A friend recently gave us a box of baked samosas from a well-known confectionery store in South Delhi, and as I bit into one, I realised I had nothing to complain about.

We tried cooking these at home, too, without deep-frying. We moulded small samosas, stuffed these with a potato filling, and then brushed with oil. Minutes later, we had a delicious array of samosas.

With the festive season drawing close, I have decided that I need to prepare myself for the food fests that are an essential part of these celebrations. I am, as you may have gathered, fond of snacks. But instead of eating fried stuff (get thee behind me, bread pakora!), I am going to go healthy with baked and air-fried foods. So that, once the festivities begin, I will, without any guilt, dig into greasy Mughlai paranthas, mutton chops, aloo tikkis and kachori.

Of course, not all baked food is light. I remember my first encounter with baked rasgullas, which a kind friend had sent over from Kolkata. They are the most delicious sweets you can have - rasgullas baked with a delicious layer of thickened cream. But the rabri makes it rather rich. So we can, instead, opt for Odisha's chhena pora, which is a baked sweet. Take fresh chhena, sugar, semolina, ghee, and cardamom powder. Mash them well. Line a greased bowl with a banana or sal leaf. Add some sugar at the bottom to colour and caramelise the dessert. Put the chhena mix into the bowl, then bake or air-fry it. Traditionally, of course, the leaf-wrapped package was placed by burning coals and slow-cooked.

As much as we love our fried food, we also know it plays havoc with the system. So, what's the alternative? Baked snacks, of course. These taste good and don't trouble the arteries. When I first bit into a baked samosa, I realised you could, figuratively, eat your cake and have it too. It's tasty, without being doused in fat.

In health-conscious India, an always ready-to-please market offers all kinds of baked alternatives. Once, we would have baulked at the thought of baked matthris or namak para. Now, we welcome them. These are easy to cook at home, too. Since I have a sweet tooth that cannot be subdued, we sometimes replace the salt in the dough for namak para with sugar and make a sweet snack called goja in the air-fryer.

I recently came across a simple recipe for non-fried, crispy moong dal pakoris. The chef soaked the dal overnight, then mixed it with salt, red chilli flakes, ajwain, and hing, and ground it. Small dollops of this mix were put in the air-fryer. And out came a tray of crispy moong dal munchies.

Food writer and celebrity chef Tarla Dalal has a recipe for baked methi poori. She makes a ball of stiff dough, mixing atta with fenugreek leaves, a pinch of turmeric, a teaspoon of coriander, cumin and red chilli powder, and oil. She rolls out small pooris, and then pricks these with a fork. She greases a baking tray, and bakes these at 180ºC for 18 minutes (turning these once in between) or till the pooris are crisp and golden-brown. You can have baked sweet potato fries, or gujiya that is not deep-fried but baked in an oven.

As we await the festival season, let's gear up with some healthy snacks. We have nothing to lose but old thoughts - and, I hope, a bit of weight.

The healthy samosa

Ingredients

Ajwain A pinch

Salt To taste

Water For kneading

Oil For brushing

For the filling

Potatoes (boiled & peeled) 250 gm

Mustard seeds 1/2 tsp

Curry leaves A sprig

Green chillies (chopped) 2

Hing A pinch

Ginger (finely chopped) 1 tsp

Amchur A pinch

Turmeric A pinch

Salt To taste

Method

Prepare the filling. Mash the potatoes. In a lightly greased non-stick pan, add mustard seeds, curry leaves, hing, green chillies, ginger, turmeric, and amchur. Add the potatoes. Season. Mix well. Cook for 3-4 minutes, and keep aside. Mix the maida with ajwain, salt and water. Knead into a tight dough. Make small balls. Roll out a ball like a small chapatti. Cut horizontally into two. Take one half. Shape it into a cone. Fill it with the potato. Moisten the flap (the straight part), and then close the edges by twisting the ends. Repeat with the remaining dough. Preheat the air-fryer at 180ºC. Brush the samosas lightly with oil. Air-fry for 10 minutes, brush with oil again, turn these around. Air-fry for another 8 minutes. Serve hot with tea.

- The writer is a food critic