Navratri 2024: Chef Anand Rawat Shares 3 Vrat-Friendly Recipes

During Navratri, people often get caught up in the infinite loop of what to cook which does not contain onion or garlic. Whether a snack or a main dish, not only the recipe should be easy but the final result should be delicious and lip-smacking.

To pull you out of this misery, Chef Anand Rawat, Corporate Executive Chef at Noormahal Palace, Karnal, shared a few recipes with Slurrp, including a snack, a sweet dish, and a main dish. These simple recipes will help you cook mouth-watering food every day during Navratri.

Ingredients

• 350 grams of colocasia root (arbi), boiled and mashed 
• Coriander leaves (dhaniya) 
• 1/4 cup almond powder 
• 1-2 green chilli 
• 1-inch ginger 
• 1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns 
• 1 teaspoon cumin powder (jeera) 
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon powder (dalchini) 
• 2 tablespoons kuttu atta (buckwheat flour) 
• Sendha namak (rock salt) to taste 
• ghee

Method

• Add the coriander leaves, almonds, green chillies, and ginger into the food processor and blend until you get a coarse mixture. 
• Transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl. Add the cooked and mashed arbi with the remaining ingredients except for the ghee. 
• Combine all the ingredients well. Check the salt and spice levels as per your taste. 
• Shape the sticky arbi mixture into kebabs. 
• Since taro roots are starchy vegetables, the blend will stick to your fingers when you shape it into kebabs. To prevent this, grease your palms with oil. 
• Once you shape them, roll them over samak atta and arrange them on a platter so you can cook them. 
• To cook the arbi ke kebabs, preheat a pan on medium-high heat and grease the pan well. Place the shaped kebabs, drizzle ghee over them, and pan-fry until they are crispy and brown on both sides. 
• Serve them immediately along with dhaniya chutney. 

Also Read: Enjoy Navratri Special Thalis At Top Delhi-NCR Restaurants

Rose Rasgulla

Nothing sets festive vibes better than making sweets at home. This Navratri, you can try making rasgulla with a twist of roses. Following Chef Anand Rawat’s recipe, you can easily prepare this lip-smacking delight at home which is often touted as complex.

Ingredients

• Full-fat milk
• White vinegar
• Sugar
• Rose or pink food colour
• Rose water

Method

Making Chhena From Milk

• Start by heating milk in a heavy bottom pan. Keep stirring the milk and switch off the flame after it boils. Let the milk cool down. 
• Curdle the milk with vinegar and keep stirring. Add ice to the milk once the milk curdles. This process helps in cooling down milk and curdled milk will stick together to form big chunks.
• Drain all the water aka whey from curdled milk. You may use this whey in cooking other things as it has a high protein content. 
• Wash this curdled milk under water to remove any sourness from vinegar and ensure all the water is extracted away from chenna. 
• Put the chhena in a muslin cloth and squeeze the water. Subsequently, hang the cloth with chhena in it, for all the water to drip away. 
• Chhena should be a little granular and dry in appearance for rose rasgulla.

Cooking Chhena

• Add 2-3 drops of food colour (or pink colour extracted by cooking rose petals) to the paneer and knead it with the help of your palm for 10-12 minutes to make a soft and smooth dough. 
• Now take one tablespoon of chhena mixture and knead again to shape it into a ball. Do this with the rest of the blend.
• Put two cups of sugar in five cups of water and bring it to a boil in a pressure cooker. Add the remaining food colour and mix. 
• Once it begins to boil, add these balls to it, and put the lid on it. When the pressure cooker whistles once, reduce the flame and cook for roughly 15 minutes. The balls should have doubled in size. 
• Take out all the balls gradually and give the balls a little squeeze to extract the excess sugar syrup. Keep them in cold water for a few minutes to prevent rasgulla from overcooking. 
• Continue cooking the left-over sugar syrup for 10 more minutes and then let it cool down. Once the syrup is cooled, add rose water and gently put the balls.
• Keep rasgullas in the fridge and serve them chilled.

Kaddu Ki Sabzi

Kaddu or pumpkin is often prepared during Navratri because it does not need the tempering of onion and garlic. It completes the Ashtami bhog when served with puri, aloo tamar sabzi, kheer, sooji halwa, and chana.

Ingredients

• 500 grams of kaddu
• 1 tsp jeera
• 2 tbsp ghee
• 1/2 tbsp rock salt
• 2 green chillies
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• 2 medium tomatoes
• 1/2 tbsp sugar

Method

• Wash and clean the kaddu. Remove seeds, peel off the skin, and cut it into cubes. 
• Heat a pan, add ghee, and cumin seeds, and cook. 
• Then add chopped green chillies and tomatoes. Saute them.
• Add turmeric powder and saute the ingredients. 
• Later, add kaddu cubes and stir. Cover with a lid and cook for 3-4 mins. 
• Add sugar and salt, and toss everything nicely. 
• Cover and cook on low heat until the kaddu is tenderised. 
• Home-style kaddu ki sabzi is ready to serve.