So, what are you thoughts on Indian food? (obviously no potato, garbanzo beans, naan, rice etc...) But what about Chicken Tikka? Sagg (spinach), cauliflower? those are not made with the "can't eat list." Or better yet.. what is in the chicken and spinach dishes that I wouldn't be able to eat? Anyone else explore this before?
Spinach can come with potato, but you can ask for the "cheese" instead...

thoughts?

Also, I looked up Chicken Tikka Masala ingredients and everything is "ok" low carb friendly. when I looked up the carbs amounts it was a lot.. it's not really adding up?

I did see cauliflower and spinach are only 1.5- 2.0 carbs per serving.

my thoughts? Yes, please! I've had the lower carb options routinely over the past year with no issues. Better if you make it yourself but doable regardless.

Where did you look up the carb count? Maybe it included the rice?

I recently cooked a meal of shrimp masala, "nan bread" made of flax (Tyler's pizza crust without the spices), and "rice" made of shirataki noodles, chopped into small, rice-sized pieces. It was EXCELLENT.

What's wrong with "masala" sauce tho? I looked up the ingredients and Seems ok... Anyone know?

The carbs I looked up were just a general search. Maybe not reliable.

Thanks everyone!

** the carbs in the spinach and cauliflower I found on another low carb website.
** the Malasa carb was from a general search

BUT when I looked up ingredients for "Masala" the ingredients seemed all low carb friendly. Although, people 1. Avoid it 2. Cab count (the my general search) seemed high. Maybe it was counting in the rice...

I'm not sure where you are getting your carb counts from but they have a Chicken Tikka Masala recipe that is absolutely terrific on allrecipes.com that has a total carb count of 13.3g with 2.5g Fiber for a net of 11.2 per serving. It is perfectly low carb and I've made it a few times now to my husband's delight.

Please note that many Indian restaurants in the States ADD lots of sugar, just like Chinese restaurants do here (whereas chinese restaurants in China do not).

As a type I diabetic, I can tell ya my blood sugar is almost ALWAYS pretty high after eating Indian, even when I try to stick to low carb choices

I think many indian recipes can be low in carbs if you can control the ingredients, but as many restaurants do add sugars and starches to get their distinctive flavours you would need to ask individual chefs or look up website info if eating away from home.

Tandori should be awesome for LC. I've made it lots, the ingredients are: Tandori spices, yogurt, lemon juice, oil.

Oh... gotcha! it;s the sugars they add! I think the carbs I was getting was counting in 'rice' not just the Masala alone.

I guess making it is always more 'safe' then going out.

But now i've found: If you go for Indian food on LC diet get
Cauliflower, spinach Sagg, Tandoori,

yay thanks all

I love Indian food but many of you are right. Chefs do add quite add a lot of sugar in order to get the taste that their customers like. Anglo-Saxons do have an undeniable ability to gain a sweet tooth very quickly.

The best way of getting a safe carb count on any dish like that is to make it yourself from fresh ingredients. Most Indian dishes are not hard to do although they may require a bit more time than many because meats in particular require marinating in the sauce but of course the great thing about making it yourself is you can swap in and swap out anything that's not on your particular permitted list.

If you do want to eat out then it might be best to find a restaurant that you like and then have a chat with the chef and ask him to make the dish as close as he can as possible but without including any of the high carb ingredients.

We actually got to know the proprietor and the chef of our local restaurant who has it happened were husband and wife to the point where we were invited to their own home sociably. It was noticeable that the food they cook for themselves was vastly different to the food that they cook in the restaurant simply because they were cooking to traditional taste rather than commercial taste. The good thing of course is to my mind anyway, the traditional taste was actually much nicer. But what that did mean is that when we ate in the restaurant as we would do so with other friends from time to time that I at least could have the dishes I like made in a way that didn't cause me any problems whatsoever.

You will find most chefs of most restaurants will be open to the challenge of getting a unique taste from a more basic set of ingredients. Don't be shy about asking them if they're willing to do it for you. Many of them will be that is of course if you don't want to make it at home.

Hope that helps,

Mark

It's also important to use authentic Indian recipes for that same reason. I use Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking and Royal Indian Cookery by Manju Shivraj Singh - both are EXCELLENT cookbooks.

My recipe for chicken tikka masala is fairly low in carbs and quite good: http://buttoni.wordpress.com/2009/0...a-masala-curry/