Sweet nothings

Recently, while browsing a popular home goods store in the US, I stumbled upon an entire aisle dedicated to Deepavali, right between Halloween and Christmas displays. The shelves were filled with festive treats like diya-shaped candies and glittery chocolate squares, alongside boxes of traditional Indian sweets such as Soan Papdi and Kaju Katli too.

The festive season often leads to excesses. Reports indicate that many Indian cities generate over 400 tonnes of waste during Deepavali week. From decorations to gifts and food, we’ve become accustomed to overindulgence, and the latest trend is “healthy snacking,” which makes us believe in good spending.

Despite the awareness of the environmental impact, many of us succumb to online discounts, resulting in unnecessary purchases. Last year, Visa noted a 25% increase in online shopping during the festivities.

To address the surplus from our celebrations, it’s crucial to adopt a more mindful approach. Here are some practical ideas to help us manage our festive bounty more consciously, and sail through the last quarter of the year, which brings more celebrations:

Dry fruit de trop

Those leftover boxes of dry fruits can spoil quickly. Transform them into a tasty treat by mixing them with butter, jaggery, and spices. Bake the mixture with oats and seeds for a nutritious snack that lasts longer.

Sweet surprises

We often receive sweets like pedhas and barfis. Instead of letting them go waste, consider repurposing them. Blitz the sweets in a mixer, add flour and milk and enrich with flaxmeal and nuts to create a delicious mawa cake. Bake in muffin cups for a delightful twist.

Fruit chaat

Fruits often languish during the festivities as sweets take precedence. To use them up, slice the fruits and season them with black salt, cumin, chaat masala, and lemon juice. Top with crispy snacks for a refreshing fruit chaat.

Flour power

When making homemade sweets, we often discard leftover flour. Combine it with butter and jaggery to create a crumble topping for fruits like apples or pears. Bake for a simple yet satisfying dessert. You can even repurpose flour dregs for face scrubs or rangoli colours.

Chiwda cutlets

Savoury snacks like chiwda and bhujia often go stale after initial servings. Blitz them into a powder for a crunchy coating for cutlets, or use as a stuffing in parathas, or add it to your soup for texture.

As I compile my festival checklist and draw up recipes for homemade goodies to distribute in my friend circles, I find myself overwhelmed by the influx of chocolates already arriving. I’m considering turning them into chocolate bark or nut butter. This year, I aim to reduce my purchases of sweets and snacks, focusing instead on minimising kitchen waste. I hope this leads to a more meaningful celebration and a stronger connection with both my community and the environment.

(Ranjini is a communications professor, author, and podcaster, straddling many other worlds, in Bengaluru. She’s passionate about urban farming and sustainable living, and can mostly be found cooking and baking in her little kitchen, where, surrounded by heirloom coffee kettles and mismatched tea cups, she finds her chi.)