The festival of Sawan is just around the corner. During this whole month, people indulge in devotion and follow sattvic eating. While some keep fasts only on Mondays, there are many others who follow a month-long fast. With everyday puja rituals, work and household chores to manage, cooking fasting meals every single time from scratch can be a bit overwhelming. That is why a little prep ahead can make the entire month more manageable.
Stocking your pantry with important ingredients, preparing a few staples well in advance and organising your kitchen pantry means you will not have to rush to the store midway because the makhanas, sabudabna or sendha namak have been finished.
Not only this, but it also reduces everyday cooking time considerably. Prepping ahead does not mean cooking foods weeks in advance, but making the building blocks for your breakfast, lunch and evening snacks. Here are five useful meal-prep ideas that can help simplify your Sawan fasting routine.
Make Ready-To-Cook Vrat Flour Mixes
Rather than measuring the vrat flours one by one every time, mix kuttu flour and singhara flour in equal quantities and keep in airtight containers. If you usually add a pinch of sendha namak and cumin in the dough, add them beforehand to the flour so that the mix is ready to use.
When it's time to make, just take the required amount in the bowl, add mashed potatoes and knead it as usual. Although it feels like a small preparation, it saves considerable time during busy mornings when even five minutes is precious.
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Boil Potatoes Once, Use Them In Different Ways
Potatoes are used in many vrat recipes, making them one of the most often used vegetables. Boil potatoes in a large quantity before the week starts, peel them and keep them in the refrigerator in an airtight box.
Instead of using them in the same dish, use them more creatively. Make jeera aloo one day, stuff them in kuttu parathas, make vrat-friendly aloo tikkis later or add them to sama rice pulao. One simple prep can turn out to be the base for many dishes without thinking about what to make next. You can repeat this process the entire month while trying various new recipes based on boiled potatoes.
Make Homemade Vrat Snack Jars Ready
Fasting often brings unforeseen hunger pangs that hit between meals, which eventually lead to grabbing packaged vrat-friendly snacks, making you feel heavy later on. A better option for this is making your own vrat snacks before Sawan begins. Fill separate jars with roasted makhana, roasted peanuts, almonds, walnuts, makhana taril, etc so that healthy options are always available without having anything fried.
You can also make small bite-sized dry fruit laddoos to get a quick boost of energy. Having these snacks ready means you will not have to cook every time you feel hungry or go for packaged snacks.
Freeze Chutneys And Ginger Paste In Small Portions
Fresh chutneys give a boost of flavour to every meal, but making them on a regular basis can be tiring sometimes. Blend coconut or coriander chutney well in advance and freeze it in ice cube trays or small silicone moulds. Likewise, make fresh ginger and green chilli paste and freeze it in an ice cube tray.
Whenever you are cooking, take out only the quantity you need and let it thaw naturally. This keeps flavours fresh while making foods like kuttu paratha, sabudana khichdi and vrat aloo sabzi much quicker to make.
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Create A Dedicated Sawan Pantry Shelf
Before the fasting month starts, collect all your vrat essentials in one place that can be easily accessible. Store samak rice, sabudana, makhana, kuttu flour, rajgira flour, singhara flour, sendha namak, jaggery, ghee and dry fruits in airtight jars on a separate rack in the kitchen.
This simple organisation will stop you from searching for ingredients through the kitchen every day and will also reduce the chances of accidentally using regular salt or flour in place of fasting ones. Apart from this, it also makes grocery planning more effortless because you can instantly see which ingredients need to be refilled during the month.