Wake up and smell the cardamom: Indian food is changing. There are still plenty of places serving up rogan josh glistening with ghee and jalebi swimming in syrup, but a new breed of young chefs has taken the standard curry house menu and given it a healthy twist. Think fresh chutneys, vibrant salads and a host of superfood ingredients, from acai to quinoa, all laced with Indian flavours.

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At the forefront of these curry crusaders is Gurpareet Bains. British-born of Punjabi parents, Bains caught the attention of the media six years ago when he developed the “world’s healthiest meal”, a chicken and blueberry curry. Since then he has published two books, and this month he is hosting a pop-up restaurant, named Indian Superfood serving “light fresh Indian food” in the heart of London’s curry-land, Brick Lane. Expect king prawns with samphire, fresh, herb-stuffed rice paper samosa rolls, “Natural High Curry” and goji berry brown rice pilau.

Fresh fish and spices are some ingredients being used in 'lighter Indian' cuisine Credit: Haraala Hamilton

Bains had his epiphany after his weight ballooned to more than 17st. “I loved Indian food,” he says, “but thought a healthy version would mean dry naan and a boiled curry, which didn’t appeal. There was a lot of talk about superfoods and antioxidants, and I thought, surely if we add spices to the superfoods they will become more super?”

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Like most children of Indian heritage, Bains was brought up with cookery steeped in the Ayurvedic tradition, which emphasises moderation and the healing properties of spices. He embarked on a nutrition course and gathered an impressive set of data, including findings by the US Department of Agriculture that nearly a quarter of the top antioxidant-rich foods available to us are, in fact, spices. He developed a cooking style that cut down on oil and packed in medicinal quantities of spice, a culinary revelation that has earned him widespread praise from celebrities and royalty, including Chris Evans, Vivienne Westwood and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester.

Gurpareet Bains has taken a nutrition course and uses superfoods in his cooking

Romy Gill is another champion of the new “lighter Indian”. Gill moved to England from East Bengal in 1993, when she was in her early 20s, and turned to healthier versions of Indian food after she put on 3st following the birth of her daughter. Encouraged by friends who loved her flavour-packed dishes, she opened her own restaurant, Romy’s Kitchen, in Bristol two years ago. Gill simmers lamb to melt away the fat before adding it to a curry, and her spiced crab cakes (pan-fried not deep-fried) come with a fresh, oil-free chutney. There are no poppadoms – “Indians don’t eat them before a meal”.

Ravinder Bhogal, the Kenyan born chef and television cook, is cooking at Carousel restaurant in London’s Marylebone this month, dishes including mango pannacotta with lime leaf and coconut, and betel leaf with crab salad, green chutney and puffed rice, previews of from the menu of her forthcoming restaurant. She reckons that British curry houses catering to the after pub, lager swilling trade are to blame for the unhealthy image of Indian food, with dishes overloaded with cheap oil. “Food was very healthy when I was growing up at home. But restaurants are changing now, becoming keener to use local British ingredients, more playful, with a lighter style.”

Using less oil is an approach also adopted by the British-born Indian food writer Mira Manek. “Indians tend to think curries need sugar, or that onions have to fry in more oil otherwise it won’t work, but actually if you use less oil it doesn’t matter.” Manek switched from travel writing to cooking after suffering digestive and skin problems. She turned to alternative ingredients because of a wheat intolerance, substituting buckwheat and quinoa flour for the wheat in chapatis, natural palm sugar for regular sugar and coconut oil for butter. Dishes like her Indian summer salad use superfood favourites kale and cabbage, but “the dressing contains cumin, which adds oomph.”

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Manek believes the Indian wholefood trend is hitting the mainstream now. She works with the London restaurant Holborn Dining Rooms on dishes such as saffron porridge and chai pudding, replacing the usual grains with chia, a seed with high levels of B vitamins and minerals, much favoured by celebrities including Gwyneth Paltrow.

“It took a while to get off the ground,” Manek admits, “but people have been coming back for it, rather than just trying it as a curiosity.”

The movement is making waves in India too, says Bains, who made front-page news there with his drive for healthy food and return to the Ayurvedic respect for spice. “The Indian press is a bit suspicious when things come out of the UK, but in recent years the UK has become a launch pad for [new-style] Indian food. We are more exposed to the global market here.”

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The switch to healthier Indian food is, Bains adds, a natural progression. “It has to move that way because people are much more aware about their health,” he says. “Indian food has to evolve.”

In the meantime, you don’t have to give up those bhajis completely. “We don’t banish anything from our kitchen,” says Gill. As Ayurveda decrees: “Moderation in everything.” With a dash of freshly made mint and apple chutney.

The Indian Superfood pop-up is located outside the entrance to the Backyard Market, 91 Brick Lane, London E1 6QL. It will be open to the public for lunch each Sunday in July.

