Top 10 Diwali recipes

We pick out the ten most famous Diwali recipes to help you decide what to treat your friends and family to this year.

  • Cheese Parantha

    Diwali is all about indulging your taste buds. Try this recipe.
    Make a dough by adding some carom seeds and salt and keep aside.
    Grate cheese, add some chopped onions/green onions and mix well.
    Fill spoonfuls of mixture on dough balls and make round paranthas.
    Serve hot.

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  • Mixed Pakora

    No Indian festival is complete without this quintessential Indian snack. Here's how you can prepare Mixed Pakora.
    Chop onions, green chillies, potatoes, capsicum and a bit of spinach together.
    Add some gram flour, rock salt and red chilli powder.
    Now add some paneer cubes and deep fry spoonfuls of the mixture.
    Serve hot with Mint Chutney or ketchup.

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  • Fried Masala Poha

    Try this fried version of the humble Poha this Diwali.
    Heat half a cup of oil in a deep-bottomed pan.
    Fry 1/2 a cup of groundnuts till done.
    Fry a handful of chana daal and a few nuts and dry coconut.
    Now fry the poha in the oil.
    Throw in some curry leaves and some red chillies.
    Remove from fire, add salt and chaat masala, and serve.

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  • Namak Paare

    During and after Diwali, this is a snack that can be had as and when you like. Though it goes really well with tea, these salty crispies can be munched in isolation, too. In order to make Namak Paare, you'd need 1 cup atta/wheat flour, 1 cup maida/white flour, 1 tsp ajwain/carom seeds, 1 tsp crushed black pepper (optional), 1 tsp cumin seeds/jeera (optional), 1/2 tsp baking soda, 2 to 3 tbsp oil or ghee, 1/2 to 3/4 cup water, salt to taste and oil for frying.
    sieve the white flour, wheat flour, baking soda and salt together.
    Mix the ajwain along with the rest of the sieved flour.
    Add oil or ghee to the flour. Add water to it, and start kneading the dough till it is quite firm.
    Make medium sized balls from the dough and roll them on dusted flour.
    With the help of a serrated knife, make criss-cross patterns on the dough.
    Once you've cut the dough into diamond-shaped patterns, deep fry them in hot oil till they are crisp and golden brown.
    Place the Namak Paare on a tissue paper to drain the excess oil.
    Once they are somewhat cool, store the Namak Paare in an airtight container.

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  • Low-calorie Papdi Chaat

    No North Indian festival is complete without the mouthwatering Papdi Chaat. Here's a low-calorie version of it for you to try this Diwali.
    For the chaat, you'll need 24 flat crisp baked papdis/puris/flour crispies, 250 gms cold smoothened yogurt, 1 large potato, boiled and chopped, 2 cups boiled chickpeas/kabuli chana/garbanzo beans, 1 onion finely chopped (optional), 1 tomato finely chopped (optional), 1/2 cup chopped coriander leaves, 1 cup mint coriander chutney, 1 cup tamarind dates chutney, 1-2 tsp red chilli powder, 1-2 tsp cumin powder, 1-2 tsp chaat masala, 1-2 tsp black salt/rock salt or common salt, 1 tbsp lime juice (optional), 1 cup sev (optional).
    Soak the chickpeas in enough water overnight. Cook or pressure-cook the chickpeas with water and salt/black salt.
    Arrange the papdis in a shallow bowl or plate.
    Top them with chopped, boiled potatoes and the cooked chickpeas.
    You can add chopped onions and tomatoes to it.
    Sprinkle red chilli powder and the chaat masala on it.
    Top this with cold yogurt.
    Pour the green chutney and the sweet chutney as required.
    Sprinkle cumin powder and black salt.
    Garnish with coriander leaves. Sprinkle some sev on top.
    Serve immediately.

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  • Kesar Peda

    Kesar Peda is a sweet that is not very difficult to prepare at home. Here's how you can do it.
    You'll need a litre of milk, 100g sugar, half a teaspoon cardamom powder and a few strands of saffron.
    Boil the milk and start stirring right from the beginning to make thick mawa.
    Once the mawa is considerably thick, add sugar to it. Heat the mixture on a low flame for a while.
    Add cardamom powder and saffron paste once the mawa-sugar mixture is somewhat thick.
    Let the mixture cool for a while.
    Knead the mawa mixture and roll pedas out of it.
    Garnish with pistas, if you want to. Serve once the Kesar Pedas cool down.

