The key to a successful diet is all about making your food taste great.
One of the best ways to add tons of flavor to your food is through spices.
And let me tell you, the subcontinent of India does it right.
You see, a lot of classic “diet-friendly” food in the US is simply bland and boring.
If you want to make your diet food taste incredible, take a lesson from the people of India.
Add spice!
Why Spices Are the Secret to Dieting
Spices add no extra calories to your food but they pack a flavor punch.
And when you are dieting, making your food taste great is important for the longevity of your calorie deficit.
You can learn more about how much you need to eat in order to be in a calorie deficit here.
I just finished a mini cut and the secret to getting super lean was truly all about maximizing flavor and I don’t know a better cuisine to maximize flavor than Indian.
So over the past couple of months, various Indian-style dishes have been a real help to keeping me satiated while dieting.
In the video below, I teach you how to make an authentic Chicken Vindaloo from scratch – the ultimate spice heavy dish that is perfect when dieting.
Chicken Vindaloo : Give Your Diet Some Kick
When people think of Indian cuisine, they often think of spicy dishes.
Interestingly though, India did not have a chili pepper until the Portuguese colonizers arrived and brought it from their conquest in South America.
Vindaloo is a Goan dish that is famed for its vinegary and garlicky Indo-Potroguse flare.
The flavor notes are fiery with sweet-sour undertones and it all comes down to the spices used.
The Vindaloo Paste
First we need to make our vindaloo paste that will serve as the primary flavor pop in our Vindaloo.
We are going to need:
-2 tsp of cumin seeds.
-1 tsp of black pepper corns.
-2tsp of black mustard seeds.
-1tsp of fenugreek seeds
-6 cloves.
-1 piece of cassia or cinnamon
-1 star anise
-1 tsp of cardamom seeds (removed from the husk)
And finally 20 Kashmiri whole dried peppers and a tsp of salt.
Bringing It All Together
Directions:
1.) First, we are going to toast all of the spices to bring out their flavor. Simply bring a pan up to medium heat and dump in your spices. Make sure to stir constantly to prevent them from burning. After about 30 seconds you will begin to smell them. Keep stirring and then remove the spices from the heat.
2.) Next, you want to pour your spices into a spice grinder. I’m simply using my blender for this which works just as well. Crush it up into a fine powder consistency. The Kashmiri pepper imparts an incredible color to this spice mixture and gives it that characteristically bright red tone.
3.) Next, we need to add 6tbs of apple cider vinegar to the spice mixture. Then stir it up into a chunky paste.
4.) Next, we need to work on our other aromatics for the vindaloo. We need to grate one 2inch piece of ginger into a fine paste. Grating the ginger will break the cell walls inside the ginger and liberate its aromatic properties. You can immediately smell the difference once it is crushed. You can use a brush to get all of the grated ginger off of the tool.
5.) Next, we are going to do the same thing with 2 large garlic cloves. Grating the garlic will also activate the flavor of this small but mighty bulb. Brush off the underside of your tool to get all of the garlic into the bowl.
6.) Now we need to chop up our main protein and veg component for the vindaloo. First chop up one small eggplant. Chop them into roughly 1 inch cubes and toss them into the same bowl with the grated ginger and garlic.
7.) Next chop up 1lb of boneless skinless chicken thighs. You also want to cut these up into roughly 1 inch cubes. Throw that into the bowl with the eggplant.
8.) Now take that Vindaloo Paste that we made earlier and pour the entire jar into the bowl. Here comes the fun part. We need to mix this up thoroughly. And I mean thoroughly. You want to make sure that all of the chicken and eggplant are coated with the paste. You dont have to use your hands but I find it much easier to get everything coated this way. Put it in the fridge overnight to let all of that flavor absorb. Or alternatively, let it marinate for at least an hour if you are in a time crunch.
9.) Now we are moving on to adding in our supportive ingredients. The first item is our spicy component. We are going to be using Hari Mirch as it is called in Hindi, or green chilii. They have a Scoville heat index of 20-30k which is roughly 3x hotter than a jalapeno. Hence why we will just be using 2 of these small peppers for our entire recipe. Chop those up and put them into a bowl.
I found these at my awesome local Indian grocer and the guy was shocked that I was buying them.
He was like “you know these are really hot right?”
And I said, yupp I’m aware.
He was like “okaayyy.”
Put a smile on my face for sure.
If you don’t love a lot of heat, you can substitute in any other chili pepper that is a bit milder.
10.) We are also going to need some cherry tomatoes that have been cut in half. Two big handfuls will be plenty. Combine the hot pepper with the tomato and set aside. Then we are going to need one large onion that has been chopped. Keep the onion in a separate bowl.
11.) Okay, now into the pan goes 1tbs of coconut oil. Let that melt on a medium temp and throw in your onion and let that soften down, about 5 minutes. You’ll notice the color shift in the onion when they are ready.
12.) Now it’s time to throw in your marinaded chicken and eggplant. The idea now is to brown it up for 5 minutes or so. You want to keep stirring it in the pot to prevent it from burning. You’ll get some of the spice that sticks to the bottom of the pot but no worries because we are going to deglaze the bottom of the pot in a second. But first, throw in your tomato and Hari Mirch into the mixture and stir it around for a second.
13.) Now deglaze your pot by adding in one cup of chicken stock. Stir for a couple seconds.
14.) One final component as well top everything off and add some more acidity. Drop in a splash of apple cider vinegar.
15.) Make sure your oven is pre heated to 375 and put your oven-safe pot in and bake for 30 minutes.
I have to say, I really love using my dutch oven and have been using it for a ton of recipes this year.
It’s really great for heat retention and distribution.
Take that out of the oven and serve it with some basmati rice!
Vindaloo : The Calories
This plate is only 250 calories!
17g protein, 24g carb, and 5g fat.
The entire big pot we made contains 6 even servings.
All I did to divide the calories out is total up the ingredients and divide by 6
The calories are coming from the chicken and coconut oil, not the veggies.
So take your 1tbs of coconut oil and chicken, add them together and divide by 6.
If you want a bigger portion, simply multiply your serving sizes.
I arrived at 6 even servings by using a 1 cup measuring cup.
It’s all about ratios at the end of the day.
Most people wouldn’t think that a decadent dish like Vindaloo could come out to be 250kcal.
But the reality is, when you cook from home – you can make restaurant-quality food the healthy way.
You know exactly how much goes into the dish and you can modify the ingredients to lower the calories
For example, usually a vindaloo recipe will have more calories from fat but we cut that down by using skinless chicken thighs and also less oil to fry the onions.
By doing so, you aren’t going to compromise on flavor anyway because the majority of it is coming from all of those awesome spices we used.
Fatloss : It Starts with Great Tasting Food
So the real takeaway here is that if you want to have a long successful diet, you need to make great-tasting food and portion it properly.
I have seen many clients fail to maintain their calorie deficit because they give up on eating their bland-tasting food.
And I can’t blame them.
Once we incorporated super tasty home-cooked food with lots of spices, they were able to maintain their deficit and lost weight much easier!
Humans enjoy food and there is no reason to stop enjoying food just because you are trying to lose fat.
You have to get creative with your cooking and make sure you know what is going into your food so that you can portion it properly.
If you want to see more diet-friendly recipes, check out my other videos.
We’ll see you next time!
Who is Jakob Roze?
