Have you attended all the Durga Puja pandals in Delhi this year? Did you gorge on all the sweets there but taste guilt instead? We accept the health freak and the Bengali sweets enthusiast inside you. So, we have curated some vegan and sugar-free recipes of your favourite Bengali sweets to excite your taste buds without the bitterness of guilt. Festivals are all about fun, happiness and food, along with good health. Try these easy-to-make healthy, vegan, and sugar-free recipes of these prominent Bengali sweets, and enjoy this Durga Puja in style.

1. Mishti Doi

Ingredients:

1 can of full/light fat coconut milk

1 cup coconut sugar

¼ tsp cardamom powder

4 probiotics capsule

20 gms mixed nuts, chopped

Method:

Add half a cup of coconut milk to a saucepan and keep stirring until it reaches a pre-boiling temperature. To that, add coconut sugar along with cardamom powder.

Stir the mixture well until it turns caramel-like. Add the rest of the coconut milk to the mixture and simmer it. Let the mixture cool down to a warm temperature.

Open the probiotics capsules and pour the contents into the warm mixture. Stir the mix only using a plastic or a wooden spoon.

Pour the mixture into an earthen pot or another vessel. Seal the container with an aluminium foil.

Let the liquid thicken at room temperature for 12-24 hours. On the next day, check the consistency of the yoghurt to see if it has turned thick and creamy.

You may notice some water on the top of the vegan whey yoghurt, which you can discard if you want to.

Refrigerate the yoghurt for a few hours. After that, garnish the mishti doi with some chopped nuts on the top and serve.

2. Rosogolla

Ingredients:

1 litre full-fat soy milk

2 tbsp lemon juice

3 cups water

½ tsp maida

2 cups jaggery

A pinch of cardamom powder

Method:

Add soy milk to a heavy-bottom pan and boil it until some froth develops. Add the lemon juice and keep stirring until it curdles completely.

Strain the curdled paneer into a container and wash it to remove the acidic taste. Wrap the paneer into a muslin cloth and let it sit for 30 minutes to combine well.

Unwrap the mixture into a bowl and add maida to it. Knead the dough for 8-10 minutes so it holds itself together. Make small dough balls to get round-sized rosogollas and cover them with the muslin cloth.

Take jaggery in a saucepan and add water to it. Heat the syrup until the jaggery completely dissolves. Keep the liquid’s consistency as thin as possible. Add some cardamom powder to the syrup and stir well.

Add the rosogollas to the syrup and let the dish sit for 20 minutes on low flame. Turn off the heat and let it cool at room temperature for an hour. You can refrigerate the rosogollas for another hour if you like them cold. The sweet is ready to serve.

3. Sandesh

Ingredients:

1 litre soy milk

1 cup water

10 gms pistachio, chopped

1 tsp cardamom powder

1 cup coconut sugar

2 tbsp lemon juice

Method:

Take soy milk in a cooking pot and add water to it. Heat the liquid until it develops froth. To that, add lemon juice and keep stirring until it curdles properly.

Strain the extract and transfer it to a bowl. Add coconut sugar and cardamom powder to the bowl and mix all the elements. Take small portions of the mixture to make sandesh. You can mould the mixture into any shape of your preference.

Garnish the sandesh pieces with chopped pistachio, and the delicious sweet is ready to serve.

4. Chennar Payesh

Ingredients:

2 litres soy/almond/coconut milk

⅓ tbsp lemon juice

2 cups coconut sugar

¼ tsp salt

1 tsp cardamom powder

¼ tsp rose water

10g pistachios, peeled and blended

Dried rose petals for garnishing

Method:

Boil 1 litre of milk in a saucepan and add sugar, salt and cardamom powder. Turn the heat low and simmer it for 30-40 minutes.

In the meantime, take another saucepan and heat the rest of the milk, bringing it to a boil. Turn off the heat and let it cool for two minutes. Add lemon juice to it and keep stirring until it curdles properly.

Strain the liquid and wrap the curdled extract or chhena in a muslin cloth to get rid of the excess whey. Now, check the consistency of the thick milk in the first saucepan. Crumble the chhena into thickened milk.

Add the blended pistachio and rose water to the mixture and cook it for 5-6 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the mixture cool for some time.

Transfer the mixture to a bowl and refrigerate it for 6-7 hours. Garnish the sweet dish with some dried rose petals, and chennar payesh is ready to serve.

5. Patishapta Pitha

Ingredients:

1 cup rice flour

½ cup maida

¼ tsp salt

1.5 cups coconut milk

1 cup water

3.5 tbsp date palm jaggery

1 tsp cardamom powder

1.5 tbsp chopped cashews

1.5 tbsp chopped almonds

1 cup desiccated coconut

Method:

Take the rice flour in a bowl and add maida to it. To that, add salt and coconut milk. Mix the batter with the help of water. Make sure there are no lumps while mixing it.

Add 1.5 tbsp of date palm jaggery and a pinch of cardamom powder and mix it well to achieve a smooth, runny batter. Keep this mix aside for some time.

Take chopped cashews and almonds and grind them in a pestle or imam dasta to get a coarse powder.

Now, take 400ml coconut milk in a saucepan and simmer it. Add some desiccated coconut and boil the liquid until it thickens. To that, add the powdered mixture of cashews and almonds, ¼ tsp of cardamom powder and a pinch of salt and mix them well.

Keep simmering the mixture. Now, take 2 tsp of rice flour and mix it with some water to make a thin slurry. Add this paste to the mixture and cook it on low flame.

Add 2 tbsp of date palm jaggery to the mixture and cook it for an additional 10-15 minutes until it thickens again. Now, transfer the mixture to a bowl and let it cool for some time.

In the meantime, heat a saucepan on low flame and grease it with some oil. Take the rice flour and maida batter and spread some of it on the pan. Let it cook from beneath until the upper side of this crêpe or cheela is dried.

Now, take some of the prepared mixture and spread it on one side of the crêpe. Roll it with the help of a spatula. Repeat the process to make some more patishapta pithas.

These lip-smacking patishapta pitha are ready to serve hot.

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