Nehal Masood
Founder, HealThaali
Nehal Masood started HealThaali and writes everything on this blog. She cooks the food that gets filmed, works out the portions behind each plate, and writes down what was measured and what is still uncertain — which is why the numbers in these posts arrive with their working.
12 posts
Written by Nehal Masood
High-protein meals you can actually cook in fifteen minutes
The five things worth keeping in the kitchen, three shapes that cover most weeknights, and two filmed meals that go from fridge to plate in under fifteen minutes.
Sugar in an ordinary Indian day, and the packet that calls itself healthy
Three cups of chai, four biscuits and one fruit drink add up faster than anyone expects. A day counted in teaspoons, and how to read the label that hid the rest of it.
Cooking with less oil: where the oil actually hides in an Indian kitchen
A teaspoon of oil is about 40 calories, and most kitchens spend ten of them without noticing. Here is where the oil goes, what to change first, and how to keep the flavour while you do it.
How to build a balanced thaali you will actually eat again tomorrow
Four jobs a plate has to do, how to judge the portions with your hands instead of a scale, and a worked 490-calorie lunch that carries about 40 grams of protein.
Fibre: the nutrient an Indian day is usually short on
The pulses and vegetables are already there, and most days still land short of what the guidance asks for. What 30 to 40 grams looks like in katoris, and the four additions that close the gap.
How much protein do you actually need on an Indian diet
A practical way to work out your own protein target — and what that looks like on a normal plate of dal, curd, roti and rice, with the honest ranges rather than a single number.
Soya chunks: the cheapest protein in the kitchen, and how to cook them so you eat them
About 52 g of protein per 100 g dry, for a fraction of what paneer costs. Why they taste of nothing, the squeeze everyone skips, and the honest version of the rumour that keeps people away.
Weight loss with Indian food: what to change before you cut rice
Two ways this usually fails, the change that does most of the work, why rice is not the villain, and what a week of steady progress actually looks like.
How much protein is really in dal, and what the katori does not tell you
Toor, moong, chana and rajma in the portion you actually serve — plus why dal and roti together are worth more than either one alone, and when pulses stop being enough.
Why home-cooked food is the hardest thing to track — and how to estimate it anyway
A packet of biscuits comes with a label. A katori of your mother's dal does not. How to get close enough on real Indian home cooking, without weighing anything.
Breakfast in India: where the day's protein usually goes missing
Poha, upma, two idlis and a paratha each carry four to seven grams, which is less than most people assume. Why the first meal decides the rest of the day, and three real breakfasts that fix it.
Eating out and ordering in without losing the plan
Restaurant food is not the problem — the gravy, the portion and the frequency are. What to order when someone else is cooking, what to skip, and how to log a meal you did not cook.