Indian · Authentic-ish Indian
Shahi Tukda
319 kcal a serving, against 408 for the traditional version. That is 89 kcal off, or 22%, with 19.7g of protein. Serves 6. 45 minutes.
What the traditional version is
Triangles of white bread deep-fried in bubbling ghee until crisp, soaked in a cardamom-scented sugar syrup, and blanketed in rabdi, which is a rich, sweetened, heavily reduced whole milk scattered with nuts.
What changed, and what each change costs
36g of absorbed ghee down to 20g, and the deep fryer for a hot oven
Frying bread acts like a sponge, absorbing an astonishing amount of fat that gives you almost zero nutritional return. Brushing the bread with a tiny amount of melted ghee and baking it gives you a crispy, golden triangle without the massive calorie load.
What it costs you. You lose that utterly saturated, melt-in-the-mouth fried texture. The baked bread is significantly crunchier and a lot drier, meaning it relies heavily on the sauce for moisture.
1000g of whole milk and 150g of sugar for 400g of light evaporated milk, 400g of quark and 50g of sugar
Boiling down whole milk takes hours and leaves you with all the fat. Blending thick, high-protein quark with light evaporated milk creates an instant shortcut rabdi. It mimics the thick texture perfectly while bumping the protein up massively. This is the first time you'll see me use quark in an Indian pudding, but its incredibly dense texture saves you hours of standing over a hot stove.
What it costs you. Quark has a distinct tang that real rabdi lacks. You end up with a slightly sharper pudding that still hits the right dessert notes. The version that's a perfect replica of reduced milk is still out there and still better.
The numbers
| Per serving | Traditional | Lightened |
|---|---|---|
| Calories | 408 | 319 |
| Protein | 10.2g | 19.7g |
| Fat | 14.9g | 7g |
| Saturated fat | 7.2g | 2.6g |
| Carbohydrate | 59.2g | 44.8g |
| Protein per 100 kcal | 2.5g | 6.2g |
Every figure is computed from the recipe's own weighed ingredient list against public food composition databases. The appendix in Authentic-ish Indian prints the exact database row used for each ingredient, so any number here can be checked.
Allergens. gluten, milk, nuts.
The method is in the book
I wanted this binned, but I refused. Baking the bread strips out the vast majority of the fat, while the quark trick turns a sugary cream sauce into a high-protein pudding. Yes, the bread is crunchier and the sauce has a slight tang, but it still feels remarkably like the real thing. You get the crunch, the cardamom, the saffron and the sweetness, all without the catastrophic sugar crash. I call that a massive win.
The quantities and the method for this dish are in Authentic-ish Indian, along with 54 more. Buy the paperback