Cooking without oil offers numerous health benefits. By cutting out oil, you significantly reduce calorie intake, which can support weight management and lower the risk of obesity. Additionally, oil-free cooking reduces unhealthy fats, especially saturated and trans fats, which are linked to heart disease, high cholesterol, and inflammation. During one of my interactions with a student from my Mastery of Spice course, I was asked if it’s possible to cook without using oil or salt. Initially, I was a bit puzzled, but after experimenting with oil-free cooking, I found it worked surprisingly well. While fat is often seen as a key carrier of flavor, especially in spice-rich dishes, we tend to compare oil-free meals to those drenched in unnecessary amounts of oil. However, with careful selection and proportioning of spices, oil-free dishes can be both flavorful and enticing, all while being lower in calories.
That said, while cooking without oil is healthy, it’s important to maintain balance in your diet according to nutritional guidelines. Fat is one of the essential macronutrients, alongside protein and carbohydrates. Sources of healthy fats, such as those found in cold-pressed oils, eggs, avocados, nuts, seeds, and dairy products, should still be included in your meals. The goal is to reduce the excessive use of cooking oil, not to eliminate healthy fats from your diet.
Oil free chickpea curry
Course: MainCuisine: Indian, fusionDifficulty: Easy4
servings15
minutes15
minutes30
minutesIn this recipe I have used cooked chickpeas but you can substitute it with other beans , lentils and vegetables. Most one pot dishes are possible to cook without the use of any oil and the flavors can be enhanced with the use of spices. For this recipe we will make a spice blend and use it generously while cooking.
Ingredients for spice blend
1 Tbsp Coriander powder
1/2 Tbsp Cumin powder
1/2 tsp Turmeric powder
1 tsp Kashmiri red chili powder
1/2 tsp Garam masala
1/2 Tbsp Tomato powder (optional)
1/2 Tbsp dried Oregano (optional)
- Ingredients for Curry paste
1 cup Tomato
1/2 cup Onion
1 Tbsp Ginger
1 Tbsp Garlic
1 Tbsp fresh green chili (optional)
- Ingredients
1 cup or 200 grams of dry chickpeas
Salt to taste
Fresh parsley to garnish
Preperation
- Soak the chickpeas overnight or for atleast 8 hours in water. The chickpeas will expand upto two times in volume. Rinse this soaked chickpea once or twice.
- Prepare a paste with curry paste ingredients. Add green chili optionally if you wish to make it spicier.
- Add 2 cups of soaked chickpeas to the Instant pot or pressure cooker pot.
- Add the curry paste and 2 cups of water
- Add the curry spice mix you have made. Tomato and Oregano are optional ingredients, they enhance the color and the umami flavor and aroma of the final dish.
- Add 1 tsp of salt.
- Close the lid of the pressure cooker and cook for 15 minutes under high pressure.
- After 15 minutes allow the pressure cooker to vent steam naturally, this should take another 10 minutes.
- Garnish the oil free chickpeas curry with chopped fresh parsley or cilantro.
Recipe Video
