Are you trying to lose weight and searching for protein dinner options? Most people associate the phrase ‘weight loss’ with suffering, starvation, and sacrifice. They believe it requires them to give up foods that they enjoy eating and switch to food that is bland; lacking in colour, flavour, and texture. But this need not be the case. A protein rich dinner does comprise dishes that are not only healthy but also quite tasty. They support you in your zeal to lose weight.
High Protein Dinners for Weight Loss
Let us explore the different ways of making a high protein dinner that is nutritious and easy to digest. Apart from helping you lose weight, these dishes will be something you would simply relish in your dinner.
1. Idlis
Idlis are light and easy to digest, as they hardly have any oil. They are prepared by steaming fermented batter made from rice and urad dal in a ratio of 4:1 along with some fenugreek seeds. Urad dal in these idlis makes them a good high protein dinner option. Idlis are typically eaten with coconut chutney and sambar made from tur dal or masoor dal; all of them are high in proteins.
To prepare a high protein dinner, you can make idlis from many other protein-rich ingredients like semolina, moong dal (both washed and whole), oats, ragi, daliya, etc. Another interesting way to make idlis is to stuff them with crushed nuts such as cashews and almonds while steaming them. If you have some leftover idlis, you can break them into little pieces and make an upma. You can also saute some vegetables and add the idli pieces along with some spices.
2. Dosas
Dosa is a protein dinner generally eaten with sambar and coconut chutney. This combination, apart from being rich in proteins, gives you a balanced diet consisting of many other nutrients, such as vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, and fats. You can use various fillings on your dosa as per your choice, including potato sabzi, paneer, pasta sauce, vegetables like onions, tomato, and capsicum. You can have a plain dosa too along with sambar and/or chutney.
For a protein rich dinner, you can make dosas from many other ingredients too such as rava, ragi, oats, wheat flour, moong dal, etc. They do not require any fermenting. Just mix some curd, water, salt, and some fenugreek seeds. Mix well and let the batter rest for a few minutes. Once the batter is ready, you can start making the dosas.
You can save time by using readymade dosa batters. They are easily available nowadays at various supermarkets. No need to waste time washing, soaking, grinding, and fermenting. All you have to do is adjust the batter viscosity as per your requirements of a protein rich dinner, and then start preparing the dosas right away.
3. Rice and Lentils
Most people enjoy having rice with lentils at dinner. Apart from being a protein rich dinner, this combination is easy to digest and provides many other essential nutrients. When you team it with salads, it makes your diet all the more nutritious. Lentils such as pulses, rajma, chickpeas, or black chana when cooked with whole and ground Indian spices go well with rice.
4. Khichdi
Instead of cooking rice and lentils separately, you can cook them together in a pressure cooker along with spices and salt to prepare khichdi. It takes just 5 minutes to make. Since it is healthy and light on the stomach, most people eat it when they do not feel well. Khichdi is a great high protein dinner and wonderful comfort food.
5. Paneer or Cottage Cheese
You can eat paneer with rotis or rice and salad as part of a protein dinner. Paneer is rich in proteins and is a highly versatile item that you can cook in various ways; kadhai paneer, shahi paneer, malai paneer, paneer bhurji, paneer kebabs, etc. Dishes made with paneer are all tasty, nutritious, and healthy.
Things to Remember When Preparing Protein Dinner
Here are certain important facts about your protein rich dinners that you need to keep in mind”
- A high protein dinner will keep you full and prevent hunger pangs. It stops you from overeating and snacking, making it easier for you to lose weight. Another important function of proteins is to boost metabolism, that is, burning more calories to digest protein-rich food. This is another way to lose weight.
- We tend to eat the most at dinners. But this is not how it should be, since our metabolism slows down at night. The body does not burn the food into energy as fast at night as it does during the daytime. That’s why most doctors recommend we eat like a king at breakfast, like a prince at lunch, and like a pauper at dinner. This will help in keeping our weight under control.
- Depending on our gender and stage of life, that is, childhood, adulthood, old age, pregnancy, our protein requirements vary. So, we should eat accordingly and choose those high protein dinner options that fulfil our needs easily.
- Many people believe that vegan or vegetarian foods cannot fulfil all their protein requirements. This is incorrect. If you eat a variety of plant-based foods wisely as part of your protein dinner, you will surely get all the proteins you need.
Conclusion
We hope you enjoyed reading this article and found it useful in planning your protein dinner daily. Having a protein-rich dinner will keep you satiated during the night and will keep you from bingeing on midnight snacks. However, it is important that you opt for protein sources that are light on the stomach and not the ones that are difficult to digest.
