Abstract

The advent of modern drug therapy has led to absolute explicitness the philosophy of “food as medicine”. Diet is the only comprehensive approach for health management. Functional foods hold promise for public health and there are growing concerns over these foods. Green leafy vegetables have remained underutilized due to lack of awareness and popularization of technologies for utilization. Nowadays, underutilized foods are gaining importance as a means to increase the per capita availability of foods. Radish leaves and cauliflower leaves are widely neglected GLV considered as waste. These nutritious GLV can be dried with a little time , effort and can be used in preparation of cost effective nutritious value added food in common recipes. Research was carried out to study the acceptability of dark chocolate with radish leaves and the functional characteristics of cauliflower leaves enriched popular cereal product. The blend 50 g dark chocolate incorporated with one g of oven dried radish powder was found to be extremely acceptable. The popular cereal product noodles developed with wheat flour, pearl millet flour and cauliflower leaves puree laid a promising substitute for refined wheat flour, with respective physical, chemical, sensory characteristics and textural analysis. High in iron and calcium content the cereal product may help to overcome individual deficiency and find its place as meal replacement for diabetes and for any other therapeutic condition. Hence a nutrient dense, cost effective cereal product normally considered as convenience foods could be prepared at household level by utilizing the leaves that has a high waste index. Further be taken widely for research in ready to cook and eat foods, popularized as a best first choice for enrichment among children and women of the modern era.