Each year during Navratris I try to find out new ways to control my weight but it never happens. My newest invention is that one should keep fasts but without loosing much energy. I keep fasts but not my all family. So I have started depending on fresh fruits and dry fruits based recipies rather than rarely available fasting foods like kuttu ka ata or sama ke rice. 

Today is first day of Navratri fast. I made Almond halva and banana lassi. 

Almond halva ~ 

1 Cup soaked n peeled almonds 

2 Cups full fat milk 

1 Cup sugar

1/2 Cup pure desi ghee

1 Tsp saffron

1 Tsp green cardamom powder

Method – 

1- Grind very well almonds and milk into thinnest possible paste.

2- Take heavy botton pan and add desi ghee into it. Keep the flame lowest. 

3- Add almonds milk paste into it and start stirring it . 

4- Add sugar, saffron and green cardamom powder too. 

5- This halva will take around 20-30 minutes to be prepared. When oil starts oozing oil it means it is ready. 

6- Only one mantra…stir stir stir! Till all halva start roaming in pan with your spoon or laddle. 

7- Close the flame and keep it in a bowl or little tray to cut into shapes. I prefer eating like this only. 

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Banana n Cinnamon lassi ~ 

It is very tasty and addictive and gives you immediate boost of energy in the fasting. 

Ingredients –

1 Medium large banana

2 Cups of curd 

3- 1 Tsp or Tbsp cinnamon powder 

4- 1/4 Cup sugar 

Method – 

Blend all in a mix pot and chill it for some time in fridge.

As my blog post for 12+ boys guidence is doing great today so thought of making this amazing tikiya for the evening snacks. It is one of the addictive snacks, tastes great and you will forget for a while making the regular pakoris. 

Ingredients –

1 Big onion – Finely chopped in the processor

4-6 Green chillies finely chopped

1 Cup besan

4-6 Big cloves of garlic crushed 

8 small medium chunks/cubes of paneer(cottage cheese)

Salt according to taste

1 Tbsp Red chilli flakes 

1 Tsp ajwain 

1 Tsp heeng 

1 Tbsp dhania (coriander seeds crushed)

Method – (Damn tricky)

1- Mix all ingredient except the paneer cubes. 

2-It should be very thick batter. Do not mix water if onion got own juice enough. 

3- Take dough to make a ball and add one paneer cube in the middle. Close the batter into ball. 

4- This dough will make 8 batter balls. 

5- Keep these in the fridge.

6- Heat oil in deep pan, keep the flame low once it is heated well but not much. 

7- Fry for 1-2 minutes only and take out.Let these cool down.

8- Now flatten lightly these pakoras into tikiya.Cut each tikiya into half. Now fry again for 2-3 minutes. Till little more brown only.

9- Serve with sonth or tomato sauce. 

We are a pure vegetarian north Indian family. We live in Qatar and our dining options are not much around. So once in a while I make south Indian dishes to cheer up families. I tried sevral kind of chutneys but I always end up in making fresh coconut chutneys as first choice of my kiddos. It goes well with idlisa, appams and dosas too. 

But what to so with left over chutneys. Always one bowl full. So I make macaroni with it. Kids live it too much because of the great nutty flavor macaroni gets. 

Ingredients – 

1 Bowl coconut chutney(my recipe includes garlic, fresh coconut,rai, curry leaves, tomato,onions,salt and curd)

4-6 cups of boiled n washed macaroni

1 Tsp apple cider vinegar 

2 Tsp soya sauce

1 Cup finely chopped capsicum 

1 Cup finely chopped onions

1/4 cup tomato sauce

4 Tbsp olive oil

Method –

1- Heat olive oil and fry onion, capsicum in it for 2-3 minutes.

2- Add all things now and mix well.

3- Add little water or milk and fry for 5-6 minutes on high.

4- Close the lid and wait for 1 hour atleast. So that sauce can get into macaroni. 

I love making these puris with Kaddu ki sabzi and bundi ka raita.These are puris because kachoris r always those which get fillings inside. 

Once in six month it is mandatory to make these for me. 

Result is so satisfying when almost all puris finish in one go. 

Yes there are few tricks to make these puris more kurkuri(crispy) and I will share those in the last of this article. 

