What to Eat During Navratri Fasting (2026): The Complete Falahar List and a Simple 9-Day Plan

2026-09-15

During Navratri fasting you can eat kuttu, singhara, rajgira, sabudana, samak rice, potatoes, fruit, milk, curd, makhana and rock salt; wheat, rice, dals, onion, garlic and table salt are left out. Shardiya Navratri 2026 runs 11 to 20 October.

During a Navratri fast you can eat kuttu (buckwheat), singhara (water chestnut) and rajgira (amaranth) flours, sabudana (tapioca pearls), samak or vrat ke chawal (barnyard millet), potatoes, sweet potato, lauki (bottle gourd), pumpkin, fruit, milk, curd, paneer, makhana (fox nuts), dry fruits, sendha namak (rock salt) and ghee. Wheat, rice, all dals and pulses, onion, garlic, ordinary table salt, non-vegetarian food and maida-based packaged snacks are left out. Shardiya Navratri 2026 runs from Sunday 11 October to Tuesday 20 October, which is Vijayadashami.

Below you will find the full falahar list, the reasoning behind rock salt, a 9-day breakfast-lunch-dinner plan and how the rules change by region. One thing first: fasting rules differ from family to family, so your own household's tradition comes before any list, including this one.

What can you eat during Navratri fasting? The full falahar list

Falahar literally means "fruit food". In practice it is the set of fasting-day foods: fruit, milk, and a handful of flours and vegetables that contain no grain and no pulses. By common fasting tradition, these are allowed:

Every classic fasting dish comes out of this short list: sabudana khichdi, kuttu puris, samak rice kheer, potato sabzi, makhana kheer.

What should you not eat during Navratri fasting?

• Wheat and rice: roti, bread, suji (semolina), maida (refined flour), plain rice
• All dals, lentils and pulses
• Onion and garlic
• Ordinary table salt
• Mustard oil and refined oils, in many homes; ghee takes their place
• Non-vegetarian food and alcohol
• Maida-based biscuits, namkeen and packaged snacks

The traditional reasoning for setting grains aside is something we have written about in detail in why rice is not eaten on Ekadashi. The Navratri fast follows the same thinking: grains and pulses out, fruit, milk and root vegetables in.

Why rock salt and not ordinary salt?

Sendha namak is rock salt: salt mined from the ground and ground down for use without factory processing. Ordinary table salt reaches the packet after cleaning and refining.

In fasting tradition the belief is simple: the more natural and less processed a food is, the purer it is considered. That single idea explains the whole list. Fruit and root vegetables replace grain, ghee replaces refined oil, and rock salt replaces table salt. The falahar list is not arbitrary; it follows one principle.

A small practical step: before 11 October, keep a separate jar of rock salt in the kitchen so that ordinary salt does not slip into a dish by habit during the nine days.

A 9-day Navratri 2026 falahar plan: breakfast, lunch, dinner

The shape of the plan is simple. Fruit and milk in the morning, one cooked falahar meal at midday, something light at night, and water through the day. Fruit, milk and one cooked meal is enough to keep energy steady for nine days. Anyone with diabetes, or who is pregnant, should fast only as their doctor advises.

Day 1 is Sunday 11 October 2026. For each day's tithi (lunar day), the form of the Goddess worshipped and the puja sequence, see our Navratri 2026 nine-day calendar.

Everything in the table can be swapped between days. Cook whatever vegetable is in the house; the only fixed rule is rock salt and ghee. If your family eats once a day, keep only the midday column and take fruit and milk at the other two times.

How do the rules change by region and household?

The Navratri fast is not the same across India:

• Gujarat: many homes keep a one-meal fast, which means one cooked falahar meal a day and fruit or milk the rest of the time.
• Bengal: Durga Puja is largely not a fasting festival; eating and feeding others is part of the celebration there.
• Many households: fast only on the first and last day, with ordinary sattvik (plain vegetarian) meals in between.

So treat no list as final, this one included. Ask the elders at home what your family follows. Households that also keep an akhand jyoti (a lamp kept burning through all nine days) will find the akhand jyoti rules in a separate article.

Why is sabudana allowed on a fast?

The traditional view is that sabudana does not count as a grain, because it is made from a root, not from a seed grown in a field. That is why fasting tradition treats it as falahar. Add peanuts, potato and rock salt to sabudana khichdi and it becomes a proper filling meal.

Can you eat curd during Navratri fasting?

Yes. Milk, curd and paneer are all accepted in common fasting tradition. Have curd with sabudana vada or kuttu puris, or make a cucumber raita. The one thing to watch is the salt: use rock salt in the raita, not table salt.

Can you drink tea during Navratri fasting?

Tea does not appear on the traditional "avoid" list. In many homes milk tea continues through the fast; some people give up tea for the nine days. Both are fine; follow your household's rule. Do not lean on tea alone, though. Make sure water and fruit are part of every day.

Navratri 2026: first and last day timings (Delhi)

These timings come from our panchang engine for Delhi; sunrise and sunset will differ in other cities. Pratipada (the first lunar day) is running at sunrise on 11 October, which is why that is the first day of the fast.

What to do now

1. Ask the elders at home which fast your family keeps: all nine days, one meal a day, or first and last day only.
2. Stock kuttu, singhara, sabudana, samak rice, makhana and rock salt from the list above before 11 October.
3. Put the 9-day plan up in the kitchen and swap items between days as it suits you.

Each day's tithi, sunrise and sunset are in our daily panchang, which makes it easier to fix the puja time through the nine days.