Nuts, as we all know, are bite-size nutritional powerhouse packed with proteins, fiber and essential fats. They make a vitality boosting snack with a mix of vitamins and minerals. Almost all the nuts like almonds, walnuts, pistachios, cashew nuts, hazelnuts, pine nuts have heart-protecting compounds and walnuts are even rich in omega 3 fatty acids. They are easy to store, easy to pack and you can have it on the go— so that makes it an ideal snack as a handful of nuts will keep your hunger at bay and give you a desired warmth in the chill.
Smart tips to include nuts in your daily diet:
- Soak 6-7 almonds, 1-2 walnuts , 2-3 dried figs, and 5-6 raisins overnight. Drain the water and consume them as the first thing in the morning to boost your immunity.
- Top your daily cereals like oatmeals and cornflakes with a variety of nuts for a nourishing breakfast to have a healthy start of the day.
- Spread peanut butter on your breads instead of normal butter. Sprinkle flaked almonds on top of the yogurt or your favourite ice-cream or sweetened lassi.
- Dry roast the nuts and add them to your salad for crunchy effect.
- Use roasted nuts to replace fried croutons in soups.
- Add powdered nuts to your curries to have a new flavour.
- Dip nuts in dark chocolate sauce and your instant dessert is ready. Dark chocolate will give you an added dose of antioxidants.
- Add nuts to Indian sweets like carrot halwa, ladoos, kheers etc.
- Add chopped almonds and pistachios to flavour your green tea or for an authentic kashmiri kahwa flavour.
- Gorge on our very own Gud(jaggery) –peanut chiki which is a favourite of most north-indians and is a healthy alternative in place of sugar.
- Make dry fruit Ladoos using a combination of nuts and in place of sugar add deseeded dates which is a healthy alternative……I’m sure you are going to get addictive to this.
Caution: Include nuts in your daily diet but don’t go overboard with them as they are dense in calories. Also, try to avoid the fried variety.