Vrat Ka Khana: Pantry Essentials For You To Stock Up On While You're Fasting

It's that time of the year when people turn vegetarian, including eateries. Navratri is round the corner, and because the 9-day festival calls for fasting, we help you identify some key ingredients that you must stock up on for all your vrat recipes. Whether you want to prepare sweets or an entire meal, these pantry essentials are sure to help you breeze through Navratri. Keep the shopping list ready, in case you are fasting.

Fruits and vegetables

Go for watermelon, apples and cucumbers as they are hydrating given the humidity increases post monsoon. The fiber content in apples also helps in reducing your cravings for unhealthy sweets. Keep a good stock of coconuts at home since festivities call for sweets and Navratri is the time when you'd want to make coconut ladoos. Rustle up a kheer or tikkis with sweet potatoes, also known as shakarkand.

Grains and seeds

Even though a majority of grains are avoided during Navrati, barnyard millet or samvat rice is commonly used to make a variety of dishes like pulao, kheer, khichdi and even idlis. Lotus seeds are great to add to soups, salads or any other gravy dishes. Also get chironji seeds to sprinkle on your halwa or shrikhand. Alternatively you can also make ladoos using amaranth or rajgira.

Also Watch: Top Recipes To Make During Navratri

Flours

Ditch your regular flour or maida and go for water chestnut flour and Buckwheat flour while you're fasting. Water chestnut is a good source of fibre and has cooling and detoxifying properties. It is dried and made into flour and used to make many recipes. Buckwheat flour also known kutta ka atta is gluten free and is considered a superfood because of its health benefits. Make your parathas, puris and even pakoras with it.

Tapioca sago, popularly known as sabudana, is another favourite during fasts. It is used in a variety of dishes such as desserts like kheer, khichdi and even savoury dishes like vada and thalipeeth to name a few.

It's time to detoxify and what better way to do so. Happy Navratri!