavy or unhealthy. It doesn’t have to be complicated either. Naan isn’t served in most Indian homes and finally the slow cooker is Indian (you’ll have to get the book to figure that one out, interesting). I may send these myths over to my friend to see if I can convert her.

In honor of my 500th blog post (not really, just realized that as I started writing), Anupy is giving two hungry readers a copy of Vegan Indian Cooking. To be eligible, comment and tell us where you are on a scale of 1-10 in terms of Indian food love. What are your favorite Indian foods? Or, you can tweet about our Indian Cookbook giveaway @Foodtrainers on twitter. 
You have until Friday 9/14 to enter. Congratulations to the Olove winner Ameena.

I decided to refresh my spices before doing any recipe testing.

Spices and Tease NYC, the tease is that the tins of spices are impossible to open (see below)

All fun and games until a turmeric explosion

On the breadbin, not so bad but white (now yellow) countertops? Oy.

Foodtrainers' Favorite Ingredient for Quick Weeknight Dinners

I was Indian in a past life. I must’ve been.  That’s the only explanation I can think of for my love (bordering on obsession) of Indian food.  I love Vindaloo and Saag and Tandoori anything. I love the okra and eggplant at Indian restaurants. I went on Semester at Sea in college and ate my way through Southern India. I remember one of the most delicious meals of my life in a town called Mahabalipuram. We ate on the shores of the Indian Ocean as the owners brought out dish after dish for us to try. Years later, I still adore Indian food but now have slight reservations. For one thing, recipes usually call for a million ingredients (that’s what makes them so good) and the second, while I adore Indian food it can be a little rich.

I am thrilled to tell you about something I found that renders me issue-less. Maya Kaimal’s Indian Simmer Sauces. The sauces come in varieties such as Tikka Masala and Kashmiri Curry. Everything on the short ingredient list is something you can pronounce: onions, tomatoes, coconut milk, ginger etc. You simply sauté your protein of choice in a tablespoon of oil, add your sauce and as the name suggests allow it to “simmer” for 15 minutes. You can have this on the table sooner than you’d have Indian delivered.

The sauces are all vegetarian and gluten free. They can be used with chicken, salmon or shrimp but also with vegetables. One of the recipes, below, that Maya Kaimal sent us also uses the sauce as a soup base. Most recipes (there are more on their website) call for using a jar of sauce (360 calories) for 4 total servings. I use ¾ of the jar and reserve the rest for adding a little zip to veggies another day.  We have the Tikka Masala over brown rice and had the Eggplant Curry over quinoa. Thanks to Maya Kaimal, my obsession lives now with a healthy twist.

If you had to pick your favorite cuisine, what would it be? What are your favorite weeknight dinner “tricks” or shortcuts? Do you ever stray from recipes based on the number of ingredients? Does that make us lazy?

Maya Kaimal’s Kashmiri Eggplant Curry

Serves 4

Vegetable oil in spritzer, as needed

1 lb. slender eggplant (Japanese or Graffiti work well), cut into 1/4-inch slices

1 container Maya Kaimal Kashmiri Curry

¼ cup chopped cilantro

1.  Spray a light coating of vegetable oil in a large non-stick skillet and heat over medium-high heat.  Add half the eggplant slices in a single layer and sauté until browned, about 5 minutes on each side. Transfer to a dish and hold aside.  Cook the second batch in the same manner but leave in the pan when browned.

2.  Return the first batch of eggplant to the pan.  Add the Kashmiri Curry sauce and stir gently to coat the slices.  Simmer over low-heat until eggplant is tender, about 5 minutes. 

3.  When ready to serve, garnish the eggplant and sauce with cilantro.

 Maya Kaimal’s Kashmiri Vegetable Soup

Serves 4

Our sauces make excellent soup bases.  This is a nice tomato and vegetable soup, but feel free to replace or add to the sweet potato and kale with whatever vegetables you have on hand. Leftover chicken or sausage makes a hearty addition as well. 

1 container Maya Kaimal Kashmiri Curry

1 1/2 cups water

1 small sweet potato (about 1/2 lb.), peeled and diced

1 cup lightly packed, stemmed, and roughly chopped kale*

1 15.5 oz. can butter beans, drained  (or other white bean)

1/2 cup lite coconut milk

1.  Combine the Kashmiri Curry, water, sweet potato, kale, and beans in a soup pot and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer until potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes.

2.  Stir in the coconut milk and heat a few minutes longer.