Cooking Tips for Healthy Eating
Leicestershire Nutrition and Dietetic Service have recently published a guide, “ Cooking Tips for Healthy Eating in the South Asian Community” aimed at making “traditional dishes healthier”. We found this guide quite interesting and if like us you couldn’t go without Asian Food, here are some tips to eat healthier while still enjoying your favourite dishes. We have selected a few tips from the guide for you.
- Chapattis: cook them with boiling water and some milk instead of oil.
- Thepla: make thicker theplas, as less fat will be used to cook the same quantity.
- Papad: instead of serving them with a pickle why not try to serve them with an onion and tomato mixture.
- Curries: use a vegetable based oil e.g. olive, rapeseed or sunflower oil rather than ghee or butter when cooking. Also, use less oil in cooking.
- Meat and Oily Fish: buy lean cuts of meat and remove all visible fat before cooking.
- Potato: cook the potatoes with their skins on, as the skin on a potato contains fibre.
- Paneer: it is high in fat so do not have it too often.
- Dhal: choose peas, beans, lentils and dhals more often as these are low in fat and high in fibre.
- Rice: choose boiled rice more often than fried rice.
- Raita: use low fat plain yogurt.
- Mixed Bhajias: make a thick paste with the gram flour and all the other ingredients.
- Samosa / Kachori: try to limit your intake of these foods are they are high in fat and can cause weight gain.
- Kheer: use a maximum of 1 tablespoon sugar/artificial sweetener (for 4 servings).
- Carrot halva: use semi skimmed milk.
To read the whole guide by LNDS, click here.
