Food check list: 6 Pan-Asian dishes recommended for diabetics

Mumbai: Do you constantly ask yourself, ‘What can I eat?”. It’s time to stop worrying! Being diabetic doesn’t mean you that you need to be deprived of eating delicious food. All you need to learn is to balance your meals and make the healthiest food choices.

When you go out for dinners at Pan-Asian restaurants you can always order a salubrious dish from the menu. Here are few dishes that you can order without worrying about your sugar level. So relax and dig into a wide variety of meals.

The list of dishes given below are recommended for a diabetic patient.

Tom Yum Soup  

This soup is a lot like clear soup however, it’s a blend of vegetable stew and tomato soup. Some even say that it helps to cure a cold. This popular Thai soup has a tangy and has an exotic flavour of galangal, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, fresh lime juice and Thai chillies. Packed with herbs, spices and soothing broth, it's topped up with the fresh mushroom that will light up your taste buds.

Nutritional Values: Kcal-80, Carbs- 9g, Fat- 2.5g, Protein- 5g.

Crystal dumpling with Shitake mushroom and water chestnut

Consisting of just 86 Kcal, this is a unique kind of dumpling that takes the name of crystal as it looks a bit like crystal due to its almost translucent skin. But obviously this dish doesn’t contain any crystal. The skin of this type of dumpling is much more soft and chewy as wheat starch is added in the dough. The dumpling has a filling of finely chopped mushrooms and water chestnut along with other vegetables like carrot, red and yellow bell pepper that gives it a fresh, luscious flavour.

Nutritional Values: Kcal-86, Carbs- 21g, Fat- 1.7g, Protein- 2.2g.

“Most people with Diabetes are unaware of the significance of a healthy diet on blood sugar management. Diet coupled with exercise and medication are 3 key ingredients to managing Diabetes well,” says Seema Pinto, the brain behind the ‘Diabetic Food Trail’.

Chicken and Coriander dim-sum

These gorgeous steamed buns are delicious and stuffed with boiled chicken. The chicken filling has fresh chopped coriander and salt. Finely greased these dim-sums are very light on the stomach and highly recommended for sugar patients.

Nutritional Values: Kcal-57, Carbs- 7g, Fat- 4g, Protein- 3g.

Tossed Bangkok chicken with Basil and Birds eye chilly

This particular chicken entrée is quite a filling meal and consists of zero carbohydrates. Chicken cubes tossed in pepper and barbeque sauce with lots of minced garlic is indeed a treat for your taste buds. The meal is topped up with sallow fried basil and sautéed Birds eye chillies commonly known as Thai chillies.

Nutritional Values: Kcal-261, Carbs- 0g, Fat- 16.5g, Protein- 27g.

“When we were asked to design a menu keeping in mind the needs of a diabetic person, it wasn’t easy, there are so many things one needs to keep in mind for a sugar person. It took us time to come up with this menu, however, it felt really good to do something like this,” says Ameya Kambli, Manager of restaurant Lemon Leaf, Mumbai.

Asian style grilled vegetable with Peanut sauce and Lemongrass rice

For all the vegetable lovers, this meal is a perfect pick from the menu. Specially designed for diabetic patients this is served with lots of fresh vegetables like baby corn, broccoli, bell pepper, sautéed in peanut sauce and lemongrass rice topped with sprouts.

Nutritional value: Vegetables: Kcal-109, Carbs- 35g, Fat- 4g, Protein- 15.5g. Lemongrass rice: Kcal-199, Carbs- 45g, Fat- 2.4g, Protein- 4.2g.

Thai styled grilled chicken with brown rice and curry sauce

This grilled chicken meal accompanied with brown rice is smoky and very fresh in taste. Served along curry sauce that has coconut base is very palatable and flavourful. Low in carbohydrates and fats, this meal is finger-licking good.

Nutritional Values: Kcal-261, Carbs- 0g, Fat- 16.5g, Protein- 27g.

“We have used more fresh and exotic vegetable and herbs while cooking for the diabetics. The amount of herbs and spice used is minimal, every dish that is part of this menu was initially tested by our nutritionist and then was served to the people, after approval,” says Mitesh Rangras, Director of restaurant Lemon Leaf, Mumbai

The list of dishes given above is specially designed for ‘Diabetic Food Trail Initiative’ .

Photo Credits: Priyadarshini Patwa