Indian food

poodlebone · #1 (**permalink**) 05-27-2006, 10:18 PM

Does anyone eat Indian food on a regular basis? Any suggestions for items that are (1) easy to carb count and (2) not drowining in fat/oil? I have had a serious craving for Indian food lately and this afternoon I got some pretty bad take out - chicken curry, naan and samosas. The bread & samosas were actually really good, but I totally miscalculated the bread carbs (looked it up online, forgot to increase the serving size). I was fine for several hours and then went up to 187, but came back down. Better than I expected. I think I had a square wave bolus set for 4 hours.

So, I'd like to find something lighter. I don't mind if it has carbs as long as there aren't tons of them hidden in a sauce, but I'd like to avoid heavy, creamy sauces if possible.

mwd · #2 (**permalink**) 05-27-2006, 11:08 PM

hi Liz,
I am fm india and we eat indian food very often. go for rotis/chappatis, ie whole wheat indian bread, instead of nans that r made w refined flour. get any tandoori food which is basically grilled chicken, fish, red meat and veges. these two go well with raita, that is yoghurt sauce, and indian salad. curries u will have to try and see because they all make it differently. if u r planning to order butter chicken ask the restaurant if they add sugar in it bcoz most of them do and it will mostly b creamy as well. most other curries should not b having added sugar but extra oil is there most of the times in curries and u will have to try and look for a place that adds less oil. dals, ie lentils curries, dont usually have too much oil. carb counting u will have to figure out urself coz they would b making things differently in ur part of the world and i am not at all good at guesstimating carbs myself.
why dont u look at some recipe sites and try cooking indian foods at home that will give u an idea on carbs as well. any recipe/ cooking tip u want u can ask me as well. i enjoy eating and cooking both.

I try to stay away fm samosas when i can, as they make my sugars go thru the roof!
try south indian foods if u can they r usually lighter.
Enjoy!

DeusXM · #3 (**permalink**) 05-28-2006, 03:11 AM

Generally, the spicier the curry, the less creamy it is. So if you've got a strong stomach you might want to aim for jafrezi or madras. Otherwise, I've found that rogan josh is a very good sauce - it's a bit like bolognese, is quite thin, registers about 'medium' on the hotness and usually has a lot of vegetables in it to give it bulk. It's also my favourite sauce in terms of taste.

Chicken is probably the best meat to have in terms of price and healthiness - lamb is quite a fatty meat and prawns are usually pretty expensive.

One thing you should always watch for is the rice. Go for basmalti or pilao instead of the fried stuff, and also be aware that you will ALWAYS eat too much rice. Generally with curry I'll increase my bolus by 50% and then watch my BG like a hawk for the rest of the evening.

Mister Q · #4 (**permalink**) 05-28-2006, 04:38 AM

A fave recipe of ours with some home made chapatis -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/da...un_76586.shtml

poodlebone · #5 (**permalink**) 05-28-2006, 10:22 PM

MWD,

Thanks for all of the tips. I knew I should have gone for the wheat bread but I decided I kight as well splurge. The bread really was great, and the samosas were also very good. It was the main dish, chicken curry, that I wasn't crazy about.

I will look for some recipes, just to get an idea of what's in different dishes. I did look something up online and it gace the basic cooking styles of various parts of India, but I can't find the page right now. I just remember one are of southern India seemed to have the lightest cooking (least fat).

By my job there are literally dozens of Indian restaurants in a matter of a few blocks. Passing by them every day has been a big temptation. I just might have to try them all and find the one with the lightest food that easiest to carb count!

Tim_Roy · #6 (**permalink**) 05-30-2006, 10:31 PM

I'm lactose intolerant. I've enjoyed Chicken Vindalu (sp?).

Jan2306 · #7 (**permalink**) 06-03-2006, 11:24 PM

Indain food is my favorite so I figured out what I could eat in the first few weeks of dx. I tend to order the same thing about once a week since my numbers stay under control and even though it's a bit boring, it works for me. The food - tandoori chicken or chicken tikka, some eggplant curry (about 1/2cup), a little saffron rice (about 1/4 cuop) which is low on the GI index, and some bean dish, usually lentils. I can't do naan bread - just shoots my numbers up. Next time I order in, I'm going to try it with a low carb beer.

Tim_Roy · #8 (**permalink**) 06-05-2006, 02:43 AM

I love the naan bread. And the Indian beer.

But the last time I went out for Indian food was with my psychosomatic ex-girlfriend. She was convinced that all asian food had peanuts in it. No amount of convincing from the waitress was quite enough for her.

I stronly suspect that after finally relenting, she "imagined" an allergic reaction to peanuts in her meal. I had to run her to the drug store for some Benadryl. I tried not to pay her too much attention nor apologize too much. Had it not been that it would have been something else.

The tricky thing with Indian food is counting the carbs of course. OK, not so PC joke time. I'm fixing something at a particular Native American reservation I won't mention the name of. One of the employees/residents complained about calling tech support and getting Indian tech support. I was biting my lips trying to keep from making the obvious joked that were leaping to mind.

Though I think he himself made some kind of "So you're an Indian too?" joke which I don't know if they got.