7 South Asian Swaps

I’m just going to say this. I love being East Indian. Our culture bursts with family connection and love. We show that love by stuffing the mouths of anyone that comes into our home with samosas, pakoras, jilebi, gulab jamun, mishri, roti, daal, whatever we have in our fridge and cupboards. We smother family with tight hugs and long endless goodbyes that last 40 minutes where we say ‘goodbye’ to each other about 8 times before we actually leave. We stay up late cooking feasts for guests, and we go out of our way to make others comfortable in our home. We will find creative ways to solve even a stranger’s problem and we would do anything for the success of our children. Traditionally we are driven by our taste buds and know how to create delicious crispy, crunchy, “chat pat” (savory and sour) foods or melt-in-your-mouth sweets. We aren’t raised to know what food does to our body and we celebrate weddings, birthdays and the birth of new beautiful babies by delivering  1-2 pound boxes of butter and sugar filled, drool-worthy sweets to loved ones. There are so many wonderful reasons to celebrate our culture and there are many reasons to make small changes.

We challenge you to try our 7 swaps and share them with the friends and family you love.

Instead of This	TRY THIS
This shiny packet of namkeen can be found in most South Asian homes. Any idea how namkeen is made? Take lentils or flour batter, add salt, deep fry it and roll it in more salt, spice and sometimes sugar	Swap out Mr. Haldiram for our RADNUT namkeen -this stuff is good for your body and handles cravings
Excited about a wedding or new baby and ready to share your joy? Maybe reconsider delivering 2 pound boxes of jilebi to those 100 people you love	Deliver fresh, in-season fruit like mango, kiwi, papaya, oranges, grapes or dried fruit and nuts such as pistachios, almonds, walnuts, pecans and brazil nuts
Can we adjust that snack tray full of mishri, fried spicy cashews, spicy fried noodles (sevia), and platters of pakoras and samosas?	Fill snack trays with natural almonds, natural cashews, pistachios in their shells, apricots, dates, roasted chickpeas, roasted edamame, and whip up our baked pakoras or aloo chana tikkis
Using desi style or durum based roti atta? Durum flour contains protein, but all chapati flours may not be high in fiber. This means that even after 3 rotis that stomach may not be satisfied and blood sugar may be spiking	Try multi-grain roti atta made from a mix of 5 or more flours like soy, chickpea, oat, barley, and whole wheat flours
Are your roti’s topped with heaping tablespoons of butter? Still using ghee to cook lentils and vegetables? These fats impact cholesterol, weight, and heart health	Cook with olive or canola oil and serve roti without added butter, they’re dipped into lentils, yogurt, or vegetables anyway
Rice rice rice. You love rice and so do I! Yet having large portions of rice frequently can spike blood sugar and cholesterol	Mix grains. Cook a pot of a 50/50 mix of quinoa and rice, maybe try brown rice, and make 50/50 mixes of lentils and rice for idli and dosa batters to boost fiber and protein. If my Indian mother from the ‘pind’ in Punjab can do it, you certainly can!
At 4pm chai time we indulge in cake rusks, biscuits, and add tablespoons of sugar and whole milk to our chai	Try a more nourishing snack, slowly decrease the amount of sugar added to chai, or switch from homo milk to 1 or 2% milk

Images from indiamart.com, pixabay.com