Beyond Modaks: Ganesh Chaturthi Prasad Recipes You Need to Try This Year

While prasad is a common offering made all year round, it takes on a special significance during the festive season. Homes, temples, pandals, and even your local sweet shops, rally towards creating varieties of delicacies that can be offered to deities and enjoyed among family and friends. The 10-day-long Ganesh Chaturthi festival is no exception. For this year’s festivities, here are three traditional and popular Ganesh Chaturthi recipes that you can offer as prasad.     

Puran Poli

This sweet flatbread, made of jaggery and flour, is symbolic of warmth and hospitality and is a popular Ganesh Chaturthi prasad. If you are interested in the history and origins of this delicacy, read more here. 

Ingredients

For the Dough:

• 226 gm whole wheat flour (for the dough)
• 56 gm whole wheat flour (for rolling)
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 236 ml water (or more)
• 2 tbsp ghee

For the Filling:

• 191 gm chana dal
• 1182 ml water
• 125 gm jaggery
• 100 gm sugar
• ¼ tsp nutmeg powder
• ¼ tsp cardamom powder
• ¼ tsp saffron
• ¼ dry ginger powder 

Instructions

• Thoroughly wash the chana dal. Drain and combine it with water in a heavy-bottomed pot and cook on medium-low heat for an hour or two.
• Drain the water and add jaggery, sugar, saffron, nutmeg, cardamom and dry ginger powder to the dal. Mix well and cook for 10-15 minutes on medium heat.
• Cool down the mixture for 5 minutes and in a food processor, blend until you arrive at a smooth consistency.
• Combine flour, salt, oil, water and saffron and knead to form a dough. Let it rest for 30 minutes.
• Create small balls of the dough and the filling mixture.
• Roll the dough into 4.5-inch circles. In the center, place a ball of stuffing and fold the edges, sealing it. Cover the stuffed dough ball with dry flour and flatten it in your hands. Then, roll it to a diameter of 8-10 inches.
• On a heated pan, lay the rolled-out polis and cook evenly on both sides until they turn into a golden brown color. At this point, you can add ghee.
• Your puran polis are ready to be served!

Satori

Another flatbread filled with the richness of mawa, Satori is a staple in the traditional bhog offered to Lord Ganesha.

 Ingredients

For the outer covering:

• 668 gm all purpose flour
• 100 gm semolina
• 2 tbsp gram flour
• 2 tbsp ghee
• Water (as required)

For the filling:

• 2 cups mawa
• 1 tbsp poppy seeds
• 1 tbsp dry dates powder
• ¼ tsp cardamom powder
• 130 gm jaggery
• 118 ml ghee 

Instructions

• In a large bowl, combine semolina, flour and gram flour. Add heated ghee to this mixture and mix well.
• Gradually add water to the mixture until you achieve a smooth dough. Cover and set it aside for 30 minutes.
• Heat ghee in a pan. Add mawa to it and cook until you notice the mawa leaving the sides of the pan. Add jaggery and cardamom to this and mix well.
• Then, add ghee, poppy seeds and the dry date powder and cook for a minute. If you notice that the mixture is too dry, add some water to it.
• Now, divide the Satori dough into equal-sized balls and create little puris out of it. Add a spoonful of the filling in its center and seal the edges.
• With a little extra flour, roll out the dough balls into paratha-like thickness.
• On a hot tawa, fry the satori with ghee until it turns golden.
• Serve with a drizzle of piping hot ghee.
  

 Coconut Rice

• In South India, this coconut rice dish is a common Ganesh Chaturthi prasad offering.

 Ingredients

• 500 gm basmati rice
• 1 onion (finely chopped)
• ½ tbsp sunflower oil
• 400 ml coconut milk
• 5 tbsp desiccated coconut
• Cashew nuts (for garnish) 

Instructions

• Toast desiccated coconut in a pan for 2-3 minutes until it turns golden brown. Set it aside.
• In another pan, cook onions in oil over low heat, until they soften. Then add rice and stir the mixture. Add coconut milk and 400 ml water and bring the entire mixture to a gentle simmer while stirring constantly.
• Once the mixture starts simmering, cover the pan with a lid and let it continue cooking for 10-15 minutes on the lowest possible heat. At this time, check the rice mixture to ensure that it isn’t sticking to the bottom of the pan.
• Add desiccated coconut to the rice mixture and cover the pan to let the rice finish cooking.
• Serve with cashew nuts and desiccated coconut on top.

If you are interested in making more additions to your prasad offerings, here’s a great recipe for motichoor laddoos and modaks — everyone’s favorite!