Healthy Junk – sounds like an oxymoron? Well, it is…!

But demands of being responsible for the family’s nutrition combined with the constant doe-eyed fast-food pleas from my four-year-old girl makes me scout for healthier alternatives to insalubrious ingredients.

A perfect Indian alternative to all-purpose flour is wheat. From pancakes to pizzas, wheat is invading into the space of refined flour in a fight for healthier eating in my kitchen. And the deal is definitely big.

With a growing up kid who can make out differences in food very easily, there’s always a challenge to camouflage the healthy to make it taste much like that oh-so-awesome-toothsome junk

Here’s a simple recipe that negates the need for those fancy shelf-adorning bottles.

Step 1: Combine one cup of wheat flour with one teaspoon baking powder and sieve them together.

Step 2: Add four to five tablespoons of vegetable oil together with a dash of salt and knead into a medium-hard dough with water.

Useful tip: Adding a tablespoon of sour curd or replacing water with sour buttermilk while kneading the dough also helps it fluff up. But watch out, you may want to skip this if your kid is prone to sore throat. I often throw in some carom seeds, oregano and even crushed pepper-cumin into the dough for that added zing.

Step 3: Make balls of the dough and flatten them with a rolling pin using a little rice flour for dusting – pretty much like tortillas or in the Indian roti/chapati/parantha style. Use a fork to prick a few holes on the top to help the dough rise just enough while baking.

Cheesy tip: Experiment the parantha way by stuffing crumbled cheese into the dough ball before flattening it. Believe me, the taste is heavenly!

Step 4: Roll the dough a centimeter thick. Brush some oil and bake it at 450° F/ 230° C/ Gas mark 8 for about seven minutes. Flip it over twice at least to ensure the base is evenly baked.

Step 5: Once the base cools down, spread tomato ketchup (or the pizza sauce of your choice) and generous amounts of grated cheese. Sprinkle oregano or pasta seasoning if you like.

Step 6: Layer the top with the veggies of your choice. I prefer layers of onion and thinly-sliced capsicum because they roast so well when baked and need no prior frying. But you may toss in fried mushrooms, fried corn kernels and even soya chunks or meat balls. If you like green leafy vegetables, try a combination of pre-boiled spinach, mushrooms and corn with a generous amount of cheese cushioning them over the base.

Step 7: Put the pizza back into the oven for another four minutes at 450° F/ 230° C/ Gas mark 8 and serve with pride.

 

About the Author:

Keerthana is a journalist & digital marketing professional who juggles between being a mom to a creative Foodsee daughter & a blogger. You can read more of her writing at thisshortstory.wordpress.com