How To Turn Indian Meals Into High Protein Meals

If you’re reading this, you probably already understand the importance of protein in your diet. If not, take some time to familiarize yourself with its importance and then come back to this post. I’ve discussed the value of protein extensively in these articles: How to Eat 100 Grams of Protein a Day and Indians Don’t Eat Enough Protein: Let’s Fix That.

With that aside, the aim of this post isn’t to persuade you of the importance of protein, but rather to share some creative ways to boost your protein intake, even within an Indian vegetarian diet.

The Indian cuisine is very low in protein. In fact, Indians have one of the lowest protein consumption rates worldwide. Consequently, over 80% of Indians are protein deficient. This means a majority of Indians are not getting essential amino acids their body needs to survive.

In my previous post, I showed that a typical Indian meal contains less than 10 grams of protein, which is less than 1/3 of the optimal amount. Furthermore, many Indians are misinformed about the protein content in various foods. They believe that rice, fruits, and vegetables are high in protein, while chicken, mutton, paneer, and seafood are low in protein. If we want to improve India’s overall health, it’s crucial to educate the population on the importance of a high-protein diet.

In this post, we’ll begin by looking at the optimal protein you should consume for overall health and maintaining muscle mass as we age. Then, we’ll explore some key principles for creating high-protein meals. Lastly, we’ll take a look at 5 popular Indian dishes and turn them from low-protein to high-protein meals. By the end, you should have a formula to use your favorite Indian foods to build a high protein diet.

Let’s dive in!

How Much Protein Is Optimal

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) recommends that an average adult should consume approximatelyt 1 gram of protein per kg of body weight daily. For example, if someone weighs 60 kgs, they would need to consume 60 grams of protein each day. However, ample evidence indicates that the optimal amount is closer to 1.6 grams per kg of body weight. The body can efficiently utilize up to this amount of protein to build muscle mass. The more muscle mass we have, the better we look, feel, and function as we age.

Therefore, assuming 1.6 grams of protein per kg of bodyweight, a 60 kg individual would need to consume 96 grams of protein daily. The following chart provides various body weights and their corresponding optimal protein intake per day.

For the sake of demonstration, let’s stick with the 60 kg individual. We’ll assume her goal is to eat 100 grams of protein per day. If she eats 3 meals a day, she can evenly distribute their protein intake, consuming roughly 32 grams of protein per meal.

Of course, these are just examples. It’s fine to go over or under each meal, as long as the daily total is around 100 grams. One person might prefer a high protein meal (50+ grams) and distribute the remaining protein across other meals. Another might want an equal split for all meals. There’s no right or wrong way to do it. Even if you go over or under one day, as long as your weekly average is close to the optimal amount, you’re good.

Additionally, let’s debunk the “YOUR BODY CAN’T DIGEST MORE THAN 30 GRAMS OF PROTEIN IN ONE SITTING” myth. The notion that you cannot absorb more than 30 grams of protein is false, as evidenced by research. For instance, a study conducted on women showed that there was no difference in absorption between those who consumed 54g of protein in a single meal versus across four meals. Your small intestines can absorb and store a large amount of amino acids, utilizing them when your body requires it.

In simple terms, your body will break down and utilize all the protein you consume, no matter how much you eat in one sitting. So, if you prefer two large meals with 50 grams of protein each, go for it. Some people can’t consume that much protein, so it’s reasonable to divide it across multiple meals and snacks.

Key Principles And Tips to Making a Meal High Protein

Before diving into the specifics of transforming Indian meals into high-protein dishes, let’s take a step back and discuss some key principles and tips. By applying these strategies, you’ll be able to get creative and discover new ways to create protein-rich meals.

#1. Always start with the protein source

Protein often takes a backseat in Indian dishes. In fact, most people don’t even consider whether a meal contains protein. From now on, I encourage you to approach each meal with a protein-first mindset. Instead of saying, “I’m going to have dosa for breakfast!”, try thinking, “I will have eggs for breakfast and pair them with dosa.”

Similarly, instead of saying, “I’m going to have Sabzi for lunch,” try saying, “I want to make something with chicken. I’ll add some minced chicken into my sabzi.”

Hopefully, you get the idea. You’re training your brain to prioritize protein, and then you gradually incorporate carbs and fats.

#2 Learn easy preparation methods for protein sources

It’s essential to have quick sources of protein available daily. I recommend becoming good at cooking and batch prepping the following:

1) Chicken or Fish Curry: Make a large batch of chicken or fish curry weekly and store it in the refrigerator.

2) Batch prep chicken: Buy 2kg of chicken weekly and boil it (or use a slow-cooker or Instant Pot/pressure cooker) before storing it in the refrigerator. Later, it becomes easy to season the chicken and add it into your meals.

3) Minced chicken: Always keep minced chicken on hand, because it’s incredibly convenient to add to your curries to boost the protein content.

5) Pan-fried paneer and tofu: If you do not eat animal protein, keep paneer or tofu on hand at all times and learn to pan-fry them in just a few minutes. Paneer will be a huge source of protein as a vegetarian. However, as I wrote in my previous post, paneer is high in fat. If you are worried about the fat content, you can use low fat paneer. To make low fat paneer at home, you would simply use skimmed milk instead of whole milk.

