Poha, avil, aval or flattened rice can be called the cereal equivalent of India. Today I bring to you the 5 no cook recipes made with poha which are ideal for travel with your baby.
You want to travel out of station with your baby. You are not comfortable giving restaurant food to your baby. You don’t like store bought baby foods either. And you have no access to an induction stove or a rice cooker. Now what if I tell you that you can still prepare a delicious home meal that your baby as young as six months can have? Presenting to you some delicious recipes with poha that your baby, toddler and even you will love.
Travel friendly and no cook recipes using poha:
What purpose ready made cereals serve in American food, poha can serve in Indian food. It’s a food that is easy to digest, nutritious and needs little to no cooking.
Poha is made from flattened rice flakes and is very rich in iron. It is a healthy source of carbohydrates as it releases sugar slowly into the bloodstream. This makes it an ideal option for even diabetics!
Here, I present to you a poha recipe that you can prepare and store for months. It comes especially handy during travel.
No cook recipe base using poha – preparation method:
Clean poha very well. Dry roast on medium flame till you get an aroma and the color changes to brownish-red. Cool the poha and remove dirt or burnt residue if any.
Add cardamom pods to the roasted poha and grind once again. Grate jaggery and grind again till its powdered well.
You can sieve to get the smooth powder if required or use as it is.
- Thick Poha- 250g
- Jaggery- 125 g
- Cardamom- 6 nos
- Clean the poha to remove any dirt or husk
- In a thick bottomed kadai, dry roast the poha in low to medium flame. As you roast, it will emanate a nice aroma.
- Continue to roast until the color begins to change from white to reddish. The poha will be very crisp to taste. Make sure to stir continuously to avoid poha getting burnt. It took me about ten minutes to roast this quantity of 250 g.
- Switch off the flame and let it cool off. Remove any brown residues due to burnt poha or dirt in the poha.
- Add the cardamom to the roasted poha. If you prefer, you can remove the outer covering of cardamom as it will not grind properly.
- Grind somewhat coarsely in a mixie.
- Grate the jaggery and add to the mixture. Grind for a few more seconds after adding the jaggery to the powder.
- You can also use powdered jaggery or naattu sakkarai (natural unrefined cane sugar). Make sure the jaggery does not have any impurities.
- Adjust the amount of jaggery according to the taste of your baby. Some babies like it less sweet, others like it more sweet. This recipe tastes good either way.
Now, your base is ready. You can store it an air tight container for one to three months depending on the freshness of the ingredients used.
5 No cook poha recipes for travel with your baby or kid:
- Instant poha porridge:
Add some warm milk to the prepared powder and wait for two minutes. The powder will get softened due to the addition of warm milk.
Poha will absorb a lot of milk, so the mixture may solidify after a few minutes. You can add more milk to loosen. You can serve this porridge as semi-solid or liquid as your baby prefers by adjusting the quantity of milk.
Instant poha porridge with milk can be served to babies of 1 year old and above. Add warm water or formula milk instead of cow’s milk if your baby is less than one year.
- Porridge with cold milk or water:
If you do not have access to warm milk or water, you can add cold milk or water instead.
Just allow a few more minutes for the powder to soften. While travelling, you may use the tetra pack milk that needs no boiling.
- Poha balls:
Add some melted ghee and roasted nuts to the powder. Make balls out of it the way you do roasted gram balls/ urundai.
- Instant poha Kheer or aval payasam:
Want to make a quick kheer?
Add extra jaggery and some hot milk to the powder. Roast some cashews and raisins in ghee and add it to the mixture. Your healthy kheer is ready in a jiffy.
- Instant poha snack or snack powder:
You can just serve the prepared powder as is without adding any liquid. It will be an interesting texture for your kid to try out. Avoid this for babies below 10 months, as they may not be used to eating such textures.
This powder is so versatile that you can invent your own yummy recipes using this. You can also refer to the travel friendly brown rice moong dal porridge powder and 20 healthy on the go snacks for toddlers.
Do share with us in comments how you liked this recipe. Also let us know the travel friendly foods you carry while travelling with your little one.
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12 Comments
hello mam Thanks for the lovely recipes.. I just wants to know can we store this poha mix in refrigerator or at room temp. I stay in Delhi and it is very hot in summers, plz suggest
To my knowlege, poha is neutral- neither heat nor cold. It is also easy to digest and great for 6 months+
Yasmin.. To my knowledge poha has no heat or cooling properties. It is neutral and easy to digest too
Kiruthika, yes you can use the brown/ red aval for this. I haven’t tried though
Vandana, thanks for giving us wonderful recipes. Can we use brown aval instead of white? I prefer brown aval would be healthier for babies.
Ams, I use a certain brand of organic powdered jaggery and it is always clean. My mom says achu vellam/ moulded jaggery doesn’t usually have impurities. Hence she used it for the purpose. So again, go for a good brand….
Hi Veena, as mentioned in the recipe, the shelf life is 1 to 3 months depending on the freshness of the poha itself. It’s better to err on the side of caution and try to prepare only enuf for one or two months. But even if there is excess, you can eat it too. It tastes yummy!
Hi… How to ensure that the jaggery is pure without boiling in water….
Thanks for the quick fix & travel friendly recipe.what is the shelf life of this poha powder?
Sindoori, generally we assume for these kind of dishes that the poha is well cleant at the source. Please buy packed one instead of loose and buy a good brand. If you wash, and even if you dry it well, it may get spoilt quickly….
Hi,
Can i know whether i have to wash the poha well before roasting or just remove the dirt manually?
Is the brown poha cold for kids or does it increases the phlegm in kids below one year?