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Low Carb Indianfoods

Chronicle_Cat

Well-Known Member
Messages
555
Location
Toronto, Canada
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Hi everyone,

Are there other lovers of Indian food and other ethnic foods that are eating low carb?

I love Indian food and have been eating it often since the 1970s and cooking it since the 1980s - I have a south Indian son-in-law so I eat it more often since he joined our family.

I'm open to suggestions about what foods to eat & avoid and this is what I've come up with so far.

Generally it seems to me that north Indian/Pakistani is easier to eat low carb than south Indian. No dosa, illys, vadas, rice and masala dosa is a double dose of carbs. Chettinad restaurants unlike most South Indian places do have meat. The other thing is generally Indian food doesn't add sugar to sauces or use thickeners like flour or cornstarch (unlike other cuisines.)

I've come up with the following list, EAT & AVOID: I'd love to see further suggestions for either category

EAT:
meats ie. Tandoori chicken and other chicken dishes, meat curries, kabobs, keema
most vegetable dishes (avoid potato - aloo and corn)
paneer dishes
chai (order unsweetened, add own sweetener)

AVOID: (to prevent blood sugar spiking)
rice & idlys
dals & pappadums & dosa & vadas & sambar
mango lassi (because of the mango)
breads ie. naan, paranthas
Indian sweets and desserts kheer, gulab jaman etc.
pakoras & bhajis (made with gram/besan/chickpea flour), if you do have any, a very limited amount
 
Looks about right to me.. I would usually have a tandoori meat dish and in pre carnivore days a green veg or aubergine dish. Now I'll just get a mixed grill with maybe a meaty starter too.
 
I've made this "Tandoori" Roasted Cauliflower recipe which is really good. The Tahini sauce isn't Indian and IMHO, isn't necessary. I marinate the cauliflower overnight. It's 9.44 net carbs with the sauce.
https://www.theendlessmeal.com/roasted-tandoori-cauliflower/

As well, I've used some of the recipes from this site (she's Indian originally, moved to the US - not all her recipes are low carb.) Most of hers require an Instant Pot (a Canadian invention - pressure cooker which is available in the US). They are in North American volume measures. Several I've had success with are:

Butter Chicken: 2 net carbs (I use coconut milk instead of the cream, I prefer it)
https://twosleevers.com/instant-pot-butter-chicken/

Chicken Tikka Masala: 8 net carbs
https://twosleevers.com/high-protein-indian-chicken-tikka-bites/

Chicken Tikka Masala Bites (a dry Chicken Tikka Masala): 2 carbs: can be done on stovetop:
https://twosleevers.com/high-protein-indian-chicken-tikka-bites/
 
derry60 said:
If I do my own..I will have dry Tikka done with spices and plain yogurt, salad, curried courgettes and cauliflower with mint yogurt (Home made)
Click to expand...

How do you do the curried courgettes? (We call them zucchini, the Italian name here.)
 
There's a guy called Sahil on youtube whose keto dishes are epic, the channel is 'Headbangerskitchen'. Lovely Asian food but not too spicy.
 
Guzzler said:
There's a guy called Sahil on youtube whose keto dishes are epic, the channel is 'Headbangerskitchen'. Lovely Asian food but not too spicy.
Click to expand...

Thanks Guzzler, the channel looks wonderful I'm now subscribed. ( I have a food scale so I can use British measures.)

I also made this okra dish - in the oven Bhindi Masala. I've never liked okra in the past because of the glueyness but this was quite good. (Although the "slime" coming out the okra before it cooks was gross, there was no slime after.) BTW Indians also call okra "Ladyfingers".

https://twosleevers.com/sheet-pan-bhindi-masala/
 

I loathe okra because of the slime but it is also widely eaten in Africa. You might like to try Sahil's fish cakes, my youngest has made them using cod and salmon (without the Lady's Fingers!).
 
