Diet of individual undergoing dialysis is restrictive in terms of several elements like salt, proteins, potassium, phosphorus as well as fluid. With numerous restrictions, there are limited options in terms of ingredients as well as recipes that one can prefer when one is on a renal diet. Hence, the only option that remains is to modify the traditional recipes or prefer suitable alternates that may be suitable for renal disease.
The major modification that needs to be considered is lowering the amount of salt and avoiding any artificial food additives. While a Renal Dietitian can train you to modify your favourite Indian Renal diet Recipes as well as festival-special recipes to suit your health as per your body parameters; a few recipes that may be considered safe (after making modifications) have been outlined herewith for the upcoming festival season i.e.
Raksha BandhanNamak para/ Nimki/ Sakarpara: The original recipe contains refined wheat flour maida, however; in order to make it suitable for renal patients, one can prefer a combination of sieved wheat flour and rice flour in 1:1 ratio. As rice flour contains lower amount of potassium and phosphorus as compared to wheat. In order to avoid deep frying, one can fry them in an air fryer using less amount of oil. Caution should maintained by using less salt. One can also add kasuri methi to this.
Kachori: The outer covering of kachori is made up of maida which can be replaced with a combination of wheat flour and arrowroot flour. Arrowroot flour acts as a good binder. Wheat contains more protein & fiber as compared to maida .For the inner filling, one can use the traditional 1-2 tsp moong dal filling using less amount of salt and spices in the Indian Renal diet Recipes . Kachoris can be baked in an OTG or an electric tandoor.
Murruku/ Chakli: Prefer rice flour/ wheat based murruku/ chakli rather than chaana flour (besan) based in order to keep phosphate content lower. Murrukus/ chaklis may need to be deep fried, so prefer using an oil with a healthy blend like ricebran oil with safflower/ sunflower oil and the one containing losorb technology. This technology results in lower uptake of oils by the food items.
Alu bhujia: Instead of modifying this recipe using different flours, one can also opt for another healthier, easy and quick snack option for kidney patients – i.e. homemade popcorns made from dried corn kernels. Corn kernels can be popped at home in a pressure cooker using minimal oil and salt. Different flavors can be added by using spices like red chilli flakes or dried mint (pudina) powder or dried onion and garlic powder. It is important to avoid using ready-to-eat popcorns as it contains excessive salt and oil.
Puri/ Thattai/ Chekkalu: Puri is a traditional Indian tea time snack which is made using different spices in different states. It is mainly made up of wheat flour or maida. Chekkalu is an Andhra Pradesh style crisp puri which is made up of rice flour and contains spices like green chillies, curry leaves and ginger along with salt. This is a perfect Indian Renal diet Recipes during Raksha bandhan for patients with kidney disease, keeping the salt content on a lower side. It can also be made in an air fryer in order to reduce the amount of oil.
Poha chivda: It is a delicious and healthy mini snack and can be enjoyed by kidney patients as well as patients on dialysis. Few modifications needed include omission of coconut slices and addition of less amount of salt. One can opt for few roasted peanuts in place of fried peanuts in this recipe.
Gulab jamun: For kidney patients it is ideally important to select homemade foods and at the same time also avoid using pre-mixes of sweets like gulab jamun. As this recipe is made up of maida, milk powder and baking soda, it is ideally not recommended to choose this recipe. Instead of gulab jamun a better and kidney friendly alternate is rawa laddo. It can be prepared using rawa, rice flour, ghee, sugar and elaichi powder. One should avoid adding coconut to rawa laddos.
Nankhatai : You can prepare nankhatai as per the conventional method using seived wheat flour, rawa, sugar, ghee and pinch of elaichi powder. Patients with diabetes can add artificial sweetener (stevia powder) instead of sugar. Patients with heart disease can prefer using cow ghee instead of buffalo ghee in this Indian Renal diet Recipes.