Dieters beware! Some styles of Indian cooking are vegetarian, which is great for including proper nutrition, but don’t let that lull you into thinking that these foods are low-calorie diet dishes. Plenty of fat is used in Indian cooking — usually clarified butter called ghee.
Roasting tandoori style (in a clay oven called a tandoor) is a good lowfat cooking method, but other dishes are often stewed and fried. Indian breads are many and varied, ranging from chapatti to high-fat, deep-fried poori. Often, the chef gives the breads a shimmer of butter before serving them.
Indian cuisine doesn’t focus on meat; rather, it uses carbohydrates, such as basmati rice (an aromatic long-grain variety) and lentils as its foundation. Vegetables are a part of almost every dish, and the sauces are enriched with yogurt, not cream.
Choose more of these:
Chutney
Dahl (lentils)
Masala (curry)
Matta (peas)
Paneer (a fresh milk cheese)
Pullao or pilau (rice)
Raita (a yogurt and cucumber condiment)
Eat less of these:
Chickpea batter used to deep-fry
Ghee (clarified butter)
Korma (cream sauce)
Molee (coconut)
Poori (a deep-fried bread)
Samosas (fried turnover appetizers)