Monsoon Diet: List of Foods You Should Eat and Avoid During Rainy Season

Monsoon is the season that tempts individuals to have hot and oily street-side foods. In India, every house would have a small evening gathering over a cup of tea and tempting pakoras or samosas, to enjoy the rain. After suffering from extreme heat during the summer, people feel refreshed and relaxed when it starts raining. Every season comes with its Pros and Cons, and this season also has its side effects too, as people tend to have lesser immunity as compared to other seasons as there is a drastic climate change, and the body takes time to adjust to the weather. During this period diseases like flu, typhoid, and stomach infections are very common. Mosquitoes just double up during this period and spread diseases like malaria, and dengue. Post-pandemic people are immuno-compromised which makes the individuals prone to diseases very easily. Hence, a season-altered nutritious diet plays a major role.Also Read – 8 Nutritious Foods You Need to Reach Out For This Monsoon

Building and maintaining a good immune system is the best way to be healthy, especially in the present scenario post-COVID. Individuals need to ensure that one has a good healthy immune system and needs to take care of it. Also Read – Monsoon Diet For Dull Skin: Easy Tips to Ensure Healthy Skin During Rainy Season

Sharanya Shastry, Chief Clinical Nutritionist Apollo Spectra lists foods that one can add to the cuisine, especially during the monsoon season: Also Read – Healthy Diet Monsoon Guideline

Foods/Preparations that can be added to the diet:

• Medicinal porridges – Traditional monsoon fares include porridges infused with fenugreek/methi, cinnamon, cardamom, cumin and other spices as per your taste. One of the famous porridges is karakadaka kanji from Kerala, which is frequently consumed during the monsoon. This can serve as a great dinner option or a late evening choice as it’s easy to make and quite filling. Along with the spices, it makes it easy for all those who are suffering from Acidity and Bloating.
• Kakrol/teasel gourd – Very popular in Bengali cuisine, Kakrol is a go-to option for stir-fries, curries and crisp fritters. It is stuffed with freshly grated coconut spiked with pungent mustard or spicy minced prawns, dipped in batter and fried. In this way, this is a much healthier option for pakoras and fries that are sold on the streets.
• An alternative for people who are living down south is, raw banana plantain chips/curry!
• Fiddlehead fern – Found growing only in the hilly areas, which is mostly found in the Uttarakhandi kitchens. It is called the “Monsoon staple” and is cooked with mustard oil, tempered with a local herb (jakhiya) and is used in fish curries/cooked with elephant apples and is also used to cook with kala chana (black Bengal gram).
• Colacasia leaf rolls (or patrode) with jackfruit seed chutney – Despite the mandate against leafy vegetables during the rainy season, Colocasia leaves, abundant in the season are turned into patra – colocasia leaf rolls, typically layered with rice flour batter and steamed or cooked with coconut gravies (or simmered with prawns for a Mangalorean delicacy). This is extremely good for the gut and prevents food poisoning or any issues with the gut (bloating/acidity/constipation). A jackfruit seed chutney along with this gives the perfect tangy taste, thus saving you from extra calories of the bajjis!
• Patholi – These are sweet rice dumplings stuffed with coconut and jaggery and steamed in fragrant turmeric leaves that grow in abundance during the monsoon months. This is a popular dish in the Konkani cuisine and is also good for boosting your immunity, healthy for the gut, increasing healing and is a powerful antioxidant

Monsoons teach us to go more local, and seasonal and stick to our age-old recipes taught by our mothers and grandmothers. Probably the only thing we lack is awareness, marketing and a fancy name for these dishes/foods.

Hope this monsoon keeps you all in the pink of your health!