Recipes: Try these Healthy Vegetable Recipes this Navratri

Fasting during Navratri helps rest and unburden the body (and its systems), lets it heal, refresh and refurbish from within and thus helps cleanse it too (a natural detox if you please!).

Have you noticed that both the Navratras come during season change? From winter to summer and again when the air just begins to get nippy - and our immunity is at a low. If you find the regular vegetables allowed during the fast little boring, there are ways to jazz them up.

Try these recipes whether you are fasting or not:

Bottle gourd

Bottle gourd or ghiya works because it is inherently cooling, prevents fatigue and keeps the body cool and refreshed.

You can eat it as regular cooked vegetable, or better still make a ghiya raita

Recipe: Flaxseed ghiya raita

• Combine half bottle gourd, thickly grated with one cup of water.

• Cover and cook on a medium flame till done.

• Let it cool and add to 1 cup beaten yoghurt.

• Add mint leaves, roasted cumin seeds (jeera), saindha salt, roasted and coarsely ground flax seeds. Mix well.

• Refrigerate for at least 1 hour and have chilled

Cucumber

Cucumbers will keep you cool from inside and are mostly water, so they help hydrate the body. Plus they are loaded with flavonoids that have antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties - much needed to keep us safe from myriad infections.

Cut cucumber into sticks, sprinkle salt and pepper, refrigerate and munch on them all day long or try a cold soup

Recipe: Chilled Cucumber and Tomato Soup

• Deseed and finely chop 1 small cucumber and 1 small red bell pepper.

• Roast 1 large garlic clove and smash it.

• Reserve some of the cucumber and bell pepper and puree the rest with 2 cups tomato juice.

• Stir in the rest of the cucumber and pepper.

• Season with salt, pepper, juice of 1 lemon, a few chopped basil leaves, a few dashes of Tabasco and a few dashes Worcestershire sauce.

• Chill well.

Potato

With potatoes ‘the food’ is not the ‘devil’! How you cook them — a healthy low cal recipe or sinfully fried — is what matters. When cooked right they can be really good for you.

Potato can be had in multiple ways but definitely try this simple, super quick and absolutely delicious Assamese dish (just skip the onions)

Recipe: Assamese Aloo Pitika

• Mash 1 well boiled potato, add salt and chilli to taste and 1 tsp mustard oil.

• Mix it all well, preferably with hand.

• Add coriander leaves as a garnish.

Pumpkin

Pumpkin delivers lots of potassium, an important electrolyte that keeps our muscles functioning at their best and vitamin C that is great for our immune system.

Khatta meetha kaddu is everyones favourite, but try a cold pumpkin salad too

Recipe: Cold Pumpkin salad

• Steam some cubed pumpkin and then mix them with an apple.

• Dress the dish with olive oil, ginger juliennes and pumpkin seeds and some lemon juice.

Sweet Potato

Sweet potato has both vitamin A and anthocyanins that also help boost liver function which in turn helps boost weight loss and keeps harmful cholesterol in the body in check.

Eat shakarkandi halwa, tikki or chaat. Or try baking it.

Recipe: Baked sweet potato

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees F and cover a baking sheet with aluminium foil.

• Arrange sweet potatoes peeled and cubed on the baking sheet and drizzle with 2 tablespoons olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

• Toss to coat and roast until golden and tender, about 25 minutes.

(Kavita Devgan is a nutritionist, weight management consultant, and health writer based in Delhi. She is the author of The Don't Diet Plan: A no-nonsense guide to weight loss, Fix it with Food, Ultimate Grandmother Hacks, and Don’t Diet! 50 Habits of Thin People)