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  • Bread Gulab Jamun

    This is an easy twist to the traditional Gulab Jamun. You'd need about 7 slices of milk bread, 2 tbsp milk powder, half a cup of milk, rosewater/essence, and oil to deep fry. For the syrup, half a cup of water, half a cup of sugar and two cardamoms are required.
    Trim the edges of the bread slices and set them aside.
    Take the sugar, water and cardamom in a pan and heat it till the sugar dissolves. Once the syrup begins to get a bit sticky, add the rose essence and take the pan off the flame.
    Dip the bread slices in the milk one by one, squeeze the excess milk out, and transfer them to a mixer. Add the milk powder and grind the mixture to a fine paste.
    Roll small balls out of the mixture.
    Heat oil in a pan and drop the balls - a few at a time - and deep-fry on a low flame till golden brown.
    Place the balls on a tissue to drain the excess oil.
    Put the balls in the sugar syrup and let it rest for an hour and a half or so.
    The Bread Gulab Jamuns are ready to be served.

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  • Pista Barfi

    Another Diwali must-have, Pista Barfi can be made at home in the following way.
    Blanch about one cup of pistachios in warm water for about five minutes.
    Remove the skin, and roast the pista on medium flame for till they turn crispy.
    Remove the nuts from the flame and powder in a blender till the consistency is fine.
    In a deep-bottomed pan, boil water and sugar till the latter dissolves.
    Add the pista powder, a bit of cardamom powder and half cup mawa, and cook till the two mix well.
    Pour about 3/4 cup of ghee and stir till the mixture leaves the sides of the pan.
    Transfer the mixture on to a greased plate and let it cool for a bit. Decorate it with silver foil, if you want to, and cut the mixture to square pieces while it is still warm.
    Leave the Barfis for a while. Serve or store once they are cool.

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  • Kaju Katli

    This is one of the favourite Diwali sweets. You can prepare it at home following these steps.
    Grind cashewnuts in a dry grinder, till they are reduced to fine powder.
    On a low flame, heat sugar and water till the sugar dissolves completely.
    Add the cashew powder to the pan. Keep stirring to ensure that no lumps are formed.
    Once the mixture resembles a firm dough, take it off the flame and place it on a flat surface.
    Add some ghee or oil to the cashew dough. You can add a dash of saffron or a few rose petals or rose water, too, depending on what flavour you'd want your Kaju Katli to be. You can skip these ingredients altogether, too.
    Once the dough cools a little, knead it till it is smooth enough. Flatten the dough and place it on a greased tray.
    Roll a rolling pin gently over the dough to smoothen it a bit. Don't overdo it.
    Using a greased knife, cut the dough into rhombus-shaped pieces. Take the Barfis off the tray using a buttered knife. Be careful to ensure that the Barfis don't break.
    Cool the Kaju Katlis and have or store them.

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  • When Diwali is the festival in discussion, food is the first thing that comes to mind. Be it sweets or snacks; every household in the country, which celebrates the Festival of Lights, invest ample time and energy in preparing mouthwatering delicacies for the day. We pick out the ten most famous Diwali recipes to help you decide what to treat your friends and family to this year.

    Dry Fruit Laddus

    You can use whatever dry fruits you can lay your hands on in order to prepare this sweet. Break the cashew nuts, hazelnuts, pistachios, almonds, etc coarsely.
    Chop dates and keep aside.
    Roast the nuts lightly in a heavy-bottomed pan, in 2 tbsp ghee, on a low flame.
    Add the dates and cardamom powder. Fry till you get a nice aroma. Turn the gas off and set the mixture aside.
    Add sugar to it.
    Grate jaggery. Add 2 tbsps water to the jaggery and let it melt on a low flame. Filter it, discard the debris, and add 1 tbsp ghee to it.
    Boil this jaggery syrup till you get a soft ball consistency.
    Add sugar to the nuts' mixture. Add the jaggery syrup to it and mix well.
    Cook again for a short while again, on a low flame, stirring constantly.
    Cook till the time you see jaggery strings in the mixture. Let it cool for a while.
    Once you're able to touch the mixture, make small balls out of it. Let the laddus cool.
    The laddus can be served or stored, depending on what you want to do. The Dry Fruit Laddus can be stored for about two weeks, when kept in an air-tight container.


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