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Home · What to eat · Order Tandoori, Dry Curries and Raita — Low-Carb Indian Food

What to eat

What is low carb Indian food?

Indian menus separate cleanly: the tandoor and the dry curries are protein-first, while naan, rice and the creamy sauces are what carry the carbs.

Order from the tandoor — tikka, seekh kebab, tandoori chicken or fish — and pair it with a dry curry, raita and salad rather than naan and rice. Indian cooking is unusually well suited to eating low-carb because the tandoor section is essentially grilled marinated protein, and the vegetable dishes are proper dishes. The bread and rice are the base by convention, not by necessity.

Best choices

  1. 1Anything from the tandoor: chicken tikka, seekh kebab, tandoori fishMarinated in yoghurt and spice, then grilled — protein cooked dry, with no sauce carrying it
  2. 2A dry or bhuna-style curry rather than a creamy oneBhuna, jalfrezi and karahi are cooked down; korma, makhani and passanda are cream- or nut-based sauces
  3. 3Saag or a dry vegetable dish as the second plateSpinach and dry-cooked vegetables give the meal volume without the bread
  4. 4Raita and kachumber salad instead of naanYoghurt and salad do the cooling job the bread is often there for
  5. 5Tandoori paneer or a dal, if you are not eating meatBoth carry real substance; dal is legume-based rather than starch-based

Watch out for

  • Korma, butter chicken and passanda are cream, nut and coconut sauces — the sauce is most of the dish
  • Naan is enriched bread and a large one is a substantial portion on its own
  • Biryani is a rice dish with meat in it, not a meat dish with rice beside it
  • Samosas, pakoras and bhajis are fried batter or pastry
  • Poppadoms with chutneys arrive free and are easy to finish before the meal starts

Also asked

Can you eat Indian food on a low carb diet?

Comfortably — the tandoor section alone is a menu of grilled marinated protein, which is unusual for a restaurant cuisine. What makes an Indian meal carb-heavy is the accompaniments and the sauce style: naan, rice, and the cream- or nut-thickened curries. Order tandoori with a dry curry, raita and salad and you have eaten a full Indian meal with very little of it coming from bread or rice.

Which Indian curry is lowest in carbs?

The dry-cooked ones — bhuna, jalfrezi, karahi and similar — where the sauce has been reduced onto the meat rather than served as a pool. Saag dishes are also a good choice. The ones to know about are korma, makhani and passanda, which are built on cream, nuts or coconut; those are the richest sauces on most menus.

What can I eat instead of naan and rice?

Raita, kachumber salad, and a second vegetable dish. Bread and rice are usually there to carry sauce and cool heat, and yoghurt and fresh salad do both jobs. Ordering an extra dry vegetable dish in place of the bread also means the meal is still the same size — which is generally why the bread gets ordered in the first place.

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