Indian Recipes for a Healthy Heart: 140 Low-Fat, Low-Cholesterol, Low-Sodium Gourmet Dishes from India

Endorsed by health professionals, it offers lovers of good food a whole new repetoire or healthful dishes, and to Indians, a way of meeting dietary guidelines without giving up their favorite cuisine. The book is packed with a wealth of useful and easy-to-understand information in addition to the 140 easy-to-cook recipes with step-by-step instructions which even a beginner to cooking can follow. Illustrated with line drawings, nutrition analysis tables, and indexed for quick reference, it is essential reading for anyone who cares about healthy eating or just good food

I must admit this cookbook sat on my shelf for a long time because I loved Mathu Jaffrey's time consuming and complexly spiced recipes if I was going to use a cookbook. The cooking we have always done at home used alot of specialty ingredients and took a lot of time, it seemed to me that simple low fat indian couldn't be any good.

BUT I WAS WRONG! The recipes in this book are EXCELLENT. Very close to authentic while using ingredients you can find almost anywhere and VERY HEALTHY. Imagine that!

The recipes in this book are low-fat, low cholesterol and low sodium while being very flavorful and fresh tasting. The nutritional lable at the end each recipe is very complete also. For example, for beef samosa's, she has 2 different ways of cooking them, fried or baked. Then she includes 2 nutrient analysis for each way of cooking it. VERY NICE!

Also each nutrient analysis has a breakdown for sodium with salt included and sodium content without AND a saturated fat versas total fat breakdown.

The last 40 pages have info on :

indian spices and their usages and flavor

American, British, Australian, and Metric conversion

oven temperture conversion : F versas Celcius

explaination of proteins, fats, carbs, and sodium Table of desirable weights for men and women

differences in cholesterol cooked and raw

balanced diet info

and a nutritional breakdown table of "common" foods although it includes items like lentils, bulgar and veal.

The only minus is that this book has diagrams (for somosa wrapping etc.) but no color pictures. :(

Overall I'd say this is a wonderful book for people interested in fitness or dieting and exotic foods! Not a single item in this book is swimming in fat, like most indian cookbooks are.

I would buy this book for cooking for myself daily and a Muthu Jaffrey's (high fat) cookbooks for cooking for special occassions and guests.

Defionately buy this book, it lives up to it name!

Another good cookbook low fat cookbook I would recomend is "Easy Exotic : A Model's Low-Fat Recipes from Around the World" mostly indian, some asian. Very good too!


Easy & Healthy Alternative!   January 2, 2000
 15 out of 16 found this review helpful

I was looking for an alternative to the traditional southern black eye peas & greens New Year meal. I found it in Mrs. Lakhani's book. The black eyed pea salad and curried spinach recipes were easy to make and very tasty. As I looked through the book I found many recipes that I can't wait to try. She has a great selection of vegetarian and non-vegetarian recipes.