Customer Rating: 
Summary: one of its kind but could be better!
Comment: Having been put on a low sodium diet recently I have been searching high and low for alternative recipes for indian cooking. Mrs Lakhani's book does a decent job of explaining how and why dietary changes must be made. I did find the lack of pictures a little discouraging and a few of the recipes I did try out have not turned out as well as I would like. But then what is food without a little fat and a little salt?? Bleah!!
The book also provides chapters on the scientific side of dietary changes but i'm afraid I found that a little dull :( If you are looking for low fat / low sodium cookbooks (indian) i highly recommend Secrets of fat free cooking by Priya Kulkarni and Anita Ranade. Every recipe I've tried from that book has been wonderful and they have a sizeable segment on non vegetarian cooking!
Customer Rating:
Summary: excellent authentic recipes with nutritional information
Comment: As an indian I can tell you, these recipes are as close as you can get to authentic indian while staying low fat. I must admit this cookbook sat on my shelf for a long time because I loved Mathu Jaffrey's time consuming and complexly spiced recipes if I was going to use a cookbook. The cooking we have always done at home used alot of specialty ingredients and took a lot of time, it seemed to me that simple low fat indian couldn't be any good.
BUT I WAS WRONG! The recipes in this book are EXCELLENT. Very close to authentic while using ingredients you can find almost anywhere and VERY HEALTHY. Imagine that!
The recipes in this book are low-fat, low cholesterol and low sodium while being very flavorful and fresh tasting. The nutritional lable at the end each recipe is very complete also. For example, for beef samosa's, she has 2 different ways of cooking them, fried or baked. Then she includes 2 nutrient analysis for each way of cooking it. VERY NICE!
Also each nutrient analysis has a breakdown for sodium with salt included and sodium content without AND a saturated fat versas total fat breakdown.
The last 40 pages have info on :
indian spices and their usages and flavor
American, British, Australian, and Metric conversion
oven temperture conversion : F versas Celcius
explaination of proteins, fats, carbs, and sodium Table of desirable weights for men and women
differences in cholesterol cooked and raw
balanced diet info
and a nutritional breakdown table of "common" foods although it includes items like lentils, bulgar and veal.
The only minus is that this book has diagrams (for somosa wrapping etc.) but no color pictures. :(
Overall I'd say this is a wonderful book for people interested in fitness or dieting and exotic foods! Not a single item in this book is swimming in fat, like most indian cookbooks are.
I would buy this book for cooking for myself daily and a Muthu Jaffrey's (high fat) cookbooks for cooking for special occassions and guests.
Defionately buy this book, it lives up to it name!
Another good cookbook low fat cookbook I would recomend is "Easy Exotic : A Model's Low-Fat Recipes from Around the World" mostly indian, some asian. Very good too!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Easy & Healthy Alternative!
Comment: I was looking for an alternative to the traditional southern black eye peas & greens New Year meal. I found it in Mrs. Lakhani's book. The black eyed pea salad and curried spinach recipes were easy to make and very tasty. As I looked through the book I found many recipes that I can't wait to try. She has a great selection of vegetarian and non-vegetarian recipes.