6) Homemade cottage cheese: Prepare a large batch of homemade cottage cheese weekly. It is paneer, but you make it into a cheese consistency and makes it versatile to have as a side (just like yogurt). It’s incredibly simple and takes just 20 minutes. Search Google for recipes, like this one. Alternatively, purchase it locally if you can find it.

#3 Use whole grains instead of refined grains

Instead of white rice or maida, replace them with whole grains such as quinoa, sorghum, amaranth, brown rice, atta flour (whole wheat flour), besan (chickpea flour) or horse gram flour. These whole grains are a great source of protein and have more vitamins and minerals.

#4 Mix in nutritional yeast into curries

Nutritional yeast is a rich source of protein for vegetarians. Don’t sleep on it! Add a scoop to your curries, and you won’t even notice the taste, but you’ll instantly gain 8 grams of protein and a ton of vitamins. You can order some from Amazon.

#5 Sneak in collagen into your dairy

Dairy products, such as yogurt or milk, are excellent sources of protein, particularly for vegetarians. Moreover, because they are much easily digestible than other vegetarian protein sources (eg. soya chunks), it will be the primary source of protein vegetarians. To get more bang for your buck, whenever you enjoy yogurt or a glass of milk, add a scoop of collagen for an extra 10-15 grams of protein. You won’t even notice the difference in taste, I promise. My favorite brand is Perfect Supplements Collagen. You can also buy it directly from their website here.

#6 Use boiled eggs whenever you run out of ideas

Boiled eggs are a versatile and simple way to incorporate protein into your meals, no matter what you’re eating. In fact, my husband enjoys 6 eggs with his breakfast every morning while visiting India, followed by a typical Indian meal. This ensures that he is getting enough protein in. You don’t need to consume 6 eggs in one sitting, but adding 2 eggs to a meal provides 12 grams of protein and a wealth of nutrients to your diet.

Now that we understand the key principles, let’s dive into specific examples. 

#6 Avoid unhealthy fats

Eating the wrong types of fat (eg. vegetable and seed oils) is as bad (or worse) than eating low protein. If you are taking this effort to eat high-protein meals, then do yourself a favor and throw out inflammatory oils and cook with healthy fats like ghee, butter, avocado oil, olive oil, etc. 

5 Popular Indian Meals Transformed into High-Protein Meals

We will look at 5 popular Indian meals and transform them from low-protein to high-protein meals. All the meals have a minimum of 30 grams of protein, sometimes even more. You can choose to adjust the portion sizes to add more/less protein based on your needs.

1) Roti Sabzi

Roti and sabzi is a classic Indian dish. Roti, a flatbread made from whole wheat flour, is paired with sabzi, a curry consisting of a medley of vegetables. The vegetables can vary, such as peas and potatoes or green beans and carrots, among others.

Assuming a person consumes 2 rotis and 200 grams of cooked sabzi, here are the macros:

Now, let’s take a look at how we can easily transform this into a high-protein meal:

2) Dosa and Chutney

This is a popular breakfast dish. If we assume someone eats 2 medium dosas and 75 grams of coconut chutney, here are the macros:

Dosa is delicious, no doubt. No need to eliminate it from your diet! You can easily turn this low-protein dish into a high-protein meal as shown below:

3) Poha

Poha is an Indian Breakfast made with flattened rice, onions, spices, peanuts, and herbs. 200 grams of Poha has the following macros:

Poha basically has no protein. It is crucial that you add protein to this meal or else is becomes just a carb feast. Below is one way you can turn Poha into a high-protein meal.

4) Pav Bhaji

Pav Bhaji is a popular fast food item in North India. It consists of a vegetable curry (bhaji) cooked in tomato gravy and served with a soft butter bread roll (pav). The macros as is are are follows:

Pav bhaji is so good, but it would be better if it were higher in protein. Here is a simple way to do that:

5) Moong Dal Khichdi

Khichdi is a dish of rice and lentils. The most common lentil used is moong dal, which is a split and skinned version of green gram. The macros are as follows for 1 cup of Moong Dal Khichdi:

Khichdi is a quick and easy dish to prepare and very hearty. But for it to be a balanced meal, it needs more protein. Here is one way to do that:

As you can see, with a bit of thought, it’s easy to create high-protein meals using just a few staple ingredients: paneer, cottage cheese, yogurt, chicken, eggs, and nutritional yeast.

Conclusion

I barely scratched the surface on all the creative ways you turn Indian meals into high-protein meals. I hope this inspires you to head into the kitchen and come up with healthy recipes of your own.

By consuming a protein-rich diet, you’ll begin to notice healthy changes in your body and mind. Your appetite will be better regulated, your hair, skin, and nail health will improve, your blood sugar levels will stabilize, your mood will be steadier, and you may even shed some weight.

But be patient. It might take up to 3 months to notice a difference. Just stick with it, and your body, mind, and soul will be grateful!