Looking to maintain a healthier palate for Diwali 2021? We've got you covered

It’s that time of the year when our social calendars are marked with festive soirees and family gatherings, which are inevitably accompanied by multiple doses of bingeing on our favourite sweets. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to compromise on your dietary restrictions. We’ve rounded up a list of brands and home bakers that are sweetening up this holiday season without the guilt. Whether you’re looking to gift or order healthy goodies for yourself, here are all the spots to hit up.

Mumbai

Trust plant-based chef Raveena Taurani to fix you up with her celebratory menu featuring mithais, kulfis and rabris that are all vegan, gluten-free and refined sugar-free, made using alternatives such as coconut sugar, almond butter and coconut milk. Choose from vegan besan or malai laddoos, badam pedas made with almond butter and saffron, and rose and saffron kaju katli. Kulfi flavours range from kesar badam to a decadent mango pista, made with coconut milk and cashews—all packaged in cheerful colours in keeping with the festive spirit.

Delivering across Mumbai. Tel: 09867455009 or WhatsApp to order. You can also order online

This plant-based patisserie will diligently cater to your sweet tooth with wholesome tea cakes in flavours such as rose, orange blossom and wholewheat chocolate, cheesecakes like mango shrikhand with a gluten-free biscuit base, and kesar and roasted cashew French entrements featuring rasmalai mousse. You can also choose from truffles that are gluten-free and refined sugar-free in flavours like roasted pistachio and rose, lime, coconut and white chocolate, dark chocolate and hazelnut, and much more.

WhatsApp: 09321569632 to place orders or order online

Known for their range of guilt-free desserts and granolas, this season, the bakery is offering festive hampers that include honey-infused nut jars with walnuts, apricots and cranberries for that perfect pick-me-up. You also have an assortment of healthy granolas in different flavours that you can customise—all packaged together with a handwritten card by a calligraphy artist.

Delivering across Mumbai and pan-India. Order online

This year, the Leela Group is offering several hampers that are perfect for gifting guests or yourself if you just want to binge on guilt-free treats. While you have the traditional assortment of mithais and chocolate pralines, there is also a gourmet selection of cookies and tea cakes that you can have customised as sugar-free and gluten-renditions. Mix these with the savouries on offer for that perfect balance.

Available at The Leela Mumbai, as well as select Leela properties across the country. Order online

Featuring keto-friendly bakes as well as desserts that are sugar-free, refined flour-free and diabetic-friendly, you can pick from an array of goodies to customise a hamper or order in a box for yourself. Choose from the coconut cream tart or lemon meringue pie, as well as the tiramisu cake, apple crumble, chocolate bonbons, bread loaves and dessert jars. You can even order bars of their sugar-free, bean-to-bar chocolates that are made in-house.

Delivering across Mumbai and pan-India. WhatsApp: 09152155050 or order online

Le Cordon Bleu London-trained chef Ankita Chawla whips up several healthy and wholesome treats so you can pick from an assortment of refined sugar-free puddings, a deconstructed banoffee tart, and a chocolate soil or mixed berry pudding. There are also truffle-flavoured nuts along with gluten-free bakes like giant cookie cakes, quinoa pop granola and much more. The hampers can be customised to your liking.

Tel: 07506929439 / 09821104529 to order. Delivery across Mumbai. Select hampers can be delivered pan-India.

For a gourmet spin to the festive season this year, why not order vegan, gluten-free and artisanal sauces to whip up healthy meals at home? Chef Karishma Sakhrani has teamed up with Wonder Foods & Farms to create four limited-edition flavoured sauces. Choose from garden pesto, smoked chilli oil, toum and signature Thai Curry sauces that are all organic, artisanal and vegan.

Tel: 09967660179 or order online

Churning out handcrafted, artisanal varieties of goodies, this brand, run by an all-women team, is offering a curated selection of healthy festive eats featuring sugar-free laddoos in flavours like rose and fig as well as pistachio and date, nuts and muesli, stuffed dates, traditional pecan pie and savoury mixes. The brand also works closely with a local NGO supporting women empowerment.

Delivering across Mumbai and pan-India. WhatsApp: 09820821188 to order or DM on Instagram @zealofoods

Delhi-NCR

Started by vegan pastry chef Avantika Sinha Bahl, this patisserie makes healthy bakes using alternative ingredients such as almond, tapioca and sorghum flour, natural sweeteners like dates, jaggery and organic maple syrup, along with nut milk and butter. On the menu, you’ll find an assortment of stuffed cookies, tarts and tea cakes in flavours like lavender and lemon, fudgy brownies and more. If you’re looking to gift, you can get customised hampers as well.

Tel: 09319274013 for orders

Much loved for its spin on regional Indian mithais, snacks and chaats, this season, Bhawan is also offering healthy indulgences featuring Indian sweets; think vegan ragi laddoos made with jaggery and coconut, sugar-free date and fig rolls, as well as laddoos made with popped amaranth, cranberry and jaggery that are both vegan and gluten-free. Pair these with savouries for the perfect festive treat.

Order online

The luxury mithai maker offers a curation of low-sugar and no sugar mithais sweetened with organic ingredients like natural honey, dates, jaggeries such as nolen gur, date palm, sugarcane and others. Also on offer are pretty boxes stuffed with medjool dates, dry fruit wraps and more.

WhatsApp: 09999899615 or order online

The Khan Market-based patisserie and boulangerie is offering a selection of healthy bakes such as an old-fashioned apple strudel or a vegan chocolate and orange tea cake, gluten-free double chocolate cake and more. Choose from their spread of dips and sauces like the vegan roasted garlic hummus or red pepper and walnut dip paired with gluten-free crackers.

WhatsApp: 09871118099 to place orders

This season, the hotel is offering a range of festive hampers with mithais and more that you can customise to be sugar-free and gluten-free. They’ll put together a bespoke hamper for you, along with a range of sleep-friendly and calming teas, and incense sticks for that much-needed post-festive slumber. The Utsav Diwali hampers are also available on display as a pop-up in the hotel.

Tel: 09643100446 for orders

Bengaluru

Plant-based health and nutrition coach, Mariam Begg, is offering an array of curated healthy hampers this festive season. Apart from showcasing some of her favourite vegan eats that she whips up herself, like cacao bliss balls made using superfoods and healthy dessert jars, she has also tied up with local, home-grown brands to include options like vegan mithai from Coimbatore, Millie’s vegan cheese if you’re looking for dairy-free alternatives, ZenBar for granola bars, as well as Indian Hemp & Co for hemp hearts, among others.

Tel: 06361477117 to place orders. Delivering across Bengaluru and select cities across the country

Chennai

For this festive season, the hotel is offering several guilt-free treats that you can savour, from boxes of mithai featuring vegan oats and coconut laddoos, dry nuts barfi, and hand-rolled chocolate truffles in flavours like cranberry lemon or hazelnut sea salt, to gluten-free fudgy tarts, naturally-sweetened cookies and much more.

Tel: 07824808013 / 07825808005 for orders

Also read:

This kesaria sandesh is a healthy, delicious dessert for mums-to-be

5 artisanal Indian chocolates that are a testament to the India cacao bean