Chaitra Navratri 2024 starts on April 9th, 2024 and devotees are ready to celebrate the festivities at home. Chaitra Navratri is a nine-day-long festival in which people worship Goddess Durga and her nine incarnations. One of the best ways to celebrate any festival is by indulging in food and Navratri is known for its delicious vrat-friendly dishes. One of the most important rituals of Navratri is the observation of vrat (or fast) during the nine days. Many Hindus refrain from eating non-vegetarian food, or drinking alcohol and choose to have light, sattvik food which helps cleanse our digestive system. As per various health experts, Navratri season is the perfect time to detox our body from heavy foods. As per consultant nutritionist Rupali Datta, "This is the most perfect time to give our body a break from the regular, heavy food that we eat and change over to a Sattvic diet for 9 days. This helps our body rejuvenate and get itself ready for the next extreme season." Navratri food is super healthy because of the ingredients that are used to cook, she further states pointing to certain vegetables, nuts, milk, and milk products, etc.
Also Read: Navratri 2022: 5 Potato Or Aloo Recipes You Can Enjoy While Fasting For Chaitra Navratri
If you too observe Navratri fasts, we have a perfect meal plan for you with interesting vrat-friendly recipes.
Here Is A Healthy Navratri Meal Plan With 15 Delicious Vrat-Friendly Recipes:
1. Breakfast
Start your day with protein-rich shakarkandi ki chaat! Sweet potato is an excellent source of nutrients such as minerals, vitamins, and fibre which help keep our energy levels high during the fasting period. Drizzle a pinch of rock salt and lemon on the top for a tantalizing morning meal!
Crispy, soft, and healthy, these vest-friendly vadas are perfect for breakfast. Simply replace your regular salt with rock salt and you can have a vrat-friendly meal. Find the full recipe here.
Made with buckwheat flour, this cheela isn't just flavourful but also packed with wholesome nutrition since buckwheat is a superfood that is a treasure trove of nutrients and good carbs. Easy, yummy, and vrat-friendly! Find the full recipe here.
2. Lunch
Vrat or no vrat, khichdi is never a bad option. Don't you agree? It is light, comforting, easy, and versatile enough to experiment as much as you can. This vrat-friendly khichdi with sabudana is just one example of how khichdi can be made with many different ingredients! Click here for the recipe.
Aloo is perhaps one of the most common ingredients in Indian homes. And aloo ki sabzi with puris is one of the most loved. This vrat-friendly aloo rasedaar made with rock salt, without onion and garlic is an ideal lunch! Find the full recipe here.
Pair your aloo ki sabzi with these crispy puris made with kuttu puris! Kuttu doesn't come from grains and is thus, permissible to eat during Navratri fasting. You can pair these puris with plain curd too! Click here for the recipe.
3. Evening Snacks
Light, soft, and spongy dhoklas are a weakness, isn't it? And these vrat-friendly dhoklas, made with samvat ke chawal are here to take your vrat meals a notch higher. Find the full recipe here.
Sate your evening hunger pangs with these crispy, yummy vrat-friendly paneer rolls! Made with sendha namak and a handful of spices along with high-protein paneer, these rolls are a perfect snack. Click here for the full recipe.
- Roasted Makhana
Foxnuts or makhana are one of the most common foods during the fasting season, especially since you can make countless delicacies with just makhanas! But besides everything, did you know simple, roasted makhanas topped with just a pinch of rock salt tastes heavenly?
4. Dinner
Potato is one veggies that is permissible during Navratri fasting and Aloo ki kadhi is one dish that we can eat all year round! Potato pakoris made with Singhare ka atta deep-fried and simmered into a yummy yogurt-based gravy is something we just cannot resist. Find the full recipe here.
Regular rice is a no-no during fasting and this is when Samak ke chawal/ vratwale chawal comes to the rescue. This easy dosa recipe made with a mix of samak ke chawal and singhare ka aata has a stuffing of potatoes and spices, making for a wholesome and delicious vrat-friendly meal. Click here for the full recipe.
Give your favourite regular paneer bhurji a Navratri-special spin with this no-onion, no-garlic recipe! All you need is to replace salt with rock salt and you have a yummy recipe to savour. Pair with kuttu ki puris! Find the full recipe here.
5. Dessert
Who doesn't love a bowl of kheer during festivities? Even if you are fasting, you can have your share of sweet cravings fulfilled with this vrat-friendly kheer! Made with tapioca pearls, flavored with a hint of cardamom and saffron, and topped with some crunchy nuts, this kheer is an absolute delight! Click here for the recipe.
Singhara atta (water chestnut flour) is another very common ingredient during Navratri. This halwa is a decadent mix of singhara atta, sugar, ghee, and nuts which is going to leave you drooling. Find the full recipe here.
Another delightful kheer recipe made with the goodness of bottle gourd and banana! Grated lauki and banana cooked with chunky cashews, milk, and khoya make for a mouth-watering treat you can never say no to. Click here for the full recipe.
Try these vrat-friendly recipes to keep yourself sated during the 9-day-long festival and share your experience with us in the comments section below.