In Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Haryana, winter is bajra season. Households switch from wheat to bajra roti from October to February because pearl millet has a warming effect (ayurvedic tridosha terminology) and the earthy, nutty taste pairs perfectly with sarson saag, white butter, and gur. Urban North Indians who never grew up on bajra are now … Read more

A puri looks small and harmless. Golden, puffed, cute. Each one absorbs 5 to 8 grams of oil during deep frying. Three puris cost more calories than four plain rotis. That innocent puff is wearing a calorie disguise. Puri is one of those foods that’s perfectly fine occasionally but becomes a calorie problem when it’s … Read more

Punjabi colony, Sunday lunch, somewhere in Delhi. The waiter slides a plate in front of you: two enormous bhature, glossy and golden, towering over a steel katori of chole simmering in tomato-onion gravy. A side of pickled onions, a wedge of lemon, two green chillies. You start eating. Twenty minutes later you are stuffed beyond … Read more

A butter naan from a restaurant is 320 to 380 calories. That is the same as eating 4 to 5 homemade rotis in one piece of bread. Two naans with paneer butter masala and you have crossed 1,200 calories before dessert arrives. Most people eat naan without thinking about the calorie count. Once you see … Read more

Sunday morning. Your mother is rolling small dough discs and dropping them into hot oil. Each puri puffs up like a balloon, browns evenly, and lands on a steel plate lined with newspaper. Aloo bhaji is bubbling on the next burner. You eat four. You feel virtuous because they were small. Then you read this … Read more

A paratha is a roti that went to finishing school. Same flour, same tawa, but stuffed with filling, cooked in oil, and somehow three times the calories. Two aloo parathas with butter for breakfast feels light. It is 500+ calories. And most people have no idea. Paratha is one of those foods that’s perfectly fine … Read more

If you Google ‘best roti for diabetes’ or ‘best roti for weight loss’, jowar comes up in nearly every recommendation. Indian dieticians are switching diabetic patients to jowar roti by default. Maharashtrian and Karnataka households have eaten jowar bhakri as a staple for centuries. Why the sudden urban interest? The numbers explain it. One medium … Read more

Your nani told you ghee is healthy. She is not entirely wrong. Ghee has nutritional merit – vitamin A, vitamin K2, butyric acid, decent absorption profile. The problem is not whether ghee is good or bad. The problem is the math. A teaspoon of ghee on every roti, four rotis a day, adds 180 calories … Read more