What Are Some Easy Navratri Vrat Recipes to Try During the Nine Days of Fasting?

Nine days, no regular rice, no wheat and no table salt: Navratri fasting can look like a kitchen puzzle, yet it has produced some of India’s most loved comfort food. A bowl of sabudana khichdi with crunchy peanuts, a plate of hot kuttu puris with aloo sabzi and a spoonful of creamy makhana kheer prove that a vrat menu never has to feel like a compromise. With Shardiya Navratri 2026 running from 11 to 19 October, the question on every household’s mind is what can we eat during Navratri fast, and the answer is a delicious mix of sabudana, samak rice, kuttu, singhara and rajgira flours, potatoes, fruit, dairy and makhana, all seasoned with sendha namak (rock salt).

Easy Navratri special main meals

• Sabudana khichdi: soaked sabudana cooked with potato, roasted peanuts, cumin and green chilli, then finished with lemon juice.

• Samak rice pulao: barnyard millet cooked pilaf-style with potato and cumin, which works as the vrat substitute for regular rice.

• Kuttu ki puri with aloo sabzi: buckwheat puris served with a simple fasting potato curry, and rajgira poori works equally well.

• Kuttu cheela: thin buckwheat pancakes made with mashed potato and eaten with curd or a vrat-friendly chutney.

Snacks and sweet vrat dishes

• Sabudana tikki: a good way to use leftover soaked sabudana, mixed with mashed potato and peanuts before pan-frying.

• Aloo jeera: a quick potato dish that pairs well with puris or parathas.

• Makhana kheer: foxnuts simmered in milk with sugar and cardamom.

• Singhara halwa: water chestnut flour roasted in ghee and sweetened.

• Fruit chaat: a light option between meals.

Navratri fasting food questions answered

• Rice: regular rice is avoided, so samak rice takes its place in khichdi and pulao.

• Salt: sendha namak replaces table salt in every vrat dish.

• Diabetes: samak rice has a lower glycaemic index than regular rice, and adding vegetables such as pumpkin or raw banana raises the fibre content.

• Tomatoes and similar ingredients: rules differ between families, so household tradition is the best guide.

A simple vrat meal plan

A balanced day often starts with kuttu aloo paratha and curd, or a bowl of fruit with makhana, followed by samak rice khichdi with raita as the main midday meal. Evenings usually call for something lighter, such as fruit with curd or a boiled potato chaat, and the fast is broken after the evening puja. On Navami, many families close the nine days with a complete thali of samak rice and aloo sabzi, with makhana kheer and curd on the side.

Most of these dishes take under half an hour, which makes them easy to rotate across the nine days without repeating a menu, and soaking sabudana overnight saves the most time.