Ingredients – 

1 Cup all white Urad dal

1/2 Cup all yellow moong dal

Soak these both in water for 2-3 hours

1 Tbsp salt,1 Tbsp red chilli powder,1 Tbsp dry corriander powder,1 Tsp heeng powder,1/4 Cup grated fresh ginger,6 medium green chillies,1 Tbsp ajwain,6 Tbsp desi ghee,1/4 cup all purpose flour n Wheat flour.

Method – 

1- Put all spices in the presoaked n water strained dals. Grind it very well into finest paste with help of few tbsps water.

2- In a bowl put desi ghee, all purpose flour and dal-spices paste n mix well. Now start adding little wheat flour till u get semi thick dough. Knead it very well.

3- Add little more desi ghee to knead it well.

4- You can make around 10-12 medium big puris with this qty of dough. 

5- I have stopped using refind oil n use desi ghee in the mixes to get more tasty texture.

6- Trick to get more crispy puri is just roll the puri n put in hot oil in the pan.Once it is becomes ball type turn it to the other side. Turn it again n again very quickly till u get golden brown texture. 

These puri tastes great with alu tamatar ki sabzi, kaddu ki sabzi, aam ka achaar and raita too.

Eggless n desi ghee banana cake

Ingredients –

3 Big over ripe bananas

1 Cup sugar

6 Tbsp Desi ghee melted

1 Tbsp Banana essence

1/2 cup chilled milk

Mash n Mix all very well to a thin paste.

1 Cup All purpose flour

1 Tsp baking powder

2 Tbsp milk powder

1/2 Tsp baking soda

1/4 Tsp salt

Mix all very well and mix into banana paste. 

Pour into greased n dusted n lined tin.

Bake upto 55 minutes at preheated oven at 200 degrees. 

Cool it for 4-5 hours in fridge. Than slice and serve. 

It is one of the most loving recipe of my both kids. We are too much addicted to garlic. Few years back I had half cup garlic butter left after making garlic cheese toasts. Simply mixing that spread into besan with little twist I made these sevs and since than I keep making them for kids every second month.

Ingredients – 

2 Tbsps of unsalted butter, fresh garlic paste, black pepper n salt mix
1/4 Tsp Baking soda
1/2 Tsp salt – according to taste
1 Tsp cloves powder 
1 Tsp garam masala mix
1 Cup thick Besan (Chickpea) powder
1/2 Cup water
Method –
1- Mix all very well into very very smooth batter.
2- Mix little more water if required. 
3- Grease the dough with oil. 
4- Grease the sev machine very well too.
5- Now in medium heat make sevs and fry 3-4 minutes on each side. Take out on tissue paper. 
6- Use thick jali (net) for making these sevs. 

Mangori is small dry balls made by moong dal paste. Mainly used in northern part of India.You can find mangories into any good spice shop very easily. Punjab produces best mangoris and vadis(urad dal). Here is the recipe for very spicy n yum curry. 

Ingredients ~ 
1 Cup Mangori 
2 Medium potatoes washed n chopped into medium small pcs

4 Medium green chillies washed n chopped finely

2 Medium onions peeled n finely chopped 

2 Big tomatoes washed n grated into puree

4 Tbsp freshly grated ginger

2 Tbsp freshly grated garlic

1 Tsp heeng (Asofoetida) 

1 Tsp jeera (cumin seeds)

1 Tsp black pepper powder

1 Tsp Haldi (turmeric)

2 Tbsp salt

1 Tbsp Garam Masala

3-4 Tbsp dry coriander powder

1 Tbsp Kasuri methi powder ( dry fenugreek)

8-10 Tbsp desi ghee (Butter oil) 

Method of preparation ~ 

1- Fry mangoris into heated 2-4 tbsp desi ghee till golden brown
2- Crushed with heavy thing into semi thick powder and soak into 1 cup of water

3- Heat remaining desi ghee into cooker and fry the onions, garlic, ginger and green chillies for 5-6 minutes on the low flame till golden brown.

4- Add heeng, jeera and all spices to fried onions and fry for 2-3 minutes. 

5- Add tomato puree and stir well.

6- Keep frying for 3-4 minutes on high flame.

7- Now add chopped potatoes and soaked mangoris. Mix very well. 

8- Now add 6 cups of water and close the cooker lid.

9- On lowest flame take 4-5 whistles.

10- Serve with hot chapatis or boiled rice.