Nutritional evaluation of common Punjabi breakfast preparations

From the dietary survey of eighty families, eleven commonly consumed breakfast preparations were selected and prepared in the laboratory. The basic ingredients were wheat flour, gram flour (for Missa Parantha), vegetables used for stuffing like potato, cauliflower, radish and fenugreek leaves, salt and spices and oil for shallow frying of paranthas. Potato stuffing, and cucumber & tomato slices were used for potato sandwich and vegetable sandwich respectively. These preparations were analyzed for their proximate composition, mineral content namely calcium, iron and zinc, and the vitamin content namely β-carotene and ascorbic acid. Paranthas had higher crude protein, crude fat and ash and contributed to higher amount of energy than bread and its preparations. Fenugreek paranthas contained the highest amount of calcium and iron. Ascorbic acid was highest in chapati and vegetable combination and B-carotene in parantha and vegetable combination.