Navratri Special Food: 7

Millet-Based Desserts

To Relish During The 9-Day Festival

Navratri, the 9-Day Hindu festival dedicated to honouring the divine feminine and the victory of good over evil, starts on October 11, 2026, this year. During this time, people observe fasts where only select grains and vegetables are permissible. However, if you’re not fasting, you can consume a wide variety of dishes, including millet-based desserts like the following. These millet-based desserts rely on regional recipes and traditional grains to deliver “bite-sized” sweetness.

Laddoos are small, round sweets that can be made with a wide variety of ingredients, from gram flour to wheat. Here, the core ingredient is ragi, i.e., finger millet. Ragi flour is roasted and mixed with powdered jaggery for sweetness, chopped and roasted nuts (cashews, almonds, or peanuts) for crunch, and cardamom powder for aroma. When you’re mixing everything, be sure to mix well and break any small lumps so the jaggery blends into the flour. You can store these in an airtight container at room temperature for up to one to two weeks.

A nutrient-rich dessert, Amaranth Kheer combines amaranth seeds with milk, sweeteners, and nuts to create a creamy pudding-style dessert. This isn’t a complicated dessert, but one that requires patience since the amaranth seeds need to be pressure-cooked before milk is added. The milk needs to simmer on low heat, with constant stirring so it does not stick. Add the sweeteners at the end and stir to blend. For garnish, you can use ghee-roasted nuts. You can serve the kheer, also known as Rajgira Kheer, warm or chilled.

Barfi is essentially Indian-style fudge and, much like laddoos, can be made from multiple ingredients like coconut, gram flour, cashew nuts, and more. In this case, bajra, i.e pearl millet flour, forms the base. This is a lot more portable than kheer and can be made by mixing roasted bajra flour (roast in ghee till it changes colour and turns fragrant) with roasted dry fruits and jaggery syrup (chopped jaggery dissolved in ghee and hot water). You can also add cardamom powder for aroma. The hot mixture is poured onto a greased tray, flattened, garnished with chopped nuts, and cooled down. The final step is to cut it into square or diamond pieces.

Ragi Manni, also known as Halbai, is a traditional dessert from Karnataka. A cross between a pudding and a fudge, it is made with finger millet, fresh coconut, and jaggery. Smooth, velvety, and fudge-like, it sets into a firm pudding that is sliced into diamond or square pieces. While the jaggery sweetens it, the manni retains a mildly nutty flavour from the ragi. The addition of coconut adds to its nutritional content.

Samak, i.e. barnyard millet, is one of the only millets permissible during the Navratri fast. You can use these to make appetisers, mains, or even a creamy dessert like the samak kheer. It’s a creamy dessert made by simmering samak rice in milk with sugar, cardamom, and nuts. Make sure to rinse and soak the millet in water for 15 to 20 minutes before adding it to boiling milk. Like any kheer recipe, this too requires the mixture to be cooked on a low flame for 10 to 12 minutes. Keep stirring so it does not stick to the bottom. You know the kheer is ready when the millet is soft and mashed into the milk. Garnish with saffron strands.

These millets may be more common in traditional Indian desserts, but that does not mean they can’t have other applications. And jowar cookies are an excellent example. A gluten-free treat made by mixing jowar flour, powdered jaggery, ghee, baking powder, baking soda, and milk, the recipe follows the standard instructions for baking cookies. You begin by mixing the wet ingredients and fold in the dry ingredients later. Then, add milk to make a soft dough. Shape into small flat rounds and bake at 175°C (350°F) for 12 to 15 minutes until the edges turn golden.

Halwa can be made with many different types of millets, but ragi and bajra work best here. Both offer a rich, dense texture and deep, earthy flavour when roasted in ghee. Ragi halwa makes a smooth, fudge-like treat that pairs wonderfully with jaggery, chocolate, or cardamom. It is rich in calcium and iron. On the other hand, bajra halwa creates a warming dessert that’s more common in winter. It absorbs ghee and jaggery well for a rich, nutty, and energy-dense sweet.

Millets can be surprisingly versatile in desserts, moving well beyond the usual porridge or savoury preparations. From laddus and barfis to kheers, halwa, and even cookies, different millets bring their own textures and flavours to the table. If you’re preparing sweets for Navratri, remember that fasting rules vary across households and traditions, so check whether the millet and other ingredients you’re using are permitted. Otherwise, pick your favourite millet, pair it with jaggery, nuts, coconut, or spices, and get creative.