Secrets to healthy snacking

Oats chikki

Ingredients: Around 100 gm of broken oats; 180 gm of sugar; 10 gm of butter; few almonds and pistachios chopped and a few dried rose petals for garnish.

Method: Grease a mould with butter. Melt sugar in a pan till golden brown in colour. Keep stirring the sugar on low flame throughout. Then add the broken oats and mix well. Then add butter and nuts and pour the mixture on to a greased baking tray immediately before the mixture sets. Garnish the mixture in the pan immediately with more nuts and rose petals. Let it cool and then demould it and cut while still a little warm. Cool the pieces completely and store in an airtight container.

Oats ladoos

Ingredients: Around 50 ml of ghee; 50 gm of oats atta; 100 gm of powdered sugar; 150 gm of thick besan; 100 gm of grated mawa; ¼ tsp of cardamom powder and a few almonds and pistachios for garnish.

Method: Warm the ghee in a pan. Now add besan and oats atta. Roast the besan and atta till they turn golden brown and aromatic. Then add the mawa and cook for 5 to 7 minutes till the mawa mixes well and is no longer visible. Take the mixture out in a thali and cool till it turns lukewarm. Make sure that it does not dry out. Once cooled, add the powdered sugar and cardamom. Take a handful of the mixture on your palm and shape the ladoos. Note that if the mixture cools too much it won’t shape into a ball. Garnish with almonds and pistachios.

Oats kachori

Ingredients: For the filling, a cup of moong dal; 4 tbsps of vegetable oil; ½ tsp of jeera powder; ¼ tsp of hing; ½ tsp of dry ginger powder; 1 tsp of red chilli powder; 1 tsp of amchur powder; 1 tsp of dhania powder and salt to taste. For the dough, ½ cup of oats atta; 1½ cup of maida; 2 tbsp of ghee; 1 tsp of salt an oil for frying.

Method: To make the filling, rinse and soak the dal for 2 hours. Drain it and grind to form a coarse mixture. Heat ghee on a low flame in a pan. Add all the spices and sauté. Then add the dal and salt and continue sautéing till it’s cooked. To prepare the dough, take a bowl and add oats atta, maida and salt and mix. Apply ghee to your fingertips and mix well. Add water and knead to form a stiff dough. Make small balls of the dough and roll them flat. Flatten the edges with fingers, keeping the centre thick enough. Wet the edges and place the dal filling in the centre. Bring the edges together to cover the filling completely. Remove the excess dough. Heat oil in a pan. Fry the kachoris on medium heat till golden brown. Serve with chutney or curd.

(Courtesy: KOSH Oats)