Mamta's Kitchen - A Family Cookbook





Healthy Indian snacks.

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On 31/10/2007 05:10pm, aparikh wrote:

Hello Mamta and other epicures :)

Most of the Indian snacks I like to eat happen to be deep fried and spicy. For example; samosas, pakoras, bhel puri, pao bhaji etc. are all delicious but lack nutritional content.

I was wondering if you know of any healthy snacks that can be prepared at home which may be "healthy" as well as have good taste.

This is an open-ended question. So I would greatly appreciate any help, tips, etc. in any form.

Thank you.

Regards and best wishes;

Alpesh.

On 31/10/2007 07:10pm, AskCy wrote:

"epicures" goes off to buy a big book of words.... lol

Depends on what you are calling a snack ?

You could make things in smaller portions and eat them as a snack

Things like tandoori chicken isn't deep fried and is really oven roasted chicken which must be reasonably healthy in anyone's book.

There is a recipe for samosa's on here that uses filo pastry that you oven bake, but I still wouldn't consider it as healthy as a salad (which there are also several on the site)

A lot of Indian food is rich and full of flavour, but its origins tend to be from times when you couldn't get/afford to eat it that often. The majority of meals would be plain and meagre (just a bowl of rice or vegetables with a sauce, rather than the lavish butter chicken, samosas and such).

My view on Indian cuisine (as its seen to the outsider) is its a fantastically rich treat that I can enjoy every now and again. I couldn't live off endless curries, naans, samosas, pakoras etc... but then again if you go to an Indian family I'm sure you will find neither do they. Much like I (as an English man) don't eat fried egg and bacon every morning, a ploughmans lunch for lunch and then beef wellington with all the trimmings for dinner .... you just couldn't do enough exercise to burn it off...

Day to day food is always different to the treats and I'm sure you are going to get pointed in the right direction by Mamta!

Steve

On 04/11/2007 05:11pm, Mamta wrote:

Idli, Dhokla, Upma, tandoori dishes like fish, paneer, chicken, kebabs, gram flour pancakes, bhelpuri, chickpea chaat, grilled popodoms, fruit chaats, potato/vegetable chops or cutlets pan fried in very little oil, sabudana (tapioca) khitcheri, Poha flatten rice, savoury vermicelli, gluten or Soya kebabs etc. are a few things that spring to mind. You are right though, many Indian snacks are fried or baked high calories, just like Western ones; cakes, biscuits, pastries, crumbles, crisps etc. etc.

Mamta

On 06/11/2007 12:11am, aparikh wrote:

Hello Steve and Mamta;

Thank you very much for your thoughtful reponses to my "wacky" question.

I am trying to prepare a variety of Indian snacks in such a way that they have more nutritional content (than before) as well as good taste. I will certainly share my recipes with all of you as soon as I am able to do so.

Regards;

Alpesh.

On 06/11/2007 06:11am, Mamta wrote:

Please remember that most Indians eat pretty healthy food, not eating meat or eating it more than a couple of times a week, if that. Majorities of meals are vegetarian. Fried food is for special treats as are sweets, except in a small number of families. For example, very few Indian fry their popodoms for daily consumption. Daily food is cooked with very little oil and less and less of ghee these days.

Sometimes people ask me how to make restaurant like food. The thing to remember there is that most chefs do use a lot of butter (ghee in India) in their cooking. You only have to watch any Western type of food programme to see this. My take on this is that if you want restaurant type of food/curry, eat at a good restaurant.

It is a myth that Indian food is unhealthy/over spiced and so on. Like elsewhere, it depends on your own choices and how you choose to make it. I grew up in a home where my mum very rarely added chillies to anything. In fact, she did not keep chilli powder in her spice box as a routine. We had green chillies or pickles on the side, but never food cooked that was too HOT. To this day, I feel that too many spices/chillies/frying spoil the flavours of main ingredients and take away from food.

I have to admit that the younger generations in India are more prone to eating sweets or to eating out more frequently, eating richer foods outside their homes. This is like anywhere else in the world.

Basically, food is what you make it ;-)!

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