Hyderabad: The common man is facing the brunt of skyrocketing prices of onions and tamarind. The rising cost of vegetables and essentials is affecting the balanced diet of the common man. What to do in such a situation? Nutritionists suggest substituting foods that contain the same nutrients for a more balanced diet. It is suggested that if you try other foods that have the same nutritional value without getting used to the same flavours, the market demand will go down and the prices will invariably go down too.
Tamarind
Tamarind is mostly used in the preparation of lentil-based food items such as tamarind-rice, dals and rasam. This ingredient saves the food from spoiling quickly. But these days, the prices of tamarinds are going up. A kilo of Tamarind is priced up to Rs.250 at present. As an alternative ingredient to Tamarind, lemon could be used in cooking recipes especially as a seasoning in dishes. Lemon is currently cheaper than tamarind. Dry Mango powder (Amchoor powder) can also be used. In the northern regions where tamarind is not used, people can go for lemon and pumpkin for sourness. Seasonal ingredients like green tamarind, mangoes, dry mango powder and amaranth pulp can be used for sourness.
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Onion
Onions are used to flavour curries. They are also used for broth in recipes. Alternatively, cabbage can be used if cooked uncovered. It is better to have some onions instead of using a whole cabbage. Bottle Gourd can be used as an alternative for gravy in the dishes. In order to use it in the future, onions can be bought when they are cheaper and can be powdered dry so that the powder can replace the onions when the prices are sky-rocketing.
Tomato
Alternatively, green tamarinds can be boiled, mashed and used as a sour pulp. Pumpkins can also be used in dishes instead of tomatoes. Even the citron fruit pulp can be stored and used in place of Tomato.
Varieties of pulses
There are many varieties of pulses in the market. Almost all of these contain the same proportions of proteins. For those who do not eat meat, pulses are mostly preferred alternative for the required proteins. So one can buy lentils at a lower price and also have the right amount of proteins the body requires. Red lentils are available at lower prices. It can also be cooked deliciously.
Apart from toor dal for essential nutrients, it can also be found in peas, lentils, beans, horse gram and a few of these can also be consumed in the form of salads. Proteins are rich in these pulses and dals.
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