Cooking for health

In Indian cooking we find dairy almost everywhere. However, it’s easy enough to eliminate it and still have similar dishes that taste great

Ghee – Most Indian vegetable dishes and daals can be cooked without ghee or butter. A small amount of cashew butter say in a gajjar halwa or daal makhani can give the flavour of ghee. For that extra flavor on chappaties etc see our vegan ghee recipe made from desiccated coconut.

Cream – If the recipe calls for cream, the cream can be replaced with cashew-nut paste – made by grinding raw soaked cashew-nuts and adding a little water. Or cashew butter and water can be blended to get the desired consistency of a cream. The advantage of a nut butter over cream or oil is that it is made of the whole substance and so also contains fibre. It gives the flavour with lower calories for the same volume. Cashew butter and cream taste remarkably like the dairy versions.

Curds – If the recipe calls for curds, you can replace it with peanut or soy curds or even coconut milk. For example – curd rice is easily made with peanut curds. Raitas can be made in coconut milk or peanut curd, Chaas can be made with peanut curds, Kadhi can be made with peanut curds or coconut milk.

Milk in desserts – This can be easily replaced with coconut milk or with nut milks for kheer type desserts. Some deserts can be made with coconut milk and sesame butter for the thickness.