Navratri Special: Treat Yourself to These Delicious Recipes

Fasting for Navratri? Here's how to make your Navratri healthy and nutritious.

Navratri calls for fasting and feasting! But this year, instead of deep-fried store-bought snacks, make these delicious fasting recipes for Navratri by renowned chefs.

Golgappa (Pani Puri)
Ingredients
• Water 300ml
• Tamarind 50gm
• Mint leaves 50gm
• Cumin powder 5gm
• fennel seeds 4gm
• Amchoor powder 3gm
• Lemon juice 10ml
• Chaat masala 3gm
• Black salt 2gm
• Semolina 50 gm
• Flour 100 gm
• Soda 3 gm
• Salt 2 gm
• Fresh Coriander 50 gm
• Ginger 20 gm
• Green chilli 5 gm
• Onion 80 gm

Golgappa stuffing
• Kabuli chana 10 gm
• Potatoes 20 gm
• Chaat masala 4 gm
• Moong dal sprout 10 gm
• Pomegranate 10 gm

Method
• Make a dough of flour, semolina, salt and soda; keep the dough for resting for about 15 minutes. Roll it and cut into circles and deep fry it or buy readymade puris from the market.
• Soak some tamarind, make pulp out of it, and mix it with the ginger, black salt and jaggery. Add water till desired consistency.
• Grind mint leaves, coriander, green chilli, amchoor powder black salt and cumin powder and make a paste add water until desired consistency.
• Take mashed potato, kala chana, red chilli powder, cumin-coriander powder, chaat masala powder, coriander leaves and salt and make the stuffing for poori.
• Make sprout and Kabuli chana chat by mixing chaat masala and chopped onion and fresh coriander.
• Assemble the pani poori, stuff it with the desired stuffing and pour pani in the poori and serve.
Recipe by Chef Avinash Kumar, Novotel Imagica Khopoli

Dal Panchmel
Ingredients
• Toor dal 10gm
• Black Urad dal 10 gm
• Chana 10gm
• Green moong 10gm
• Moong polish split 10gm
• Ghee 30 gm
• Cinnamon stick 5gm
• Cloves 2 gm
• Onion chop 20gm
• Tomato chop 30gm
• Fresh coriander 15 gm
• Red chilli powder 20gm
• Turmeric powder 5gm
• Gram masala 10gm

Method
• Soak all the dals in three cups of water for at least two hours. Drain and boil them in three cups of salted water with turmeric powder till done. Grind ginger and green chillies to a paste. Heat oil in a pan.
• Add asafoetida, cumin seeds, cloves and red chillies. When the cumin seeds start to change colour, add ginger-green chilli paste and sauté for a minute.
• Add cumin powder, coriander powder and red chilli powder. Add the tomatoes and sauté till oil separates. Add the cooked dals, salt and water if required. Cook for ten minutes stirring well. Add garam masala powder and serve hot garnished with coriander leaves.
Recipe by Tuskers, Vegetarian Dining Bar (Sofitel Mumbai BKC)

Undhiyu
To make Methi Muthiya
Ingredients
• 1 cup wheat flour
• 1/4 cup gram flour
• 1/2 cup chopped fenugreek leaves
• Few sprigs of chopped cilantro
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1/2 tsp red chilli powder
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 tbsp chilli garlic ginger paste
• 1 tsp sesame seeds
• 1 tsp carom seeds
• 1 tsp oil
• 1 cup water

Method
• Mix wheat flour with gram flour.
• Add fenugreek leaves, cilantro, sugar, salt, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, chilli garlic ginger
paste, sesame seeds, carom seeds and oil. Mix well.
• Add water gradually, and knead into a firm dough.
• Make either round or log shaped muthiya.
• Deep fry muthiyas. You can also shallow fry to avoid excess oil. Keep aside.

For the vegetables

Ingredients
• 1/2 cup lilva tuvar (green pigeon peas)
• 1/2 cup val papdi (Indian flat beans)
• 1/2 cup surti papdi
• 10 baby potatoes
• 1/2 cup purple yam
• 1/2 cup white yam (ratalu)
• 6 baby eggplants
• 1/2 cup sweet potatoes
• Green masala prepared below
• 1 cup shredded coconut
• 1/4 cup fenugreek leaves finely chopped
• Green masala

Method
• To make green masala, blend 1/2 cup green chillies, 1-inch ginger piece, 5-6 garlic cloves, a bunch of green garlic shoots along with the garlic, 2 cup cilantro, a pinch of salt, 1/2 tsp carom seeds, 1/2 tsp cumin seeds, 1 tsp sugar in a blender.
• Add as little water as possible and make a thick green paste. Keep aside.
• Take the baby potatoes, de-skin them and slit them with a ‘+’ shape on one side. Ensure it is not cut through the other side. Repeat for baby eggplants.
• Cut the remaining vegetables into cubes, about the same size as the potatoes and eggplants.
• Mix the green masala with shredded coconut and use 1/4th of the masala to stuff the potatoes and eggplants.
Recipe by Tuskers, Vegetarian Dining Bar (Sofitel Mumbai BKC)