The popular and much-loved fried and oily food items are in reality more like the bad apples of a Navratri fast. They cause indigestion, bloating, heartburn, and a rise in blood pressure and bad cholesterol. In the long run, they don’t let you enjoy the benefits of fasting, such as detoxification and the build-up of immunity.
Navratri fasts are good for your body, mind, and soul only when you consume the right foods while fasting. “Yet, your meals should be something you look forward to,” says Ayurveda cooking expert Kaushani Desai. Following are five no-oil and tasty Navratri fasting recipes that can make your Navratri healthy and special.
No-oil sago potato cutlet
Ingredients
Sabudana 1 cup
Potatoes 3-4 medium
Green chilli paste ½ teaspoon
Ginger 1 teaspoon
Salt 1½ tsp or as per taste
Peanut or Melon seeds ½ cup
Preparation
1. Soak Sabudana for 3-4 hours in water. After that, drain the water
2. Steam potatoes, and smash them.
3. Grind peanuts and make peanut powder.
4. Mix mashed potatoes and sabudana.
5. Mix all the ingredients and roll them into a round shape.
6. Coat the cutlet with peanut powder.
7. Roast them in a pan.
8. We can use fresh coriander leaves, lemon juice, and curry leaves as a flavor.
Sweet Poli
Ingredients
Amaranth (Rajgira) flour – 1 cup
Clarified butter (Ghee) – 3 tbsp
Water – ½ cup or as per requirement
Figs – 8 pieces
Black Dates – 10 pieces
Cardamom – ½ tsp
Preparation
- Mix the flour with 3 tbsp of clarified butter and water. Knead it into a dough.
- Chop the figs and mash the dates. Mix both and set aside.
- Roll the dough into thin chapatis.
- Spread a thin layer of dates on one chapati and cover it with another chapati. Press the corners.
- In a pan, dry roast the chapati from both sides. Add a little ghee onto the chapati after roasting.
- Cut into pieces and serve.
Khichadi
Ingredients
Suran 1 cup
Tamarind 2-3 teaspoon
Jaggery 1-2 tablespoon
Cumin seeds 1 teaspoon
Salt ½ teaspoon or as per taste
Ginger paste ½ teaspoon
Green chilli paste ¼ teaspoon
Cow Ghee 1 teaspoon
Preparation
- Grate Suran and Sweet Potatoes.
- Mix Green chilli, ginger paste and salt with grated Suran and Sweet Potatoes, and steam them for 7-10 minutes in a steamer.
- Crush peanuts coarsely.
- Heat ghee in a pan and add cumin seeds. Roast them until little brown and add peanuts in it. Roast themit until theyit becomes a little brown.
- Add steamed vegetables into a pan. Mix it and cook them for 2 minutes off the gas.
- 6. Add lemon juice in it and serve it with curd.
Yam khichadi
Ingredients
Yam 1 kg
Crushed Peanut 3-4 tbsp
Green chilies paste 11/2 tsp
Curry leaves 3-4 spring
Rock salt 2 tsp or as per taste
Cow ghee 1 tsp
Cumin seeds 1 tsp
Lemon juice 1 whole
Preparation
- Peel and wash yam, grate it.
- Add rock salt, and green chilies paste to grated yam and mix well.
- Steam yam for 10-15 minutes.
- Heat a pan. Add cow ghee, and add cumin seeds, then curry leaves and crushed peanuts, and roast it till peanuts get cooked.
- Now add steamed yam in the seasoning and mix well, cook it for 1-2 minutes and turn off the gas.
- Squeeze lemon juice and serve it.
- Curd can be served with yam khichadi.
No-oil Yam cutlet
Ingredients
Yam 500 gms
Potatoes or sweet potatoes250 gms
Green chilies paste 1/2 tsp
Ginger paste 1/2 tsp
Rock Salt 1 1/2 tsp or as per taste
Lemon juice 1 tbsp
Pumpkin seed 1 cup
Cumin powder 2 tsp
Preparation
- Grind pumpkin seeds into powder and mix with cumin seeds powder.
- Peel and wash yam and potatoes.
- Cut yam into big pieces and potatoes into two pieces, and steam it for 15-20 minutes.
- Grate yam and potatoes, add green chilies paste, ginger paste, rock salt, and lemon juice, and mix well.
- Take little mashed yam and roll it into your palm and press it to make a flat cutlet.
- Coat the cutlet by rolling it gently into pumpkin seed powder.
- In a pan, roast the cutlet on medium flame till it turns into light brown color.
- Serve it.
Recipes from Kaushani Desai, Faculty, Holistic Cooking Program, The Art of Living
The purpose of fasting is detoxification, the build-up of immunity and depth in meditation during the homas. Eat light when you fast in Navratri, or else the purpose gets defeated. Fruit salad, fasting rice (samak rice), and boiled sweet potatoes (shakarkand) are some of the ingredients you can include in your Navratri fasting.
You can visit our blog, "How can you plan your fast for the nine days of Navratri?"
Some of the food ingredients allowed in Navrati include,
* Buckwheat (kuttu) roti, fasting rice (samak rice), dosa from fasting rice, dishes made from sago (sabudana), water chestnut (singhara) flour, rajgira, yam (suran), colocasia (arbi), boiled sweet potatoes (shakarkand), etc.
* Clarified butter (ghee), milk and buttermilk. All these have a cooling effect on the body
* Yogurt combined with bottle gourd (lauki) and pumpkin (kaddu)
* Lots of fluids – tender coconut water, juices, vegetable soups, etc. Besides providing energy, they prevent dehydration and flush out the toxins released during fasting
* Fruit salad made with papaya, pear, and apple
You can eat yam (suran), colocasia (arbi), boiled sweet potatoes (shakarkand), potatoes, kachalu, lemons, raw or semi-ripe pumpkin, raw pumpkin, spinach, tomatoes, bottle gourd, cucumber, and carrots during Navratri fast.
You can eat poha made of samak rice or quinoa in Navratri.
