There’s nothing quite like the start of a New Year to get your eating habits back on track. Resolutions are fresh and motivation is at an all-time high. So it seemed like the perfect time to seek out healthy new menus rolled out in the city to give you a headstart. From a five-star buffet spread — with millets smartly woven through everything from salad to pudding — to a festival curated around vegan desserts; here’s to eating well and feeling swell, as we enter 2023.
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Gelato ga ga
The Great Vegan Gelato & Dessert Festival is a great way to explore healthy desserts in a rainbow of flavours. Expect 15 options including Himalayan Salted Chocolate, Bubble Gum and desi variants like mukkani. The gelatos are made with khandsari sugar. Also look forward to sorbets, waffles, hot chocolate, brownies and more. The waffles are gluten-free and use jaggery powder and ripe banana for sweetness, while the brownies are gluten-free too and made with amaranth flour and dates. At Eko-Lyfe Cafe & Store, Alwarpet. INR150 per scoop. On till Jan 1, available on request after.
Seed funding
Seeds Lifestyle, which opened a few months ago in Adyar, is always stocked with a spectrum of seeds that you can choose from, to up the ante on their salads. These include melon, sunflower, sesame, pumpkin, chia and flax seeds. Their newest entry on the menu is the curious sounding ‘Slap Up’ which is a meal with a double portion of protein — think dairy, meat or tofu. Some of the options on the list include the Satay Tofu Slap, Teriyaki Paneer and Florence Chicken. This is tossed in with carbs like soba noodles, brown rice or red rice. INR 340 upwards.
Wait a millet
With 2023 being touted the International Year of Millets, Madras Pavilion recently introduced an array of dishes on their buffet spread centred around millets. Think finger millets in chocolate cinnamon pudding and foxtail millets stuffed in zucchini; expect to find this often overlooked grain now taking centre stage across salads, main course dishes, breads and desserts. Available on the buffet, Monday to Saturday, for lunch and dinner (INR 2,354 upwards) and as part of the Sunday brunch (INR 3,000, all-inclusive).
Got us wonton more!
Freshlings, which has a menu of salads, superfood soups and warm bowls using hydroponically grown vegetables from their farm, has a host of fresh goodness for the New Year. Look out for four inspired new ‘lush salad’ bowls like the Vietnamese Banh Mi with English cucumber, pickled red cabbage and a creamy sambal aioli; Chinese New Year with carrots, pomelo, pickled ginger and fried wonton bits in a sweet plum dressing; and even a Harvest Bowl with roasted beets, peppers and a cilantro almond dressing, as we look ahead to Pongal. This is apart from 10 new luscious soups including Couch Potato, Chiang Mai Carrot and Madras Cauliflower. Order online or via subscription. INR 350 upwards.
Pumpkin & spice
Christmas may be over. But this newly introduced salad by Butterheads begs to differ. The cloud kitchen, known for seasonal salads, rice bowls and paninis, has rolled out a healthy-meets-hearty bowl for the colder months called the Winter Burrata, which features Spice Roasted Pumpkin, Chilli Jam and Pickled Cranberries and drizzled with a maple mustard dressing. You could also opt for their Winter Bocconcini variant. Order online. INR 445.