Every Pure Bites article tagged farsan.
Nutrition & health
Is groundnut oil a healthy oil to fry in, and is cold-pressed better than refined?
Groundnut oil is about 46% monounsaturated fat and 17% saturated, and in a frying study it lasted 18–20 hours before reaching the discard limit. It is a sound frying oil. It is still oil, and the fresh-versus-reused question matters more than the brand.
Smart snacking
How much salt is too much, and how much is in the namkeen I eat?
WHO and India’s dietary guidelines both set the limit at 5 g of salt a day — about a teaspoon — and nearly half of Indians are over it. How to turn the sodium on a namkeen label into grams of salt, and what a handful costs you.
Smart snacking
Is air-fried food really healthier than deep-fried, or is that marketing?
Air frying uses far less oil, so the snack carries fewer calories. On acrylamide the studies disagree, and an air fryer cannot make every snack. An honest comparison from a kitchen that deep-fries.
Fresh & quality
Is packaged namkeen “ultra-processed”, and is homemade really any better if it is also fried?
India is the fastest-growing market for ultra-processed food in the world, and the packet of namkeen on the shelf is part of that number. Fried farsan from a kitchen is not — but it is still fried. What the NOVA system actually counts, what a packet adds that a kadai does not, and where “fresh” makes no difference at all.
Fresh & quality
How do I know if the samosa or gathiya I am buying was fried in old oil — and how bad is that really?
Oil that has been through a fryer for days looks, smells and tastes different, and so does the snack that came out of it. Six checks anyone can do at the counter, what FSSAI’s 25% total-polar-compounds limit actually measures, what the health evidence says, and how many times a home kadai can honestly reuse oil.
Smart snacking
Is the palm oil in my namkeen bad for me, and how do I even tell if it is in there?
Palm oil is legal, cheap and in most packaged namkeen — the government confirmed as much in Parliament this August. Four label checks that tell you in half a minute whether your packet has it, what the fuss is actually about, and what it is not.
Smart snacking
How do I keep Diwali snacking from wrecking a month of eating well, without serving guests something joyless?
Diwali on 8 November means a fortnight of farsan on every table. You do not have to swap it for kale chips — you have to know which snacks are dry-roasted or steamed, which fried ones are worth their oil, and what a portion looks like. A kitchen’s honest list.
Smart snacking
I don’t know whether to buy the 500 g or the 1 kg pack.
We sell in 500 g and 1 kg, and people ask which one they need. The answer depends on one number nobody has thought about: how big your evening bowl actually is.
Smart snacking
I want something to put out for guests that isn’t just another bowl of sev.
The flat, flaky half of a farsan box. What separates the four puris we make, which of them are actually coloured with vegetables, and what to put them out with.
Fresh & quality
My namkeen goes soft within a week of opening the packet.
Namkeen goes soft for one reason and it is not age. Four rules from a kitchen that packs it every day — including the one everybody gets wrong about the fridge.
Smart snacking
I want to know whether “fresh” namkeen is a real difference or just a word on a packet.
Almost every namkeen you can buy was fried weeks ago in oil that had already fried a great deal else. Here is what that changes, from someone who stands at the kadai.
Smart snacking
I only ever buy plain sev and I don’t know what the other kinds are for.
Sev is one dough and a dozen personalities. What actually changes between them, which one belongs on a chaat, and which one to keep away from guests who do not like heat.
Smart snacking
There are five kinds of gathiya on the shelf and I don’t know which one I want.
Five gathiya on one tray, all besan, all different. What separates them is thickness, moisture and how long they sit in the oil — here is how to tell them apart and when to eat each.