Healthy Indian Snacks That Were Never Fried
Indian snacking has a reputation for the deep fryer, but a lot of everyday snacks are steamed, dry-roasted, baked, griddled, or simply tossed in a bowl. Here are the main families and what to look for.
Plenty of Indian snacks were never deep-fried in the first place. They are steamed, dry-roasted, baked, griddled, or stirred together in a bowl while the kettle boils. The fried ones are usually the celebration food. The rest is just an ordinary afternoon.
Here are the main families of unfried snacks, and what makes each one work.
Steamed: light enough to eat by the handful
Chickpea flour batter goes into a steamer and comes out as soft squares, silky rolls, or small dumplings, usually finished with a spoonful of tempered seeds. Because they are steamed, they are light and tender rather than greasy, and they are good warm or at room temperature.
Dry-roasted and griddled: the crunchy ones
Chickpeas and fox nuts roast in a dry pan or oven until they snap. Thin flatbreads are pressed out and dried on a griddle until they turn crisp like a cracker. The crunch comes from removing moisture rather than adding oil.
Tossed in a bowl: no cooking at all
Puffed rice, sprouts, and sweet corn become chaat with a squeeze of lemon, some chopped onion, and a sour, savory spice blend. These need no heat, which makes them the easiest place to start.
Baked: from the oven, not the pan
Millet crackers and savory lentil-and-rice cakes come out of the oven rather than the pan. The oven does the drying and browning, so there is no pot of hot oil and no special equipment.
Common questions
- Are Indian snacks always fried?
- No. Many everyday snacks are steamed, dry-roasted, griddled, or tossed raw in a bowl. The fried ones tend to be for celebrations and street food.
- What is an easy unfried Indian snack to start with?
- A puffed rice chaat. It needs no cooking: puffed rice, chopped vegetables, peanuts, lemon, and a pinch of chaat masala.
- Do these keep well?
- The dry ones, like roasted chickpeas and crackers, keep for a week or more in a jar once fully cooled. Chaats are best assembled just before eating.