Paryushan 2023: Nutritionists advise how to get your protein fix while fasting

Snacks like makai ka chivda are usually made a few days before the festival begins. Pic Courtesy/Mahek Jain

A complete guide

While fasting, the first thing to keep in mind is to have enough water. Start your ekashna [one meal a day] and biyashna [two meals a day] with protein-rich food like one bowl of moong or chickpeas. Incorporate good-quality fat in your diet like khichdi with ghee, and try to have a portion of curd rice in one of the meals as it aids in digestion.

If you are eating one meal a day, eat high-protein and good-quality carbs like moong dal and rice with ghee, moong dal dosa with paneer and dalia khichdi with curd. Eat a small piece of jaggery and roasted chana by the end of the meal. If you are eating twice a day, for your first meal, consume a bowl of moong, a whole wheat paratha with curd, nachni porridge and rava uttapam. Your second meal can include dal rice and ghee, two besan chillas, and paneer curry and rice. Finish with a glass of fennel water.

You can practise paryushan at work as well. Carry simple dishes such as curd rice, moong and khakra, masala puri and urad dal dhokla. Don't worry too much about weight loss, and instead, focus on the improvement of your mental health for these eight days.

Ekta Pande, nutritionist and lifestyle coach

Hear it from the moms

Being one of the holiest phases in the Jain calendar, naturally, parents try to introduce their children to the festival in a healthy, convenient manner. Recipes have been passed on from one mother to another over generations, and now we all have a list of must-haves. Children tend to look forward to paryushan because their mothers make special sweets like gud [jaggery] matar, tal [sesame] matar and pipramul sonth. While these are tasty, they are known to increase body strength, especially when you're fasting. We also make gud ka pani and variyali pani for beverages - which provide stamina. Our star dish has to be the traditional dal bati churma that we generally consume on Mahavir Jayanti, which is the fifth day of the festival.

Neeta Doshi, Grant Road

The sesame seeds need to be washed few days before preparing and consuming tal matar

I make nachos chips, which are made of wheat and mogar dal. Whenever my children feel like snacking, instead of turning to off-the-shelf chips, they spread my milk-based gravy over this homemade variety. I also prepare khaari, makai ka chivda and gundar gas. For the latter, I fry gond [edible gum] and mix it with milk. It tastes exactly like mava; my children love to end their ekashana or biyashana with this.

Kavita Jain, Mulund West

Do not overeat

During paryushan, green vegetables and fruits are avoided. There is a tendency to lean towards sweet and fried food to curb hunger. But keep your sugar intake in check. In fact, the most important thing to bear in mind during these eight days is to not overeat. If you're eating once a day, your first instinct will be to eat as much as you can. But that will only harm your body because it is not used to so many calories in one go. It is okay to eat more than what you usually eat for a meal, but don't keep pushing yourself if you feel full. Understand the signs that your body sends, and stop when needed. During these eight days, people generally take a break from their regular fitness routines. So, being sedentary might cause one to gain weight in case you consume extra sugar or fried items like wafers and puris.

If you are a working professional, prepare [paryushan-friendly] idli sambhar, paneer paratha, moong dal and thepla in the morning, and carry it along to the office. These make for well-rounded meals that can be consumed even in the evening.

Saloni Kothari, nutrition counsellor and life coach, NLP practitioner

Chilli oil idli bullets

Ingredients
£ 1 tbsp ghee
£ 1 tsp salt
£ 1 cup rice flour
£ 1 and ¼ cup water
£ 2 tbsp oil
£ 1 tbsp chilli flakes
£ 1 tbsp sesame seeds
£ 3 tbsp peanuts

Method
Take water in a pan, add salt and ghee to it. Once it comes to a boil, add rice flour. Mix it up and break lumps. Simmer for five minutes. Transfer into a bowl and knead into a soft dough while it's hot. Grease hands with ghee, take small portions of the dough and roll into mini spheres. Place in a steamer of your choice. Make sure that the spheres don't stick to each other. Steam for 10 to 15 minutes. In a pan, heat oil and add chilli flakes, sesame seeds and peanuts. Mix well. Toss in the idli bullets, serve hot and dig in!

Nikita Shah, recipe developer, founder, Salt in All

Where to order

Here are a few cloud kitchens that serve all three paryushan-friendly meals and deliver across Mumbai and the suburbs

The soul kitchen
Call 9967317275
Log on to @tskbymihika (for the menu)

Rasoi cooking kitchen
Call 9819646633
Log on to @rasoii_cookingstudio (for cost and other details)

Snacky Ideas
Call 8850085563
Log on to amishadoshi.in