Cook And Relish These Things During Navratri Festival

The nine-day-long festival 'Navratri' for worshipping the nine avatars of goddess Durga began from today and will conclude on October 25. Fasting is done by people during these nine days to connect with the divine. They follow a sattvik diet for all nine days.

A sattvik diet is a simple diet which emphasises on seasonal fruits and vegetable, nuts, oil ,milk and its by- products .Onion, garlic and few other spices specifically, red chilli is not used in its preparation. This diet is said to impact the mind and the body deeply. It renders sattva qualities to the person eating it; sattva referring to that which is essential, natural, pure, is a source of energy, clean, conscious, honest and wise. These nine days apart from connecting with the divine, also helps in cleansing the body from its toxicities.

Following is the list of items that one can eat these nine days :

1) Kuttu Atta(Buckwheat flour)

2) Singhara atta(Waterchest nut flour )

3) Makhana(Fox nuts)

4) Sabudana(Sago)

5) Samak chawal and Atta (Samo Rice and flour)

5) All kinds of seasonal fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds

6) Few spices like rock salt(Sendha namak), black pepper(Kali Mirch), cardamom (Elaichi) and also cumin (jeera) powder.

7) To make the food more flavoursome one, may add coriander leaves, green chillies and lemon.

8) Natural sweeteners like jaggery, brown sugar and white sugar.

9) Milk and its by-products.

These nine days one; should along with Onion, garlic avoid pulses and cereals, hard and soft drinks and also packaged food as they are not a part of Sattvik diet.

Benefits of Navratri Fasting:

1)A time to cleanse the mind, soul and body.

2)The digestive system gets fine-tuned as the food is simple yet flavourful.

3)One may develop sattva qualities in them because of the sattvik diet.

Recipe of Singhara Barfi

Preparation Time: 5 mins

Cooking time: 30 mins

Serves: 4

Cooking Level: Moderate

Ingredients

• 1 cup Singhara flour

• 3 tbsp ghee

• ½ cup of sugar

• 1 cup milk

• ½ tsp elaichi(green cardamom)powder

• Almonds shaving for garnishing(optional)

Method

1) In a non-stick pan heat, the ghee.

2) To this add the flour and on a medium flame sauté it until it turns light brown.

3) As soon as the flour starts turning light brown add the sugar, sauté for 2-3 mins.

4) Now slowly add milk and mix well.

4) Continuously keep stirring till the ghee starts leaving the corners of the pan.

5) Add the cardamom powder and mix well again for a minute and then turn off the flame.

6) Pour this mixture on a greased tray or a steel plate and flatten the mixture. Let the mixture cool and set.

7) After 10 mins cut the set mixture into squares and garnish them with almond shavings.

Enjoy the barfi, which is ‘my favourite too’. HAPPY NAVRATRI!!

Tips: You can store the barfi in the refrigerator for a week.

-- Sapna Chaudhary/Lucknow