I recently travelled to Khajuraho and was hosted by a local family there. The trip was incredible in many ways, a peek into the beauty and cultural depth of our heritage. But for my 5 year old daughter, the highlight of the trip was when our hosts packed a large bag of roasted makhanas for her to munch along when we went for the tiger safari in Panna National Park. She loved the crunchy and salty treat and was ecstatic that I (who keeps her miles away from junk food and processed treats) allowed her to indulge. That, in essence, is the beauty of makhanas – The fact that they are delicious, economical, easy to prepare and yet wholesome and healthy. It is also underappreciated as benefits of makhanas are a plenty. In our enthusiasm to follow the Western world and find joy in walking down supermarket aisles, we somewhere forgot about the harmful effects of processed food. Yet, all we had to do, was peek into our grandmother’s pantry and we would find a treasure-trove, long forgotten. Thankfully, with people becoming more health conscious and aware of what is good for them, a movement (so as to speak) has started that can be best termed as ‘Back to Your Roots’. The easiest way to describe this movement is that when you shop for your kitchen, avoid picking up things that your grandmother wouldn’t recognise. Simple.
