It is that time of the year again, when non-veg is completely prohibited in the house. Yes, you guessed it right, it is Navratri season starting from October 17. In most Indian households, people keep fasts during these nine days. And even if you do not fast, you will have to keep to stick to vegetarian meals. For hardcore meat-lovers, nine days of no meat might sound like a nightmare, but contrary to popular belief, veg food, if made intelligently, can make you forget your mutton biriyanis and chicken tikkas. Well not completely, but here are five veg dishes that are nothing less than those meaty meals.

Roasted Lemon Potatoes

For this, peel and cut in quarters, 7-8 medium sized potatoes. Par-boil them with 2 tsps of salt. In a large roasting pan, add some olive oil, lime juice, salt and pepper. Mix them and add the potatoes. Coat the potatoes completely in the mix, sprinkle some oregano and chilli flakes and roast them in the oven till golden brown. That’s it. You have got yourself some beautiful roasted potatoes that are crispy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside. These are extremely filling as well. 

Creamy Paneer Roll

You may have seen photos of paneer tikkas rolled in rumali roti on Instagram and wondered how to make them. No more worries as this simple recipe will make your dreams come true. For this, Take some cubes of paneer, marinate them with some yogurt, kashmiri red chilli powder, ginger paste, garam masala, salt and pepper. Roast the paneer in the oven until cooked, take them out while still hot and mix them in a bowl with some fresh cream, melted butter and chaat masala. Take some rumali roti, put the paneer mix in them and roll them firmly. Eat while still warm. 

Pesto Pasta

The green in this pasta comes from a fresh cashew pesto. For this, blend some basil leaves, cashew nuts, parmesan, olive oil, salt and pepper. In a pan, add olive oil, add boiled spaghetti along with some of the pasta water and the basil pesto and toss for some more time. Take off the heat and garnish with fresh basil leaves.

Parsi Dhansak

Usually Dhansak is made with chicken, but substituting chicken with a bunch of vegetables like pumpkin, lady finger, carrot, potatoes, eggplant, cauliflower is not a bad idea during no-meat navratri. Check out chef Thomas Zacharias’ Instagram video for the detailed recipe. 

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Among the many incredible recipes within Parsi cuisine repertoire is the Dhansak, perhaps one of the most quintessentially Parsi dish of them all. Although I had to make a few substitutes and tweak the recipe a little, the result is bloody delicious. I'll put up recipes for the Parsi brown rice and the kachumber soon! While this particular recipe is with chicken, I've found that you can substitute it with all kinds of other ingredients including mutton, buff, prawns, duck and vegetables like eggplant, pumpkin, potatoes, yam, okra, beans, carrots, cauliflower and more. Get creative and start cooking! And if you have any Parsi friends, tag them in this post and show them some love. As always, captioning by @sicilychechi #CookingwithTZac #Parsicuisine #Dhansak #ParsiDhansak #IndianFoodMovement #regionalIndianfood

A post shared by Thomas Zacharias (@cheftzac) on

Peanut Butter Cookies

This list needed a sweet ending, and why go for some heavy dessert when a simple cookie can do the trick. In a mixing bowl, add a cup of flour, peanut butter (Of course), brown sugar, vanilla extract, flax seed paste, a pinch of salt and mix till the cookie dough forms. Put it in the freezer for about half an hour. Take them out, portion them and bake them in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for about 15-20 mins. Make sure you cool them down to room temperature before gorging on them.