3 Healthy Evening Snack Recipes | Yogic Blogging

Why Evening Snack Plays A Crucial Role?  

Evening is that time of the day when we crave to eat something delicious and often end up on unhealthy, processed foods such as biscuits, bread, pasta, burger or even noodles. Do you know that all these foods are devoid of any nutrition, apart from filling your stomach they can do nothing.

Have you ever observed why you don’t feel hungry even hours after having a pizza or a burger. Since they are heavy food it takes time for your body to digest it which creates a lot of pressure on your digestive system and makes you feel lethargic.

No, I don’t mean that you stop having your evening snack. Everyone likes to have some kind of snack for evening but the question is can we replace it with a heathier version. If you look at south India there are many steamed dishes made out of rice flour which is tasty as well as healthy.

The main advantage of these dishes are that they are oil free and they don’t consume much time in making as compared to other dishes. I’m pretty much sure that you will love these yummy finger licking snacks. Read more to know  

 

3 Healthy Evening Snack Recipes

 1.   Kozukattai or Sweet rice dumplings

Kozukattai or sweet rice dumpling is an evening snack which is extremely sweet, nutritious & delicious. It is rice balls flattened and usually filled with ghee, jaggery & desiccated coconut. Since it is steam cooked it has no or almost less oil. Sweet rice dumpling is a perfect snack option for children. You can even have it as breakfast. It is a traditional dish of south India. You can also make it without sweetening.

 

Ingredients

1. 1 cup rice flour

2. 1 cup boiled water

3. A pinch of salt

4. 1 cup of grated jaggery or jaggery powder

5. ½ cup grated coconut flakes

6. 1 teaspoon cardamom powder or ginger powder

7. 1 teaspoon cumin

8. 1 teaspoon ghee

 

Method

1.    Take 1 cup of rice flour on a flattened bowl

 

2.   Boil 1 cup of water by adding a pinch of salt for 2 minutes  

 

3.   Add the boiled water on the rice flour & make it into a dough by mixing it with a spoon and when it cools knead it with your hand then apply a teaspoon of ghee on the dough to make it smooth. Then keep it aside

 

4.   Now for the filling, take another bowl add the grated coconut flakes, jaggery powder, cumin, cardamom or ginger powder & mix it well

 

5.   Now take the dough and with the help of your hands make it into small balls, prefer greasing your palm with a little bit of ghee so that the dough will not be sticky.

 

6.   Then take each ball & press it in the middle & flatten a bit and fill it with the filling mixture. Make sure that you are not overfilling it.      

 

7.   Then close the filling back to the form of a ball and keep it aside.

 

8.   Repeat the filling process with all the balls. When all the balls are filled with the sweet mixture keep it aside.

 

9.   Take an idli maker and fill the lower container with necessary water and on the steamer keep all the balls with sufficient gap.

 

 Steam it for about 30 minutes, now your tasty sweet rice dumpling is ready. Serve it hot with tea.

 

Note- If you do not want to sweeten it you can avoid jaggery. If you are using solid jaggery you can either grate it and use or you can boil the solid jaggery with ¼ cup of water & then use it.

 

2.   Elayappam  

Elayappam is a steam cooked snack wrapped in banana leaf. It is an authentic cuisine made in Kerala. It can be made for breakfast as well as a tea time snack. The wrapping of this snack in banana leaf and then steam cooking it gives it a unique flavor & aroma. It tastes best when it is served hot, but as it is cooked in banana leaf its freshness remains even when it is packed on your tiffin.

 

Ingredients

1. 1 cup rice flour

2. 1 cup water

3. 2 teaspoon ghee

4. A pinch of salt

5. ¾ cup jaggery powder

6. 1 cup grated coconut

7. Banana leaf

8. ¼ tablespoon cardamom powder

9. 1 banana (optional)

 

Method

1.    Take 1 cup of rice flour on a flattened bowl

 

2.   Boil 1 cup of water by adding a pinch of salt for 2 minutes

 

3.    Add the boiled water on the rice flour & make it into a dough by mixing it with a spoon and when it cools knead it with your hand then apply a teaspoon of ghee on the dough to make it smooth. Make it into small balls. Then keep it aside

 

4.   Now for the filling, take another bowl add the grated coconut flakes, jaggery powder, a teaspoon of ghee & cardamom powder. The filling should be a little bit sticky.

 

5.   Take the banana leaf & warm it on flame so that it is softened to be folded.

 

6.   On the banana leaf keep a rice ball, flatten it using your finger tips to form a thin layer of dough on it. If the dough is sticky in between you can dip your fingertips in water.

 

7.   Place a tablespoon of the prepared filling on one half of the prepared layer, add 1-2 slices of banana along with each filling & gently fold the other layer and press the sides to seal the edges.

 

8.   Repeat the process with the rest of the dough

 

9.   Place this in a steamer & steam it for about 15- 20 minutes. Serve it hot.

 

3.   Sweet Poha

Flattened rice 

Sweet poha or aval is an instant recipe made with flattened rice (brown or white) which is healthy & delicious. It is so easy that it doesn’t need any cooking but still it maintains the taste. Flattened rice has numerous health benefits & is rich in vitamins & dietary fibers.

Ingredients

1. 1 cup of flattened rice or poha

2. ½ cup grated coconut

3. ½ cup jaggery

4. 1 tablespoon of cardamom powder

5. 1 teaspoon of ghee

6. ¼ cup of hot water

 

Method

1.    Take one cup of flattened rice or poha on a bowl

 

2.   Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of hot water on the poha in order to make it soft

 

3.   Add grated coconut, jaggery & cardamom powder

 

4.   Mix all the above ingredients by adding a teaspoon of ghee, set aside for 10 -15 minutes, so that the jaggery will dissolve.

 

5.    Serve it with tea