Navratri fasting gets a fusion twist: dosa, tikki and rajgira puri recipes

If you are bored of eating the same old dishes every day during Navratri fasting, you could try something different this time. Traditional fasting dishes can be made in new ways to bring a change of taste. These options are prepared with few ingredients and in an easy way, and will certainly add colour to the fasting menu.

Navratri is an important and popular Hindu festival. The word literally means a group of nine nights. During this time the nine forms of Goddess Durga are worshipped. The festival is celebrated at night, so there is an old tradition of playing garba in groups on the occasion. This year, Shardiya Navratri begins on Sunday, October 11, 2026, and November 19 is its last day. Many people worship the goddess and also keep a fast for nine days.

Over time, fasting dishes have also changed. Homes now make some fusion fasting dishes for the sake of taste. You too can make and eat them this Navratri. Here are some of these new, trendy dishes.

First, the fasting dosa. You may have eaten rice-flour dosa many times, but have you ever heard of a fasting dosa? It is made from bhagar and sabudana. Soak the sabudana in water for five hours and then put it in a mixer jar. Add bhagar, curd, green chillies, cumin and a little water to prepare the dosa batter. Mix salt into the batter and cook crisp dosas on a hot griddle. The dosa can be served with peanut chutney.

The second dish is the fasting tikki. You have already eaten crisp potato tikki; for fasting, the same tikki is made in a slightly different style. Mix rock salt, black pepper and a little water chestnut flour into boiled potatoes and shape them into tikkis. Then add oil to a griddle and shallow-fry the tikkis until crisp.

The third is rajgira puri with usal. If you are craving vegetable and puri during the fast, crisp puris can be made from rajgira flour. For this, put rajgira flour, salt, a spoonful of grated jaggery and water as needed in a bowl and knead the dough. Grease a plastic sheet with a little oil, pat out puris from the dough on it and deep-fry them crisp in hot oil. For the vegetable, heat oil in a pan, add curry leaves, green chilli paste, boiled potato pieces and salt to taste to make a flavourful usal. The combination of this potato dish and crisp rajgira puri tastes wonderful.