Divine mouthfuls of traditional millet goodness at Sattvik
Ahmedabad: At a time when food lovers in the city are perhaps drooling over an array of international cuisines seen on social media videos, the 16th edition of Sattvik Food Festival, which kicked-off in Ahmedabad on Saturday, has a mouthful of traditional goodness to offer. Delicacies such as findla nu sharbat, camel milk, pumpkin roti, hibiscus iced tea and bhedku, among several others that you may have seldom known were part of the plethora of traditional and healthy preparations that were served at the festival by locals.
One of the aims behind organizing Sattvik is to popularise mass consumption of minor millets such as kodra, bavta, nagli, samo, jowar, bajri, ragi and maize, among others, by providing a platform to serve traditional preparations made using these grains.
While an array of farmers and locals, supported by NGOs, have prepared dishes using these grains, a bunch of youngsters from the city have also made an effort to bring in hyperlocal preparations from forest farmers from rural Gujarat.
“We have been organizing hiking trips from Ahmedabad. We often end up being near a village or in a rural area where the local food has its own flavour and ingredients – mostly procured locally. This time, we have brought-in forest farmers from Panchmahal, Chhota Udepur and Jambughoda, who prepared dishes such as bhedku – a traditional curry prepared from broken wheat, corn and green grams in addition to makkai vada and udad dhebra,” said Bhardwaj Jani, who is affiliated with Diving Deep, a firm that organizes hiking excursions.
In an attempt to promote agro-biodiversity by encouraging cultivation of lesser/not known vegetables and fruits, that have high nutritional properties, the festival also includes preparations made of some unique fruits and vegetables.