Kolkata: With biryani sales zooming across Kolkata’s restaurants, the latter are now scurrying to make it ‘healthy’ to get more people to bypass diet restrictions and savour it. While a leading biryani chain launched a ‘diabetic-friendly’ biryani rustled up with help from dieticians, several others are restricting the use of oil, sugar, and spices and using special rice to make ‘healthy’ biryani.Oudh 1590 on Wednesday launched a ‘diabetic-friendly’ biryani made with parboiled rice, sweet potatoes, vegetables, and soya bean chunks. Curated by dietician and nutritionist Nidhi Prakash, it is low on sugar, saturated fat, and cholesterol content, Prakash claimed. Other than diabetics, it will also allow Kolkata’s growing health-conscious population to enjoy rich Awadhi flavours with mindful nutrition, said Shiladitya Chaudhury, owner and co-founder of Oudh 1590.“In Bengal, rice is the staple food and people love biryani. Usually, biryani is made with white rice, potato, chicken/mutton, oil, and spices. The idea of preparing diabetic biryani came to me some six months ago and I started working on it, reducing the glycemic index and load of white rice-based biryani. I decided to use parboiled rice and replaced potato with sweet potato. Veg biryani was made using soya chunks and lots of vegetables. With such modifications, diabetics can enjoy this biryani without significantly impacting their blood sugar level,” said Prakash.Aminia has launched a ‘diet biryani’ that uses fewer spices and sugar. “We started customizing biryani for those who have diet restrictions. We deliver bulk orders with this specially made biryani that also has less rice and more vegetables. At all our outlets, we customize biryani for those who want it made in a special way. It takes a little longer to prepare though,” said Kabir Azhar of Aminia.At Riyasat, the Mughlai outlet of Specialty Restaurants, biryani is made using the ‘sous vide’ method in which ingredients are vacuum-sealed in a bag and cooked in a controlled, low-temperature water bath. “We use pure ghee which has low-fat content, mild spices including real jafran, and ensure minimalistic use of oil with good LDL that cuts out the unhealthy aspect of biryani. Then, we cook our meat in the sous vide method using very little oil so that we don’t have to fry it,” said Anjan Chatterjee, founder & MD, Specialty Restaurants.Easy availability and the fact that it’s a rice-based dish have led Kolkatans to fall for biryani in a big way, said Hotel and Restaurants’ Association of Eastern India (HRAEI) president Sudesh Poddar. “We started keeping a watch on ingredients since more elderly people now have it and often want it to be less oily,” said Poddar, also the owner of Songhai and Manthan.“At Oudh 1590, we believe fine dining should be inclusive and conscious. There are many who crave biryani but have health issues. Now, they can savour our authentic Awadhi cuisine with a healthy twist to our much-loved biryanis,” said Chaudhury.
