Diwali is that time of the year when you don’t think much about dieting but you still feel guilty while making and having Diwali special food, right?
What if you can actually enjoy your favourite Diwali delectable with less guilt and more happiness?
Here are a few low-calorie recipes for some of India’s most famous Diwali foods:
- Soan Papdi
- Gulab jamun
- Besan laddoo
- Ghevar
- Peda
Let’s start:
-
Soan Papdi
Ingredients
- Besan (gram flour): 2 ½ cups
- Maida: 2 ½ cups
- Ghee (clarified butter): 500 ml
- Guud Suga: 3 cups
- Water: 2 ½ Cups
- Milk: ¼ Cups
- Crushed cardamoms: 1 tsp
- A handful of chopped almonds and pistachios
Method
- Sieve maida and besan together and keep it aside.
- Take a heavy pan and heat ghee on medium flame.
- Add the besan-flour mixture to the pan and roast until it becomes light golden in colour.
- Take the mixture out of the pan and set it aside.
- Pour milk and water into a pan over low-medium heat and add natural sugar.
- Stir the mixture well to mix evenly.
- Simmer the mixture just until it reaches a two-thread consistency.
- Pour this liquid into the flour-besan mixture and mix well until thread-like flakes form.
- Keep on mixing and pulling the mixture apart alternatively.
- Transfer the constituents to a greased plate and pat it flat to around 1-inch thickness.
- Sprinkle some sliced cardamoms, almonds, and pistachios on top. Gently press them to make the surface even.
- Wait for it to cool.
- Cut it into 1-inch squares and serve at normal temperature.
2. Gulab jamun
Gulab Jamuns are one of the most popular festive desserts that are not at all hard to prepare at home. But what if we can make it low-calorie treat?
Ingredients
- About 125 gm of khowa (or khoya) is made by slow boiling and reducing full-fat milk till all the liquid gets evaporated.
- Flour or maida: 2 ½ tbsp
- Baking powder:¼ ¼ tsp
- Cardamom Powder-¾ tsp
- Milk: 3-5 tbsp
- Oil/Ghee (for frying)
- Low-calorie Guud sugar: ¾ cup
- Water: ¾ cup
- Rose water, 1tsp
- Lemon juice: 1 ½ tsp
Method
- Add low-calorie sugar and water to a wide pot on a medium flame till the sugar is completely dissolved and the mixture becomes sticky.
- Add rose water, lemon juice, and cardamom powder (¼ tsp) and mix well. Keep the hot syrup aside.
- Mix khowa (milk solids), flour, cardamom powder (½ tsp), and then baking powder.
- Add milk little by little to make a dough that is smooth without any cracks. Knead gently.
- Make 12–14 parts and roll them into smooth, crack-free balls.
- Heat oil/ghee in a kadhai (cauldron). Slide a small piece of dough and check if it rises slowly with bubbles without turning brown. If it rises with bubbles, slowly drop the balls one by one.
- Keep stirring and frying till all the balls turn golden brown uniformly.
- Remove the fried gulab jamuns to a colander.
- Allow the balls to cool for around 5 minutes, then add them to the syrup that you had kept aside, but ensure it is not very hot.
- Move the gulab jamuns in the syrup so that it gets soaked well in it.
- Serve cold or hot with sliced pistachios.
3. Besan laddoo
Talking of Diwali special food, “besan ke laddoo” is definitely something that you would want to try to make at home this festive season.
Ingredients
- Ghee (Clarified Butter): ½ cup
- Coarse Besan (Gram Flour): 2 cups
- Guud Sugar: ½ cup
- 3-4 pods of cardamom
- Melon sseeds:2 Tbsp
- Cashew: 2 Tbsp
Method
- Roast 2 cups of coarse besan with ½ cup ghee in a large cauldron (kadhai) on low heat till they get well combined.
- If the mixture turns dry, you can add 1-2 tbsp of ghee
- Notice that after around 20 minutes the besan will start to release ghee, but you need to keep on roasting it until it becomes grainy and golden brown in colour.
- To cool the mixture a bit, transfer it to a bowl.
