Super Foods Of India

Indian superfoods are making a strong comeback. Rediscovering lost grains and reaffirming your faith in traditional food is slowly but surely changing the culinary face of the country.

- Bindu Gopal Rao

The concept of superfoods is not new—remember all the things your grandmother told you were good to eat. Simply speaking, superfoods are those that provide complete nutrition and have numerous benefits from a single source. Incidentally most superfoods are commonplace in Ayurvedic cuisine as well. “Fresh turmeric has been used in India for thousands of years as a spice and medicinal herb. Turmeric is simple to cook with, but to unleash its full potency it has to be eaten warm in a dish that contains healthy fats. If you’re using the whole root, peel the skin off and finely mince as you would with ginger root,” advises Kapil Dubey, executive chef, The Den Bengaluru. Broken wheat or dalia is another indigenous food with high fibre content and a low glycemic index that ensures the glucose is released slowly, thus keeping you active longer and decreasing your craving for junk food. Chef Manoj, sous chef, WelcomHotel Bengaluru, adds, “People today are more aware about the long term benefits of these ingredients, which are healthy and everlasting than the unnatural ones (made in laboratory) that are used as substitutes and are readily available and easy to use, but have adverse effects on us.”

India is a storehouse of nutritious ingredients that have long been part of our regional cuisines. “Some of these ingredients may now be termed as ‘superfoods’, but the fact is, we just need to get back to our roots and rediscover the same ingredients to follow a healthy diet,” says Varun Movva, executive chef, Novotel Hyderabad Airport.

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