Navaratri Recipes - Cous Cous Payasam, Easy Sundals, and Quick Ladoos

This post is exactly a week late, so let’s call it a post-Navaratri roundup. That said, these recipes work beautifully for most Indian festivals, so I’m classifying them as classic Tambrahm (Tamil Brahmin) festival recipes.

Between the green smoothie frenzy, golu (doll) displays, and an actual Navaratri schedule, things weren’t just busy. They were chaotic. This was my first year celebrating Navaratri in a traditional way, and to be honest, I had no idea where to begin.

For those unfamiliar, Navaratri literally means nine nights and celebrates Goddess Amba, the embodiment of power. Over nine days and nights, nine forms of Shakti, the ultimate creative energy, are worshipped.

In South India, prayers are offered over ten days in honor of the goddesses Durga, Lakshmi, and Saraswathi. A central tradition during this time is the keeping of a golu, an arrangement of dolls and figurines, primarily depicting gods and goddesses from Indian mythology. These are displayed on odd-numbered steps, usually three, five, seven, nine, or eleven. Girls and married women are invited to view the golu and are offered kumkum, small gifts, and prasad. To me, this festival represents a powerful and beautiful expression of feminine energy within Hindu tradition.

As you can imagine, a celebration that spans nine days and nights requires thoughtful planning to remain stress-free. This year, I was also starting a new job during the same week, which explains why I began worrying about everything well in advance.

One phone call to my mother-in-law solved everything. She is, without doubt, the most resourceful person I know when it comes to planning festivals. She has always been a “cook it and leave the kitchen” kind of person, and her secret lies in her incredible organizational skills. There’s no formula or written plan. It’s all in her head, yet somehow perfectly executed. She follows three simple rules:

Start a day early and prepare a few easy desserts that will last all ten days.
Save these desserts for rushed mornings when there’s no time to prepare neivedyam from scratch.
Plan payasams and quick sweets for mornings when things are more relaxed.

That conversation instantly made me feel calmer. I also realized this would become an annual routine and needed to be written down. So I created a simple Navaratri menu and timetable. While this might be late for this year, I’m sharing it for posterity and for my own reference next year. These are standard Tamil festival recipes and work just as well for Diwali, Varalakshmi puja, and similar occasions.

Day Before Navaratri

I prepared simple rava ladoos and maa ladoos. The recipe is courtesy of my mother-in-law, Indra V.

These are simple, ghee-rich treats that require very little cooking and store well for the entire ten days, provided they are refrigerated.

Rava Ladoos

Ingredients

• Semolina (rava) – 1 cup
• Sugar – ¾ cup (I used raw sugar, which gives the ladoos a slightly brown color)
• Ghee – ¼ cup
• Cardamom powder – ½ tsp
• Broken cashews – ¼ cup

Method

Heat 1 teaspoon ghee in a pan and roast the cashews until golden. Remove and set aside.

In the same pan, add the rava and roast on low heat until fragrant, stirring continuously for about five minutes. Do not allow it to brown. Let it cool completely.

Grind the roasted rava into a fine powder. Grind the sugar separately to a fine powder.

Combine both powders in a bowl and add the cardamom powder. Mix well.

Transfer to a wide bowl and slowly add the melted ghee, mixing thoroughly. The mixture should resemble damp sand.

Take small portions and shape into round ladoos. If needed, add a little milk to help bind the mixture.

Allow the ladoos to cool completely before storing them in an airtight container.

Maa Ladoos

The method is exactly the same as above. Only the ingredients differ.

Ingredients

• Roasted gram dal (pottu kadalai) – 1 cup
• Raw sugar – 1 cup
• Ghee – ¼ to 1 cup
• Cardamom powder – ½ tsp
• Broken cashews – ¼ cup

You can also prepare Date Almond Pooran Polis and/or Carrot Coconut Squares the day before Navaratri.

Day 2 and Day 5

Cous Cous Payasam

I had never made payasam using cous cous before, though the method is similar to other jaggery-based payasams. This recipe is adapted from Biny’s kitchen. The result was a creamy payasam with the perfect texture and balanced sweetness. Cous cous can also be substituted with broken wheat on another day.

Ingredients

• Cous cous – 1 cup
• Jaggery – 1 cup
• Coconut milk – 1 cup
• Hot boiling water – 1 to 1½ cups
• Roasted cumin seeds, crushed – ½ tsp
• Cardamom pods, crushed – 3
• Nuts and raisins – 3 tbsp
• Ghee or butter – 2 tbsp

Method

Heat 1 tablespoon ghee in a small pan and fry the nuts and raisins until golden. Set aside.

Place the cous cous in a bowl and pour boiling water over it. Cover and let it soak.

In another pan, heat jaggery with a few tablespoons of water on low heat until fully melted.

Add the melted jaggery and cardamom to the cous cous. Cook on medium heat until the mixture thickens and blends well.

Turn off the heat and slowly stir in the coconut milk. Add the fried nuts and raisins.

Serve warm or chilled.

Sundal Varieties

Sweet Corn Sundal

Ingredients

• Sweet corn kernels – 1 cup
• Grated coconut – 2 tbsp
• Salt to taste

For seasoning

• Oil – 1 tsp
• Mustard seeds – ½ tsp
• Urad dal – ½ tsp
• Dry red chilies – 2 to 3
• Asafetida – a pinch
• Green chilies – 3
• Curry leaves – a sprig

Method

Steam or microwave the corn with salt until cooked.

Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds and let them splutter. Add urad dal, red chilies, and asafetida.

Add green chilies and curry leaves, followed by the corn. Mix well and adjust salt.

Garnish with grated coconut, chopped cilantro, and a little lemon juice if desired.

Peanut Sundal

Ingredients

• Peanuts – pressure cooked with salt
• Grated coconut – 1 cup
• Thai green chilies – 3 to 4
• Cilantro – ½ cup
• Curry leaves – 2 sprigs
• Ginger – 1 inch

For seasoning

• Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
• Urad dal – ½ tsp
• Dry red chilies – 2
• Curry leaves – a sprig
• Asafetida – a pinch
• Oil – 1 tsp

Method

Grind coconut, green chilies, cilantro, ginger, and curry leaves into a coarse mixture.

Heat oil and add mustard seeds, urad dal, and asafetida. Add curry leaves and red chilies.

Add boiled peanuts and salt, mixing well. Stir in the ground coconut mixture and cook briefly.

Garnish with cilantro and serve hot.

You can also prepare black bean sundal using either of the above methods, simply substituting the main ingredient.