LOW CALORIE COOKING TIPS..!!!!

            LOW CALORIE COOKING TIPS
Here are some low calorie cooking tips for Indian food. Indian food
is known for being overly oily, fattening and high in cholestrol. But
by following these simple tips you can make Indian food healthy.
Read along...
Invest In Non Stick Pans: It is important to have a set of non-stick
pans to cook various dishes. You would require a very small kadhai
or wok for tempering, a larger wok, a shallow frying pan and perhaps
a deep saucepan for curried dishes.
A pressure cooker is essential to cook food fast and preserve
vitamins. And by using pressure cooker use can cook dishes with
little food
Dry Roast: Instead of frying foods, you can dry roast or braise them.
When tempering dals/beans you can either dry roast the tempering
ingredients or use upto 1 tsp. oil to stir-fry them.
Similarly, while making curries , onions may be braised - just add a
sprinkling of water or stock to lightly brown them, or cook them in a
microwave oven, or even boil them to prevent a raw onion taste in
the dish.
Alternatively,onions can be fried using very little oil in a non-stick
pan. If you do not use onions in your cooking and are following
recipes that use them, try tomato puree or roasted plain flour to
thicken curries and gravies.
Coconut should not be used because it is high in saturated fats. So
are items like nuts, malai, cream, poppy seeds etc.
Avoid tempering: To turn a high-calorie dish into a low-calorie one
just requires you to think differently. Usually dal is boiled and then
tempered (vaghar, tadka, etc) with fried spices. Instead of doing
this, add your onions, tomatoes, ginger, garlic (whatever you
generally use) to the dal when you are about to boil it. Then the
tempering can be made with very little oil, whether it is jeera, rai or
even just red chilli powder.
Bake All kinds of koftas, which are fried, can be baked instead.
Either you can bake the item in a pan and, when done, cut it into
squares and put the curry on top or you can make roundels of the
mixture, put them on a baking sheet or tray and bake.
Microwave Cooking: Some dishes can be more conveniently cooked
in a microwave. In addition, of course you can make dishes in larger
quantity and freeze them for later use (if you have a deep freezer).
These can then be thawed and reheated in the microwave oven.
There are some products available in the West that can help you
reduce the fat in your food. For instance, a cooking spray is handy
for baked dishes and dry cooked dishes. Non-fat milk, fat and sugar
free foods, low-cal margarines, egg substitute and other diet
specific foods may add variety to the diet.
Use Skimmed Milk: Try and use skim milk if you don't like the taste
of reconstituted powdered skim milk. Heat whichever milk you get
(cow's milk has less fat content than standard or whole milk) and
refrigerate it for 24 hours. Remove the malai from the surface, strain
the rest of the milk and use. Curd, too, should be made from this
milk. If you find the curd is on the thin side, thicken the milk with
some skim milk powder.
Use Artificial Sweetener : When making sweet dishes, use artificial
sweetener wherever possible. Or use part sugar and part sweetener.
You can use the product you are familiar with, saccharin,
aspartame, either liquid or tablets. In any case, it is better for health
to avoid sweets: substitute with lots of fresh fruit which are
healthier and lower in calories than say for instance halwa, ice-
cream or other high calorie desserts.
Remember the greater the variety of food you eat, the more
balanced a mix you will get and the healthier you will be as well.
We have many low-cal recipes for you to try. Happy dieting!.
This information is provided for theraputic purposes. Consult your
physician about the applicability of opinions or recommendations
with respect to your diet and health condition. his information is
provided for theraputic purposes. Consult your physician about the
applicability of opinions or recommendations with respect to your
diet and health condition.