Healthy Snacks for Sport Watching Nights!

The jerseys are out, so are the sweat-bands, flags, posters…And as your favourite team's matches near, you plan to watch them with your pals; which means food, food and more food (read: fried, rich in cheese, mayo and everything else that prompts you to run for another 20 minutes on the treadmill). But hey! You can't host a match at home without food, right? So we talked to chef Paul Kinny, Hotel Intercontinental - Mumbai, and nutritionist Maithili Pashtekar to bring you some super-easy-to-cook, healthy snack recipes that ensure that watching your favourite sport's world cup or championship doesn't result in a heavier you!

HummusIngredients: 

1. 200g Dried Chickpeas
2. 60 ml Tahina
3. 2 Medium garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped
4. 75 ml Lemonjuice
5. 45 ml Extra Virgin Olive oil
6. Salt and Cayenne Pepper
7. 5 g Paprika Powder.

Method: Soak overnight in cold water, then drain well and cover generously with fresh cold water. Bring to a boil, cover and cook on simmer till chickpeas are soft. Drain, but keep the liquid.

Place in a food processor along with the chickpeas and about 150ml of the water you set aside. Season to taste with salt and cayenne and process until smooth. If it's too thick, add a little more of the cooking water; add more oil, lemon juice and seasoning. The texture should be light and creamy, similar to a light mayonnaise.

Serve in a bowl garnished with  a few chickpeas, paprika and olive oil with whole wheat Pita bread or lavoche.

Aloo Chaat
Ingredients:

1. 300 gms baby potatoes
2. 2 tbsp date and tamarind chutney
3. 1 tbsp tomato ketchup
4. chopped onion
5. 2 tbsp coriander
6. chaat masala to taste

Method: Boil and skin the baby potatoes, cut into halves and let them cool. In a bowl, mix the date and tamarind chutney, tomato ketchup, chopped onions and chaat masala. Add the boiled potatoes to this and garnish with chopped coriander leaves.  Serve Chilled.

Mushroom Pâté Open Sandwiches
Ingredients:

1. 300 gms mushroom
2. 30 gms chopped onion
3. 30 gms chopped garlic
4. 20 gms butter
5. 50 ml milk
6. 20 gms mixed herbs
7. salt to taste
8. Pepper to taste
9. 6 slices of multigrain bread
10. 4 green olives

Method: Wash and clean the button mushrooms and pat dry. In a pan sauté onion, garlic and the mixed herbs. Add the mushrooms and sauté for 5 minutes on a high flame. Add the milk and cook till most of the liquid has evaporated. Remove from flame and let it cool. Add butter and blend together in a mixer. Spread this over the multi-grain bread slices and garnish with sliced green olives. Serve chilled.

What Should you Drink this FIFA World Cup?Drinking and football go hand in hand- or should we say beer and football? But with the beer comes the belly. We suggest that you opt for beer over lager, as it has lesser calories in comparison.
Lager approx.114 a pint.
Beer approx. 96 a pint.

Drink and Food for the Teetotaller Football Fans:"Fruit punch is a good idea for the teetotallers," suggests nutritionist Maithili Pashtekar. "Another good snack idea is cold-cut veggies with dips. Cut carrots, cucumbers, raw mangoes, celery sticks and use garnished yogurt for dip. It's yummy and healthy," she says.

So try out these healthy football snacks this FIFA World Cup, or use these recipes as guidelines to innovate some more healthy snacks of your own and have a ball!