Home-made chikkis, barfi and nadus are always healthier than the commercially available chikkis, barfi and nadus. Home-made foods are prepared with good quality foods with love care. Moreover, they are not free of all types of preservatives, artificial flavouring and colouring substances. Most of us relish the unique taste of traditional cooking of our grandmothers but we are reluctant to prepare these traditional recipes at our own house, rather we are interested to purchase the commercially available traditional foods. The main problem of home-cooking is that in the modern society, all of us are busy with our work and thus we have not too much time to procure so many ingredients, to process them and to prepare traditional snacks like nadu, burfi, chikki (takti) etc.

Today, I like to share a tasteful, healthy chikki recipe with you. Don’t afraid, you have not to go to the market for purchasing so many things, it is only a three (3) ingredients recipe. It is not a time-consumingrecipe; you need to invest only 10 minutes from your busy daily routine.

Ingredients Use

1. Pumpkin seeds: 50
2. Dates: 30g
3. Sugar:  20g

Method of Preparation

• Collect the pumpkin seeds from the ripe sweet pumpkins, wash them thoroughly with water.
• Sundry the seeds for 2 days.
• Now remove the outer white coloured seedcoat of pumpkin seeds.
• Yes, it is the time-taking steps. If you want to skip this, then get dehulled pumpkin seeds when you plan your next grocery shopping.
• Roast the pumpkin seeds on a dry tawa without using oil or ghee.
• Now grind the roasted pumpkin seeds using a grinder. Kept aside.
• Remove the seeds from the dates and grind them. Kept aside.
• Heat a tablespoon of water and add the jaggery to it. When the jaggery is dissolved, add smashed dates and pumpkin seeds.
• Cook the mixture at low flame for 10 minutes with constant stirring.
• When the mass turns semi-solid, remove it from the oven.
• Grease a steel plate with little ghee or oil, eventually spread the cooked mixture and cut the total mass into small pieces (diamond shape) using a knife.
• Separate the small pieces of pumpkin seeds burfi and keep them in an air-tight container.
• You can store the burfion your kitchen shelf for 7 days or in the refrigerator for 15 days.

Health Benefits

• The pumpkin seeds burfi is a high-calorie food rich in carbohydrates, fats, and protein. So, it is a good desert for growing kids, adolescent boys, and girls.
• It is a good choice of food for those suffering from constipation because it is a rich source of fiber.
• Pumpkin seed is a high-calorie food, which is a fat-rich vegetable food. It is also a good source of protein. These seeds are an excellent source of a diverse group of vitamins like vitamin A, vitamin C and vitamin E. It is a good source of potassium, phosphorus, and magnesium. It contains adequate amounts of calcium, sodium, manganese, iron, zinc, and copper. (1) This barfi contains 50% of pumpkin seed which makes it an ideal food for growing children. (2)
• Both pumpkin seeds and dates are good sources of fibre which makes the desert item is a good source of dietary fibre, making it an appropriate food for constipation patients.(3) (4).
• This vegetarian desert recipe is a good source of healthy fat, containing good amounts of monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA), polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and unsaturated fatty acids (SFA). (5)
• It is a zero cholesterol recipe, making it ideal for cardiac patients. (6)
• Dates are high carbohydrate, low protein, low fat dry fruit. It is a good source of selenium, copper and iron. They are also rich in B vitamins. (7)
• Both pumpkin seeds and dates are good sources of antioxidants, like carotenoids and phenolics. (8)