My ex husband is Pakistani so got used to cooking alot of Pakistani dishes, I had a really good cookbook as well did every Indian recipe you could think of. Pakistani's do like their meat. Try keema curry (minced meat) , chana masala (chick peas in sauce) raita (spiced yogurt and cucumber. I added red onion to mine as well) masala fish. Roti's do have carbs but they are wholemeal so better than nann breads or parathas. Most Indian food is low carb as mainly sauces are cooked from scratch with spices, veg, meat and oil
 
It depends on how low you want to go carb wise. What's low for one may not be low for another.
Pakoras and bhajis are fine for me. Besan flour is extremely low GI and they are fried in oil. Just need to watch the portion size.
Dhal is generally OK but depends on the pulse. Again, portion size needs to be managed.
As for the meat - yum.
 

Thanks for the suggestions.

I've made keema before and really like it and raita and masala fish sound lovely.

A friend of mine who is also Type 2 and a lover of Indian food told me that she skips the rice and breads in Indian restaurants & gets one whole wheat roti. I'll have to try it although I did get a spike last night due to trying a lower carb flat bun (she can eat those flat buns without spikes. She told me that there is some variation among individuals as to which foods can spike in blood sugars and there is some trial and error with your meter). I have very low carb (3) tortillas in the fridge that I plan on trying. (They are not entirely wheat). If that spikes me (since I seem to be sensitive to wheat). , I''ll try one of Headbanger's keto flat breads. (I'm amazed he has a dosa that uses coconut flour). Chickpeas are a legume and apparently they spike many people's blood sugar although apparently in flour form (gram flour/besan/chickpea flour), they are not quite as bad. Thank goodness I have a glucose blood meter, it really helps me determine what foods individually I can eat or which ones are best avoided.
 

I agree with you about portion size. I'm generally under 50 carbs a day myself, sometimes lower.

I've heard that there is some individual variation with what causes blood glucose spikes. I plan on making a couple of pakoras with besan and trying to see if it has an effect on me. Are there any pulses that you've found are better than others? How is Toor Dal/pigeon peas? (I have an Andhran Tomato Dal with toor dal that is really good & my son-in-law loves).

I realize that I have to try them, test before and after to see the effect they have on me and how well I tolerate them. (I don't take any meds currently.)
 
Keema with peas is really nice, best thing with Indian food is the experimenting. Try lots of different combos to get what you like. If gram flour is ok mix with water to get a thick paste and put rings of onion in to fry. It's like a onion bhaji mixed with pakora style, really nice (I did like doing them with slices of potato too haha)
Rotis are really easy to make, should be able to buy the flour (wholemeal chapati flour) from indian shops and some supermarkets, mix with water to get a dough, roll out smallish round pancake style and dry fry in a flat pan both sides until cooked (should separate so it puffs up) my ex husband and his family always had rotis instead of rice as it was alot healthier. It does sound like you may be wheat intolerant. I have been gluten intol for 3 years now, but the gram flour, rice flour and corn flour is really good
 
I can get away with one chapatti without my BG going wonky x
 

A number of us here have the Instant Pot, and I'm a two sleevers fan too. Have you encountered myheartbeets ? She does lots of IP/Pressure cooker recipes, although not all are LC. https://myheartbeets.com/recipe-index/#all

I also usually have some onion masala in the freezer as the basis for a quick IP meal: https://myheartbeets.com/indian-onion-masala/
 
To go with curries I usually have cauliflower (not cauliflower rice) or flatbreads from the Tom Kerridge Dopamine Diet book. The flatbreads are made from coconut flour and psyllium husk, being slightly coconut flavour they go nicely with curry as a substitute for naan or chapatti. I believe there is a similar recipe on line without copyright but I can't find it. Here is what they look like.....
https://www.instagram.com/p/BTHP7zYgQua/?hl=en
 

I'm a fan of both Two Sleevers and My Heart Beets and I follow both of them (before the news about my blood glucose) and own their cookbooks. Unfortunately My Heart Beets doesn't supply the nutritional information which helps my carb & calorie counting (I sent her a message a while ago asking her to consider supplying this info.) BTW, I love my Instant Pot and use it often.
 
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