Help with Indian/Punjabi restaurants

Tonight we are going to Sakonis, which is a vegetarian buffet restaurant that do a mix of indian/punjabi food. I cant find a menu online and i dont really know what to expect other than what i would find at a usual indian curry house. can anyone recommend healthy options, or particular dishes to avoid? i know the usual, avoid cream based sauces, and deep fried foods.... or if anyone can recommend really yummy dishes? hehe

i woudl say no to papadums (those things that are a cross btw a pita and chips) and to go easy on nan bread (it's basted in butter).  tikkas are low in fat.  unfortunately tho, it's hard to get low-fat curry in resdtsurants since they're oil/butter based if they'Re not cream based.  some of the creamy looking ones are made with ypgurt, but i don't know how low fat those would be...  i say enjoy yourself and work-out mroe tomorrow.  amybe ask the waiter if they can tell you how things are prepared (oil + how much; cream or yogurt + milk fat %)

hmmmm.... i may just go with the work out more tomo idea. i dont think there's any way really of planning tonights calories... after workout tonight i have 1000 cals to work with so im sure as long as i dont eat to explosion point i wont break the bank too much... lol!

at least, considering its vegetarian... i dont have to worry about meat calories!

Actually... if you can order from a menu, do that. Order the meal with no ghee (clarified butter)-- the ghee is what adds so many calories and so much fat to Indian food. If it doesn't have the ghee, it won't be so bad.

ooooh nice one! ok will keep that in mind thanks!

Also, I think chapati (bread) is better than naan since the naan is wiped with butter.

I cook a lot of Indian food and the dishes are not only made with ghee, but oil, coconut milk and ground almonds (to name a few!)   Unfortunately you probably won't be able to ask for no butter in your dish as the base of most indian food is oil, garlic, ginger and tomato.

But!  There are some simpler lower fat things like Chana Masala (yummy tomatoe based chick peas), Bean Salad (which is vinager and oil based with basil etc) and Roti bread, which is lower cal and less carbs.  If they don't have roti you can ask for rice (though some fry the rice before its cooked).  You may want to stay away from paneer (fried cheese) and samosas.

I love love love indian food, small amounts and a big workout and you'll be fine!

Good luck

if they have south indian on their menu, then u can go for idli and sambar and avoid the coconut chutney.And chappathi or phulka ( is the name i beleive for rotis without any oil) with channa masala, rajma(red kidney beans) are good options.

Paneer is high in calories.Vegetable kurma has cocounut but still its not too bad.dal in most forms except the deep fried vada is healthy.

 

good morning!! so, heres an update on what i had last night. The plates were average sized - i had two plates full but only allowed the food to sit one inch off the plate so i couldnt pile things up lol and all bread was laid flat out to take up more space!!

stir fried carrot and cabbage with chilli -lots of!

2 flat bread pancakey things with like sweet potato filling (palm sized)

cauliflower aloo stuff but i scraped off all the sauce so mostly cauliflower lol

a similarish aloo with potatoes and spinach- but again very little sauce

1 tbsp of tomato based curry (tasted a bit creamy so prob not that great)

2 small portions of noodles with onions (less than 100g cooked)

it wasnt exactly the most healthiest of meals but i was pretty controlled with portions so it was damage limitation, and we didnt have pudding or sugary drinks so its all good!!

oh, and we walked almost 4 hours last night so im sure i managed to walk off most of dinner straight after eating haha!!