Vrat Recipes | 45+ Indian Fasting & Upvas Recipes for Every Festival

Looking for easy vrat, fasting, and upvas recipes? This collection has plenty of ideas for every festival meal and special occasion.  From filling vrat breakfasts like sabudana khichdi and dosa to satisfying lunch and dinner made with potatoes, samak chawal, paneer, rajgira, and other common ingredients, there is something for everyone. These recipes suit fasting occasions, pooja, and Hindu festivals, including Navratri, Ekadashi, Shivratri, Sai Guruvar, Sankashti, Janmashtami, Panchami, Gowri Ganesha Chaturthi, Adhika Masam, Varalakshmi Vratam, Karwa Chauth, Somwar Vrat, Shravan, and other vrat days. Because fasting traditions differ across India and from one family to another, check the ingredients permitted in your tradition before making a recipe.

Jump to:

• What can you eat during vrat or upvas?
• Vrat Food Guide: What to eat during fasting
• Vrat Meal Ideas
• Vrat Sweets, fasting Desserts
• Vrat and fasting Snacks
• Vrat Drinks and Beverages
• Important Notes
• Recipe FAQS
• More Indian Sweets and Desserts
• Recipe card
• Vrat Recipes | 45+ Indian Fasting & Upvas Recipes for Every Festival
• User Reviews

What can you eat during vrat or upvas?

What you can eat during vrat or upvas depends on the type of fast and the traditions your family or community follows. Some observe a strict fast with only water, while others drink milk and eat fruits, and many follow a phalahar (falahari) diet that includes fasting-friendly ingredients.  

Sattvik foods are eaten during vrat or upvas. Many fasts have strict and specific rules. Commonly eaten foods during vrat and upvas: fruits, potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, raw banana, paneer, yogurt, dry fruits and nuts, milk, makhana, peanuts, sabudana, samak rice, rajgira, kuttu, singhara flour, and sendha namak.

Foods commonly avoided are onion and garlic. Vrat rules vary by region.

Vrat Food Guide: What to eat during fasting

Category	Allowed (Falhari)	Avoided	Popular Dish
Grains & Flour	Samak, rajgira(amaranth), kuttu (buckwheat), singhara(water chestnut)	Wheat, rice, maida, other cereals	Kuttu Puri, Samak or samvat pulao or upma, singhare ka halwa.
Fasting Staples	Sabudana, Makhana	-	Sabudana khichdi, Makhana Kheer
Vegetables	Potato, sweet potato, arbi, cucumber, pumpkin, bottle gourd	Onion, Garlic	Vrat wale aloo, sweet potato fries, pumpkin halwa, cucumber raita.
Fruits	All fresh fruits	-	Fruit salad, Fruit Chaat
Dairy	Milk, curd, paneer, ghee, khoya	-	Vrat wale paneer curry, milk-based sweets.
Nuts & Seeds	All dry fruits, peanuts, etc		Dry fruit ladoo, chikki.
Salt	Sendha namak	Regular table salt
Spices	Cumin, black pepper, green chili, red chili, coriander, mint	Mustard seeds and hing in some vrats	Aloo jeera
Sweeteners	Jaggery, sugar, honey	-	Any flourless desserts.
Pulses & Legumes	-	Dal/Lentils	-

*Always check your family tradition first before preparing any recipe.

Vrat Meal Ideas

These vrat meal ideas offer filling, delicious options for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with traditional Indian fasting foods that are easy to prepare at home.

These vrat meal ideas offer filling, delicious options for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with traditional Indian fasting foods that are easy to prepare at home.
From traditional sabudana khichdi, samvat rice pulao, sabudana millet dosa, paneer sabudana potato tikki, aloo jeera, kuttu dosa (buckwheat flour dosa), rajgira or amaranth flour paratha, singhara or water chestnut kachori, lauki or bottle gourd soup, there are plenty of choices for every meal.

You can also include some simple salads with fruits and vegetables or easy no onion no garlic recipe with paneer or make a mixed vegetable curry (gajbaje) or coconut milk-based mixed vegetable curry (valval) with potato, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, plantains (bananas), or even make simple chutneys and raita.

Whether you are observing Navratri, Ekadashi, Janmashtami, Shravan, or any Hindu fast, these fasting recipes and vrat food ideas make it easy to plan a wholesome and satisfying meal.

Vrat Sweets, fasting Desserts

No festival or special occasion is complete without something sweet! These sweets and desserts are perfect when you are looking for fasting-friendly Indian vrat sweets to enjoy during festivals. From kheer made with sabudana, makhana, ragjira, paneer, lauki, to halwa with banana, apple, sweet potato, pumpkin, lauki, and ladoo with badam or almonds, dry fruits, coconut, or simply some fruit salad with ice cream, or popular barfi with milk, paneer, coconut, or katli with cashews or almonds, there are plenty of options to satisfy your sweet cravings.

These sweets are also perfect as prasadam and naivedyam.

Vrat and fasting Snacks

These fasting and upvas snack recipes are perfect when you want something delicious and satisfying. Popular options include makhana, roasted nuts, and seeds, sabudana vada, fruit chaat, vrat-friendly pakoras, homemade banana chips, aloo tikki, etc.

Vrat Drinks and Beverages

Stay hydrated during fasting with simple and refreshing drinks made with vrat-friendly ingredients. You can drink fresh fruit juice, vegetable juice, infused water, coconut water, milk-based drinks, herbal tea, buttermilk, lemon water, cucumber mint cooler, lassi, etc.

Important Notes

I have learned over my blogging years that every family follows their traditions. One family eats wheat flour (atta), while the other eats sabudana during upvaas. I recommend asking your elders and making only recipes with the allowed ingredients.

Experience 1:

In parts of South India that I am familiar with, deities are worshiped, sweets are offered as naivedyam to goddess Lakshmi, and then served as prasad (prasadam) to all devotees during Navratri. Fasting means all recipes are sattvic (no onion, no garlic), and you can consume rice in any one meal.

In some parts of North and Western India, people fast (upvas or vrat) during these nine days of Navratri. Most of the grains are avoided. Instead of salt, they use sendha namak. Not all vegetables are allowed.

Fasting rules also vary by region, and the same applies to Ekadashi, Shravan, Shivratri, Ashtami, or any religious fast you observe weekly.

Experience 2:

For example, after I started blogging, I learned from my fellow bloggers that sabudana is one of the main dishes you can eat during vrat, but in my hometown, sabudana (sabakki) is not typically consumed on fasting upvas days.

Another example is that in a few regions, people prefer no-salt or sendha namak (rock salt) for fasting, but in my hometown, we are allowed to use regular salt for any fasting, vrat, or upvas.

To know more about the nine days prasadam for Navratri, vrat ka khana and fasting and the importance of 9 days, read this useful post on Navratri and food to offer and eat on nine days.

While you are here, don't miss out on checking out Indian sweets and desserts, including classic Diwali sweets.

Recipe FAQS

More Indian Sweets and Desserts

Recipe card

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Note: We originally posted this Fasting and Vrat Recipes in August 2020. It has now been modified in August 2026 with Expert Chef Tips, FAQs, Storage Instructions, etc.