Healthy Indian food and snack recipes

Many people find Indian food to be tasty but high in calories. Well if it's restuarant food, I would agree, but home made food prepared intelligently is always tasty and healthy.

Here I am posting some Indian recipes. All of them are very low or nil in saturated fat. I do use a lot of spices in my cooking, but I would keep them optional so it can cater to everybody.

Some of these recipes were passed on by my grandma, mother... Some of them I have customized to make them healthy. Also, since I work full time, I try to keep the preparation simple. It's an innovation of me and my husband :)

If you know of a healthy and simple Indian food recipe, please share it so that we can learn from each other.

So here I start with the most simple one:

Crispy banana chips

2 plaintains or green bananas     

1 teaspoon cooking oil - olive or vegetable or your choice

1 teaspoon turmeric powder

1 teaspoon red chilli powder (optional)

salt to taste

1. Peel the plaintains or green bananas.

2. Wash them thoroughly.

3. Make very thin slices, the thinner they are, the crispier they are.

4. Take a frying pan of large circumference, put the oil on t spreading evenly.

5. Once the oil is heated, put the flame to medium high, add the bananas.

6. Add the salt and turmeric.

7. Mix them around. If the slices stick together, seperate them.

8. Cover the pan. Keep checking from time to time if they are done.

9. Once done, add the chilly powder. Then on high heat, move the slices around, do not cover.

10. Take it off the flame after about 1-2 minutes or until desired crispiness.

I love this snack, can eat it anytime. I use it as bites when we have wine. You can substitue the bananas with potatos or taro.

Papaya in chana dal

What is chana dal - http://www.mendosa.com/chanadal.html

Half a medium sized green papaya peeled, washed and diced in cubes.

1 cup chana dal.

2 teaspoons cooking oil of your choice

1 teaspoon turmeric

salt to taste

half a medium sized red onion finely chopped.

6-8 cloves of garlic finely chopped (optional, you can reduce the quantity too)

1 teaspoon cumin chilli powder (see bottom on how to prepare it)

1. Wash the chana dal. Soak it for half an hour.

2. Add the papaya cubes.

3. Add 1.5 cups of water to it. Add the salt and turmeric.

4. Cook it in a pressure cooker upto 1 or 2 whistles. If you don't have pressuer cooker, you can use a normal cooking pot or pan on a stove pan, only it takes a bit longer.

5. Once it is done, take it off and let it cool so you can handle it.

6. In a seperate pan, add the oil. Then fry the garlic till it turns brown.

7. Add the onion and fry till its golden brown.

8. Transfer this to the container having the cooked chana dal and papaya.

9. Add the cumin chilli powder to it.

9. Set it on high it till it strts to boil.

10. Let it cool and enjoy.

Cumin Chilli Powder

In a non stick pan, take 5 tablespoons of cumin seeds and around 10 dry red chillis. Reuce chilli if you want less spicy. Fry till its roasted, open all doors and windows as its going to give a strong scent and some smoke too.

Let it cool. Then powder it using a grinder/blender. Store it in air tight container. Do not refrigerate.

thank you so much - do you have a recipe for chana masala?

fatdoc, here you go...

Chana Masala

1 cup chick peas

3-4 teaspoons of cooking oil

1 teaspoon cumin powder

1 teaspoon coriander powder

2 teaspoons garam masala powder

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon powder

1/4 teaspoon splenda/sugar or sweetener of your choice 

1 teaspoon turmeric

salt to taste

1 large red onion

6-8 cloves of garlic

a small peice of ginger

1 small tomato finely chopped

1 tablespoon coarsely chopped cilantro for garnishing

Method

1. Wash the chickpeas. Soak them in 1.5 cups of water for 6-8 hours.

2. Boil them till they are done, I use pressure cooker till 2 whistles, can use microwave instead.

3. Let it cool. Grind the onion, garlic, ginger to a fine paste.

4. In a deep pan, add the oil slowly, eg 1 teaspoon at a time (hen add on later when frying masalas if needed, this is how I make food less calorific). Also, always keep the flame to medium high.

5. Add the onion garlic ginger paste, fry till the sides leave the pan.

6. Add the garam masala powder, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, turmeric powder.

7. Add the tomato and fry.

8. Add the splenda/sweetener.

9. Once the masala is done, add the boiled chick peas along with the water it has, if ou drain the water, you lose the nutrients. Add the salt here.

