Navratri Fasting Foods

Vrat food, also called farali or upvas food, is cooked from a short list of ingredients, and this part of our Navratri groceries gathers that list in one place. Sabudana, the pearls of sago made from tapioca starch, is the base of the fasting kitchen: sabudana khichdi with crushed peanuts, potato and green chilli, crisp sabudana vada, and a milky kheer. See sago and sabudana for the full shelf of pearl sizes. Phool makhana roasted in ghee or simmered in milk is the other mainstay, and peanuts go into almost everything, crushed, roasted or boiled.

Sendha namak, sold as rock salt or upvas salt, replaces ordinary table salt for families who avoid common salt during the fast. The spice tin stays simple: cumin for jeera aloo, black pepper, green cardamom and dry ginger powder, known as saunth. Many households leave out turmeric and mustard seeds, and most avoid asafoetida, since compounded hing is usually blended with wheat or rice flour.

Ghee and groundnut oil are the two cooking fats most fasting households accept, and many families keep a separate tin of each for the nine days. Our pure ghee is made from butter alone, which matters on a vrat, and groundnut oil is mild enough for frying vada and puris.

To soak sabudana, rinse it until the water runs clear, then cover it with water by about a fingertip and leave it for four to six hours, or overnight for large pearls. It is ready when a pearl squashes flat between your fingers with no hard white centre. Too much water turns khichdi gummy.