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Since lunch is one of the main meals of the day, it should consist of healthy and nutritious foods that help one function through the day. Not only this, when someone is trying to lose weight, eating healthy is a must. Apart from regular exercise and intensive workouts, it is important to regain all the strength and energy by taking in the right kind of nutrition.
From green leafy vegetables to lentils and curries, there are plenty of options in the Indian fare that can make a healthy lunch meal. Even breads and rice can be healthy options, in this case. Instead of whole wheat, adding flours like jowar and bajra to the dough will amp up the nutritional value of the bread and also keep you full for longer.
To aid weight loss and satiate appetite, there are many recipes that can be tried. From oats khichdi to sprouts wrap, you can make a different recipe each day so that it adds variety to your food. This will help you be motivated to continue your diet and avoid unhealthy and calorie-loaded foods. Here are a few healthy Indian recipes for weight loss:
1. Bharwa Lauki
Lauki, or bottle gourd, is a green vegetable that is rich in water and great for summers. While lauki is often made into a mushy vegetable, this lauki recipe comes with stuffed bottle gourd. The bottle gourd is sliced into half and then cut into smaller pieces. These shouldn’t be very small as the stuffing needs to be added. The pieces are then filled with a delicious paneer mixture. Scrambled paneer, with tomatoes and onions is filled in and the lauki is cooked in soupy tomato gravy. The watery gravy paired with lauki is nutritious and healthy.
2. Cracked Wheat And Oats Vegetable Khichdi
The humble one-pot dish features under comfort food quite often. Khichdi fits the bill for a healthy lunch because it is light, filling and full of nutrients. The moong dal that goes into the making of this khichdi is rich in protein. Instead of rice, cracked wheat and oats are used as healthy substitutes. When all of this is brought together, it becomes a soft and mushy bowl of khichdi. The lunch dish is filled with various vegetables too like carrots, peas, tomatoes and onions.
3. Roasted Curried Cauliflower
The typical aloo-gobhi and gobhi-matar combination can be replaced with this cauliflower recipe. The florets of cauliflower are carefully separated. These florets are then tossed with onions and garlic. Spices used in curries like cloves, curry powder and cinnamon are added to it. You can also add some turmeric powder for a yellow colour. The cauliflower florets are roasted in a pan on medium-heat. Add salt as per taste and spruce up your lunch with this recipe. Since it is a dry recipe, it can be eaten alone without any bread or rice.
4. Methi And Moong Sprouts Wrap
This is a wholesome recipe that is made with the goodness of sprouts. Rotis are prepared by rolling whole-wheat dough into round shapes. These are then cooked on a tawa and kept aside. Sprouts, for the unversed, are beans or lentils that are germinated over time and these turn into healthy snacks. For this recipe, green moong dal is used for sprouting and the sprouts are spiked up with onions, tomatoes, red chilly powder, and salt. These are then mixed with fresh methi leaves. This mixture is stuffed in the prepared rotis and rolled up into easy-to-eat wraps for lunch.
5. Brown Rice Pulao
Pulao, for the uninitiated, is an Indian rice dish which belongs to the family of pilaf and biryani. A lighter and less-rich version of biryani, minus the extra spices, pulao can be filled with all kinds of vegetables. Meats like chicken and mutton can also be added to the rice. This recipe makes use of brown rice to make the pulao. Brown rice is considered to be healthier than white rice, with fewer calories. Load up the one-pot dish with broccoli, baby corn, peas, onions, capsicum and any other vegetable you like. Pair it with a bowl of raita and enjoy.