10. Mix well, and let it cook till the water gets evaporatd. Cover it if needed.

11. Once done, take it off the flame and garnish with chopped cilantro.

12. Serve with roti or rice.

Mango lassi

1 large ripe mango, flesh peeled and sliced

4 tablespoons fat free yogurt

1/2 cup fat free milk

2 tablespoons splenda

chopped nuts to garnish (optional)

1. Put all the ingrdients (except used for garnishing) in a blender and prepare a smoothie.

2. Garnish and server.

Lovelin, I tried the banana chip recipe and it didn't turn out!  I cooked them forever, but they never turned crispy.  I ended up with banana mush.  I sliced the bananas pretty thin, so I don't think it's that.  Maybe my bananas weren't green enough?  I was wondering if you could help me figure out what I did wrong!  Thanks. :)

Thank you for these recipes.  I can't wait to try them - I haven't had a mango lassi in forever... 

I would suggest trying recipe with plantain.

Awesome recipes, I am drooling just reading them. Do you know the calorie content of any of these?? Also do you know the calorie content of papadum (which are my favorite things ever!)?

Thank you for these!  I've tagged this thread.

Here is a recipe for Butter Chicken I found on the Net. I cook it in my crock pot and it makes tons; I eat it all week for dinner, served with some basmati rice. It has a nice delicate flavor. I found the garam masala spice mixture at a Bulk Barn. Indian groceries would probably have it.

INDIAN BUTTER CHICKEN

5 generous servings (I get more than 5 servings out of it), 462 calories/ 22 grams fat each

• 3/4 cup plain fat free yogurt
• 1 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 4 bay leaves
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp ground cinammon
• 1 tsp corriander
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 4 cardamom pods (I just use some ground cardamom, 1/4 to 1/2 tsp)
• 56 oz. canned diced tomatoes
• 4 T light cream (I just use 1% milk or fat free Carnation milk)
• 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut up
• 6 T light butter (I've found you can cut back on this quite a bit--try 4T)
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 1 large uncooked potato, cubed
• 1/3 cup ground almonds

Combine all ingredients in a crock pot. Cook 3-4 hours on high, or 6-8 hours on low. Serve on basmati rice or with naan bread. 

Was away for some time, lotsa work at job and also house hunting :)

Bernasha - > The things I can think of are... the pan used should be wide and shallow, the amount of bananas should not be too much. If they are, its better to cook them in batches.

The bananas should be the unripe ones, and once they are cooked - a fork goes through them, we have to cook them on high till they turn golden brown. Also may the oil would have been less (my guess). I also have to admit that they are not as cripsy as the commerical potato chips, and also it takes some practice to get them right. Mine were never right the first time either :). So better luck next time.

nycgirl -> I put these ingredients in the recipe analyzer tool and get the calorie content. It recognizes most of the indian spices. So you can easily get them here. I didn't put them because... I am lazy. sorry :(

Papad - Papadum as it is called in south india - I don't know their calorie content but if you are having the roasted ones instead of the deep fried ones, they would not be that high in calories I guess. I normally have them, cook them on high in microwave for 30-45 seconds depending on size and number.

Mashed potatoes - Indian recipe

4-6 small gold potatoes

1 tablespoon fileny chopped white or yellow onions

1 clove garlic finely chopped (fresh)

1 green chilli finely chopped (optional)

4 drops mustard oil

salt to taste

1 tablespoon finely chopped cilantro

1. Boil the potatoes. Mash them. Do not remove skin.

2. Add all the other ingrdients to the mashed potatoes and mix them well.

3. Enjoy!

This is usually taken as a side dish with rice and dal.

 

this is from a friend   Cauliflower & Chickpea Curry

Adapted from a recipe by Madhur Jaffrey Curried Chickpeas with Spinach & Tomatoes

I got this from the owner of a local Indian Restaurant  Idli

I cook lentils (dal) of different kinds several times a week.  I like to use whole or toasted, ground spices to season them, and serve them with Fage Total 0% yogurt, which is thick and creamy in spite of being fat free.  It makes good lassis and raita too.  I'm especially fond of the little pink lentils and split, black urad dal. 

Thank you for sharing your recipes!