Baked Whole Wheat Namak Paare | Healthy Diwali Recipe
Oct 22, 2013, Updated Apr 13, 2019
Baked Namak Paare are the perfect healthy savory snack!
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Diwali is around the corner and we are all busy chalking out our Diwali menu, isn’t it? The festival of light is all about joy, happiness and a lot of sweets. I bet it is only time of the year when people in India eat so many sweets together at once. And India has such a huge variety of sweets, there’s gulab jamun, ladoos, kheer, halwa and the list goes on.
To balance this sweetness overload, one must also make some savory snack and the most popular one is namak paare which are traditionally made using all purpose flour (maida) and then deep frying them. During Holi and Diwali, I would munch on homemade namak paare so much that after a point my mom would ask me to stop!
As much as I love the traditionally made namak paare, this time I thought of giving them a healthy makeover and so I made 2 changes:
1. Replaced 75% of all purpose flour with whole wheat flour
2. Baked the namak paare instead of deep frying them
The result? A healthier version of namak paare which I wouldn’t mind snacking upon!
So, try this healthy savory snack this Diwali.
It’s crunchy, crispy and healthy!
Method
1. In a bowl, toss together the whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, salt and carom seeds. You can either use 100% whole wheat flour or 100% all purpose flour to make this. Carom seeds should be added according to one’s taste. You can add a pinch more of carom seeds if you like but they can give a slightly bitter taste if added in excess so be careful here.
2. Add the oil and mix it with the flour. You can use ghee instead of oil or use a combination of both. I only used olive oil here.
3. Start adding water slowly, the dough will start coming together. Knead till it forms a soft dough, let it rest for 15 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 375 F.
6. After 15 minutes, roll the dough to a thickness of your choice. I wanted to keep the namak paare really thin so I rolled the dough very fine.
7. Slice the dough into desired shapes now. I cut mine into diamond shapes using my pizza cutter. If you have a pizza cutter, please use it to cut these strips. Take a fork and prick the namak paare so that they don’t puff up while baking.
8. Arrange them on a baking sheet and put them into the oven.
9. Bake at 375 F for 12-15 minutes till the edges start to get brown. I flipped them once around 6-7 Â minutes.
10. Store in an airtight container.
Baked Whole Wheat Namak Paare | Healthy Diwali Recipe
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
- 1/4 cup all purpose flour
- 2/3 teaspoon salt or adjust to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon carom seeds also known as ajwain seeds
- 2-3 teaspoon oil use oil of choice
- 1/4 cup cold water to knead the dough
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 F.
- In a bowl, toss together the whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, salt and carom seeds.
- Add oil and mix it with the flour thoroughly.
- Now slowly add water and knead till it forms a smooth dough.
- Let the dough rest for 15 minutes.
- Roll into a round or square of desired thickness.
- Slice the namak paare into desired shapes.
- Arrange onto a baking sheet and bake at 375 F for 12-15 minutes till golden brown in color.
- Cool and store in an airtight container
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Sounds yum, Manali! Will definitely try soon! Just a small question, can we try to air-fry it instead of baking? If so can you please suggest temperature and timing?
Thanks a lot!
Suman
Suman I am yet to try this in air fryer, let me try and get back
Hi!
Can I use semolina I.e. Suji instead of the all purpose flour for adding to the whole wheat flour?
yes u can try
Hi. 126 calories for the whole batch of namakpara?? Can you reply me please as I m on diet and this looks healthy to have it as a treat sometimes with a tea.
if you divide the whole batch by 4 then the calories for 1 batch is listed below (since this recipe serves 4).
I don’t have Carom Seeds at home. Can I use Zeera Seeds instead?
sure
Hi Dough should be soft as roti or like paratha?
yes similar
Oauu, thank you Manali. My husband is Indian and we live in Germany and trying to offer delicious vegetarian alternative to our 3 kids. I received first time some namkeen shakarpara from my mother in law from Mumbai and i couldn’t stop eating on those. I already cooked it myself several times and again any quantity is empty on the same day, but i don’t like this frying so much, so i am happy if we can bake it. So i will definitely try this recipe also with ajwain, which i love a lot.
Hi,
I have a query….
Can I use multigrain flour for this recipe, instead of whole wheat and maida.
yes should be okay!
Tried the baked namak pare recipe.. came out excellent. Very happy with the result ? Thank you for the recipe!
Welcome Simran!