- While the mixture cools down, dry roast the melon seeds and cashew on low flame.
- When the nuts become crunchy, add them to the besan ghee mixture.
- Blend ½ cup of Guud Sugar and 3-4 cardamom (elaichi) pods without water.
- Mix the natural sugar and cardamom powder into the besan mixture when the latter is just moderately warm.
- Make ball-sized laddoos of uniform sizes.
- Serve at normal temperature.
Also Read: Top Tips for Making Kaju Katli: A Low-Calorie Diwali Delight
4. Ghevar
Originating from the royal courts of Rajasthan, ghevar has been a very popular choice among people who love their festive snack to be crunchy, flavorful, and sweet at the same time.
Ingredients
- Flour (maida): 1 cup
- Clarified butter (ghee): ½ cup
- Ice cubes: 4-5 cubes
- Lemon juice, 1 tbsp
- Chilled milk: ½ cup
- Chilled water: 2 cups
- Guud Sugar: 1 cup
- Normal water: ½ cup
- Cardamom powder: 1 tsp
Method
- Blend ice cubes and ghee until you see the colour of ghee change and what you get is a butter-like mixture having a rather hard consistency.
- Pour ¼ cup of the milk and blend again. The mixture will soften and become creamy.
- Add flour in small parts at a time and keep blending.
- Add the remaining milk and blend it.
- Add some more flour (about 3 tbsp) and ¼ cup chilled water and blend.
- Continue the process until all the flour has been used.
- Once you get a smooth batter for ghevar, put it aside in a bowl.
- Add some more chilled water to thin the batter.
- Pour lemon juice, mix it well with the batter, and put the batter to chill in the refrigerator.
- Make the sugar syrup by adding our 100% natural sugar and water to the pan and boiling the mixture.
- Wait till the sugar gets dissolved and the mixture gets thickened.
- Add some lemon juice and stir.
- Put the mixture down from heat and mix cardamom powder.
- Put a pan with oil or ghee over medium to high heat.
- Pour the batter slowly in the centre of the pan. With a fork, make some place in the middle portion.
- Pour the batter as long as you don’t get the desired thickness of ghevar.
- Ensure you fry all the parts properly. Scrape the sides with the help of a fork or knife.
- When the ghevar turns golden and crisp, transfer it to a wire rack and allow the excess oil to drain out.
- When the gheavar cools down and all the excess oils get drained, add the syrup you had kept aside over it.
- Garnish with some chopped almonds or cashews and serve.
5. Peda
Pedas are quintessential sweets offered to Hindu Deities in India. There can be many ways of making this delightful delicacy, but here we are going to discuss a low-calorie and healthy recipe for pedas.
Ingredients
- Ghee: 1tbsp
- Milk: ½ cup
- Guud Sugar: 4 tbsp
- Milk Powder: 1 cup
- Cardamom powder: ½ cup
- A pinch of saffron
Method
- Heat ½ tbsp ghee and ½ cup milk in a non-stick pan.
- Add milk powder when the milk turns warm and mix well to get a smooth mixture.
- Heat on medium flame and cook until it becomes thick and sticky.
- Add ½ tbsp of ghee and cook, stirring the mixture until it becomes a solid dough.
- Transfer the dough formed to a bowl and let it cool.
- Add sugar for weight loss and cardamom powder and mix it thoroughly when it is still warm.
- Split the dough into as many equal portions as desired.
- Roll these parts and flatten them.
- Tuck a sliced pistachio and a tiny saffron strand.
- Serve at normal temperature.
Try Healthy Kesar Rava Modak Recipe with Guud Sugar at Home
Now, you must be wondering how we can claim that even after using ingredients like ghee and flour, these recipes are much lower in total calories they contain. Well, it is primarily because we are not using ordinary white sugar while cooking these. Instead we are using Guud sugar which has 50-60% fewer calories than processed white sugar. Moreover, it has a low GI which makes it fit for everyone to consume, including those who are diabetic.
This small change of using Guud Sugar in place of processed white sugar makes all these recipes rather low-calorie treats you can relish along with your family and friends this Diwali!