Some travellers bring food for their trip or journey, which they can use for periodic snacks or as a filling meal. Although it’s not a good idea to travel with several food boxes, you can always pack snacks that won’t add much weight to your bag or increase your waist circumference. You can carry a wide range of snacks, such as homemade brownies, health bars, and chips and biscuits. Choosing a healthier option is usually preferable, so prepare nutritious snacks for your family as well as yourself. India is a culturally and gastronomically diverse country with a wide variety of healthy Indian snacks available for your travels.
Thepla
This is a traditional Gujarati morning flatbread, or roti, made mainly with wheat flour, yoghurt, water, gramme flour, ghee, and methi (fenugreek). Theplas are prepared similarly to chapatis, which involve rolling the dough into a ball, flattening it into a circle, and then frying it.
Theplas are one of the many portable, easily consumed healthy Indian snacks that are available. Additionally, they are simple to prepare because practically every household has all of the ingredients. However, yoghurt should be avoided when packing theplas because it shortens their “shelf-life.”
khakhra
Gujarati food items like khakhra, which resemble crisp round rotis, are often consumed as a snack. Wheat flour is the main component of these nutritious Indian snacks. Other ingredients include oil, milk, and gramme flour, but you can customise it by adding different spices. Kakhras are roasted in a hot pan, just like rotis, but this time, pressure is used to make them crisp.
In India, khakhras are regarded as healthful snacks because they are made with whole wheat. They have high protein and carbohydrate content as well as dietary fibre, which aids in digestion, blood sugar regulation, and weight loss. Not only are khakras simple to pack, but they go well with almost anything, including tea, jam, and sabzi (a cooked vegetable dish).
Bhakarwadis
Bhakarwadis, a popular Indian snack, are a disc of dough filled with dried coconut, poppy, cumin, sesame seeds, dried mango, and chilli. They are originally from Gujarat, though Maharashtra also enjoys its share of popularity. Enjoy these bite-sized mini rolls with a cup of tea for the ideal balance of crunchy, sweet, and spicy flavours.
While there are low-fat and high-fibre versions of bhakarwadis, the original recipe is not included in the list of healthful Indian snacks. These can also be baked and filled with dry fruits, grains, pulses, soybeans, methi, or flax seeds. They are available at all farsan (a collective term for multiple varieties of Gujarati and Maharashtrian snacks) shops and are dry, making them easy to pack and carry.
Lemon rice
The ingredients for the healthy snack recipe lemon rice are basmati rice, peanuts, mustard seeds, curry leaves, and lemon juice. The result is a tangy yellow dish. It is a simple and practical breakfast or snack dish that comes from south India and can also be made with leftover rice. The preparation time may vary between 15 and 30 minutes, contingent upon the use of pre-cooked rice. You can also omit the hing (asafoetida) to make the dish gluten-free.
Also read: Best 5 zinc-rich foods for vegetarians
Chikkis
Chikkis, a crunchy and sweet snack, are made with roasted peanuts, a variety of nuts and seeds, and jaggery. These sugary confections are easily found in most Indian stores and are typically flat. The largest and oldest chikki maker in the nation, Maganlal, is credited with creating chikkis.
Due to the primary ingredient, jaggery, a natural sweetener that is either solid or semi-solid and is typically a concentrate of sugarcane juice, chickis are regarded as healthful Indian snacks. Jaggery is a great source of iron and copper and also contains protein, minerals, and vitamins. Chikkis are a great travel snack because they are easy to pack and carry, and they last for days or even weeks.
