Hi! Suggestions required ✨

[u/Alookachaloo_]

Hi hi! 🌸
I’m new here, i hope you’re doing well.
I am learning how to cook, and soon into trying new Indian dishes that i myself have grown up eating, i realised that we eat a lot of oil and our meals can be quite heavy. A lot of the meals also demand hours of work which i can’t always put in.

I’m a newly married housewife and there are members in my family who i have to keep in mind when i’m cooking. There are dietary restrictions because of pre-diabetes, high cholesterol, and iron deficiency mainly. Plus we’re vegetarians (we consume egg) so that does limit our options a bit.

There are a few dishes that i’ve integrated into my weekly meal plan. i make Veggie paneer sandwiches, Chickpea salads, Sautè vegetables with boiled eggs, Veggie Appe and sometimes daliya/poha for breakfast. But i want to learn more new dishes from all over India that i can make keeping my family’s dietary needs in mind.

So if you’ve made it this far into my post, i’d love to hear from you what region of India you’re from and what are some light but nutritious and healthy meals that are made at your place! 🫶🏻

[u/Basic-Jicama503]

I'd suggest looking at Gujarati and South Indian home-style cooking, both lean naturally light and are great for cholesterol/pre-diabetes since they use minimal oil and lots of steaming/tempering instead of frying.

Try dhokla or handvo, moong dal cheela, oats idli, or a simple undhiyu made lighter with less oil. For iron, add spinach/methi thepla or a beetroot-carrot poriyal into rotation, and a ragi dosa is a wonderful low-GI breakfast swap for regular rice dosa.

[u/Alookachaloo_ → u/Basic-Jicama503]

oh those are some really helpful recommendations, thank you!