Gudi Padwa Foods 2026: Authentic

Maharashtrian Recipes

For Your Festive Feast

Puran Poli

This is the centrepiece of the Gudi Padwa table, with ‘puran’ referring to the sweet lentil stuffing and ‘poli’ meaning flatbread. Puran poli is technically a thin wheat flatbread stuffed with a filling of cooked chana dal (split Bengal gram) mashed with jaggery, cardamom, and a grating of nutmeg. The dough is made with quality atta, like Aashirvaad Shudh Chakki Atta, with a pinch of turmeric for colour. It’s then made the usual way as a stuffed paratha, cooked on a tawa over low heat until golden on both sides, finished with ghee that pools into the layers.

Masale Baath

This dish is Maharashtra's festive one-pot rice cooked with seasonal vegetables, whole spices, and goda masala – the state's signature spice blend made with dried coconut, sesame, and a combination of spices. It lands somewhere between a pulao and a biryani in texture, but with a distinctly Maharashtrian character. Common vegetables include raw banana, drumstick, brinjal, and green peas, cooked with the rice, so everything absorbs the spice. It is typically finished with cashews, fresh coconut, and coriander.

Batata Vada

Outside of Maharashtra, batata vada is best known as the filling inside vada pav. On the Gudi Padwa table, it stands alone, and very well, with an array of dips on the side. The mashed potato filling is flavoured with a freshly ground paste of coriander, garlic, green chillies, and ginger, then tempered with mustard seeds, curry leaves, asafoetida, and turmeric. The mixture is shaped into small rounds, dipped in a seasoned besan batter, and deep-fried until golden brown and crunchy. 

Shrikhand 

If you love hung curd, you will love this one as shrikhand is strained yoghurt, which is hung overnight until thick and smooth. Then powdered sugar is added and flavoured with saffron dissolved in warm milk, cardamom, and sometimes a pinch of nutmeg. It is served chilled, often with puris on the side, and it doubles as a dessert, a condiment, and the perfect palate refresher on the Gudi Padwa thali. The quality of your Shrikhand depends entirely on starting with full-fat yoghurt and giving it time to drain properly.

Kairi Panha

Known as aam panna in other places, kairi panha translates to raw mango drink, and it is the perfect drink of Gudi Padwa. It uses seasonal raw mangoes, which are roasted or boiled until the flesh is soft, then pulped and mixed with jaggery or sugar, cardamom, a pinch of black salt, and roasted cumin. You get a refreshing drink that is tangy and slightly sweet, which also works as a digestive and a body coolant heading into summer. Serve it cold with crushed ice.

Katachi Amti

When chana dal is cooked to make the puran for puran poli, the cooking water is drained off and set aside. That strained liquid becomes the base for katachi amti, a thin, tangy and mildly spiced dal that is the accompaniment to puran poli at every Gudi Padwa spread. A tempering of mustard seeds, curry leaves, dry coconut paste, tamarind, jaggery, and goda masala goes into the dal water, which is then simmered down until the flavours blossom. It is sour, slightly sweet, and spicy, which offsets the milder flavour of the poli.

Sabudana Khichdi and Vada 

Sabudana is nothing but tapioca pearls, the same ones that make your boba teas, show up on the Gudi Padwa table in two forms. Sabudana khichdi is one, made with soaked sabudana tempered with cumin, green chillies, curry leaves, crushed peanuts, and potato, cooked until translucent. Then there’s sabudana vada, which uses the same base, shapes it into round patties, and deep-fries them until golden and crisp outside, chewy within. Both are often eaten on days of fasting or semi-fasting, which overlaps with some Gudi Padwa observances.

Pooranachi Kheer

Traditionally, Maharashtrian households prepare several sweets for Gudi Padwa feasts, including puran poli, shrikhand, and different types of kheer, as the festival marks new beginnings and prosperity in the Hindu calendar. In many homes, pooranachi kheer, which is a lesser-known dessert, is also a way to use leftover puran filling from puran poli preparations. The dessert is typically served warm as part of the festive meal, offering a softer, spoonable version of the beloved puran flavours that define the Gudi Padwa festivities.

Aamras

Aamras is simply sweetened mango pulp, which is thick and cold and one of the simplest things on the Gudi Padwa table and often the most anticipated. It’s made with ripe Alphonso mangoes, mashed or blended smooth with a little sugar (or none, if the mangoes are sweet enough), sometimes a pinch of cardamom, sometimes a bit of saffron. It is served cold with puris, or eaten as a dessert, and this dish marks the very beginning of mango season in Maharashtra.

Happy Gudi Padwa With This Thali 

With so many options, there is no way the Marathi feasting on New Year's Day can’t be sweet and fulfilling. Every dish has a role, and several of them are deliberately linked like puran poli and katachi amti, shrikhand and puris, as well as aamras and puris. You do not need to make all of them, but if you are going to do it, do it right, starting with the kairi panha, finishing with the aamras.