No-Onion No-Garlic Meal Planner | Navratri Special

With Navratri right around the corner, here is my no-onion no-garlic meal planner with legume/beans stir-fry or sundal for snacks. Check out my simple meal planner for this Navratri week.

Our Menu During Navratri:

You might all ask, don’t you fast during Navratri. No, I don’t, and we don’t have that ritual in our household. Navratri is quite popular across India, and every state has its unique way of celebrating the festival. In our family, we keep the Golu, doll arrangements, and chant Lalitha Sahasranamam (hymns on Goddess Parvathi). 

We don’t fast, but we do follow a “no-onion no-garlic” during these ten days, and also we make legume stir-frys or sundals as neivediyam. 

Mostly on Friday’s we make kheer/sweet pudding also. This week as I am inviting friends for Golu, I am planning to make some sweets on three days. (Wed, Thurs & Friday) 

Why No-Onion No-Garlic?

Now if you are wondering why can’t we eat onion and garlic during the festival. I have explained it on my pulav post, but let me share it again. 

We want to consume sattvic food on auspicious religious days. But onion and garlic belong to the rajasic and tamasic food categories. Hence they are avoided. 

I came across this article on NDTV food where they shared the vegetables that we can consume during Navratri. Based on that, I have framed this week’s no onion no garlic meal planner. I know, it’s South Indian style, but you can customize it according to your diet preference.

Without any further ado, here is the meal planner. 

Navratri Sundal:

For the sundal recipes – click here. All my sundals are very simple. I cook the beans and temper them with mustard seeds, chana dal, urad dal, and red chilies. And then add the coconut. For some beans like garbanzo, I add coriander powder and chili powder. We don’t make any sundal podi. It’s more like sambar podi. So sometimes I also add sambar powder. 

Sometimes, I make sweet sundal too like the green gram sundal.

This time I am planning to make green masala for sundal. I will post them after a few trials. If you are interested, please follow me on Instagram. I will post the recipes there every day.

Navratri Special No-Onion No-Garlic Meal Planner Recipe Links:

Please find the recipe links for each day below.

Monday:

• Oatmeal
• Sambar Rice (I am planning to add potatoes, carrots, and pumpkin)
• Tomato Raita
• Potato Paneer Curry. A simple curry with a tomato base. I don’t have the recipe on my blog. But will update soon.

Tuesday:

• Lemon Rice
• Coconut Chutney
• Rice Upma

Wednesday :

• Porridge (I have linked my diabetic friendly porridge). You can make porridge with store-bought mix also.
• Pancakes
• Cucumber Raita
• Bottlegourd Rice. I am planning to make it like ridgegourd rice but ignoring onion and replacing ridgegourd with bottle gourd.
• Semiya Upma
• Mixed Nuts Kheer

Thursday:

• Sambar. I am planning to make in my pressure-cooker without onions
• Ven Pongal
• Nuts ladoo. I will update the recipe soon.

Friday:

• No-Onion No-Garlic Pulav.
• I am planning to make carrot raita more like cucumber raita.
• Millet sevai / string-hoppers. I don’t make millet sevai from scratch. I get the store-bough pack and prepare lemon sevai.
• Moong Dal Kheer

Happy Navratri Folks! I hope this menu planner helps and you all can draw some inspiration. If you have any questions, please leave a comment below. I will share the daily updates on my Instagram and my FB group. So stay connected!