Hemp pasta, flourless jaggery choco cake among Chennai star hotels healthy offerings

By Venkatachari Jagannathan Chennai, Nov 4 : Hemp pasta in basil pesto with vegetables and garlic bread, flourless jaggery chocolate cake, ragi-almond pan cake, five grain khichdi and immunity booster drinks, prawn ‘kuzhi paniaram’, ‘annachi sundal’, are some of the interesting new dishes that star hotel chefs in Chennai whipped up during and the Covid-19 lockdown period.
While some of the dishes have found their way into their hotel menu cards, a few more are on their way, chefs told IANS.
According to the chefs, the whole focus in designing the new dishes is not only to guard against Covid-19 but also to offer wholesome healthy food.
“Hemp seeds have several nutritional benefits but are not largely used. We decided to come out with hemp pasta in basis pesto with vegetables and garlic bread,” Gopi Thangaraj, Sous Chef, Novotel Chennai Chamiers Road here told IANS.
With hemp giving the flavour and the taste, the dish was not only tasty but distinct.
Apart from pasta, millets or hand pound ponni rice or seeraga samba rice or other exotic rice could also be used.