8 Sugar-free Navratri desserts for the sugar conscious – Celebrate your festival with healthy alternatives

Navratri, an auspicious festival celebrated with fervour and excitement in India, is imminent and right around the corner! Like all Indian festivals, this will be a time to indulge in many local foods and sweets and how can you resist not doing so? Eating sweets during the festive season is a part of the spiritual and cultural experience.  Indian sweets prepared during these seasons include Halwa, Kheer, Kaju Katli, Phirni, Laddu, Gulab Jamun, Sheera, and Rabdi amongst others, which are irresistible. Here are some of the sugar-free desserts that you could make.

The benefits of sugar-free desserts

Now, as much as you might not be able to resist, the guilty thought behind the sweet calories is unavoidable during this season. Post-pandemic, there is also a growing trend of people becoming incredibly conscious of their health or fitness. 

A big component of improving health begins with eliminating sugar present in our diets. After all, reducing sugar consumption has immense health benefits from better mood and cognition, to reduction of inflammation in the body, healthier teeth, better sleep, weight loss, and a decreased risk of diseases like diabetes and heart issues.

Also, sugar can have a negative impact on healthy calorie intake. Most calorie-dense foods come from sweets. Hence, reducing sugar in foods is extremely important for those on a health-conscious journey.

However, with modern issues comes modern solutions. This means that you do not have to miss out on the celebratory spirit of this season just because of dietary restrictions. No more abstaining from the delicious motichoor or halwa because we have researched the most popular, sugar-free Navratri foods that will satisfy all your sweet cravings.

Sugar-free Kesari Phirni

Phirni is a sweet local dish prepared with yummy pistachios, almonds, rice, sugar, and milk, and is infused with flavour derived from spices like saffron and cardamom. You can prepare a sugar-free Phiri at home by substituting sugar with alternatives like Sugar free: Natura diet sugar.

This dish is prepared with ground rice and boiled milk. Pistachios must be cut into slivers, and saffron should be soaked in a tablespoon of milk. The rice paste, cardamom, and saffron are added to the milk and cooked until they thicken. The dish is served cold and you can use a fancy utensil to serve – garnish with more nuts on top for opulence.

Sugar free Gulab Jamun

Gulab Jamun is a staple Indian sweet, it is found ubiquitously in all festive occasions and celebrations which can also include Navratri. Gulab Jamuns are delightful, bright red balls of sweet coconut and flour, gushing with syrup that is very indulgent. Putting them in your mouth leads to an explosion of sweetness.

The secret to making Gulab Jamun healthy is to make the syrup using a sugar-free alternative. The syrup of corn flour, water, and sugar substitute can be prepared. Combine these with dough balls prepared with the milk powder, baking soda, and all-purpose flour, and fry them.

Lastly, garnish with coconut flakes and savor these sweet ball desserts.

Sugar free GA jar Halwa

Halwa is a delectable Indian sweet, adorned in nuts and bright colours. It is a popular dish that originated from Persia and Iran but later on has been adapted and assimilated by Indian culture. Thus making it a wonderful staple that can be consumed during Navratri. GA jar ka halwa, with its main ingredient being ground carrots, can be served as a visually appealing dish that will surely be loved by your guests. 

Here’s an idea to make a sugar-free, vitamin A-dense, healthy halwa. Take an Indian wok and fry a mixture of carrots in ghee. After some time, add milk and white pistachios stripped off their skin. Add seedless raisins, cardamom powder, and a sugar-free alternative – cook this for about ten to fifteen minutes before adding Mawa/Khoya. Now serve those ravening guests!

Sugar-free dry fruit ladoo

Indian festivals are incomplete without ladoo, these sweet balls of flour and nuts evoke joy and pleasure in guests when served – highly adored by kids!

A healthy dry fruit version of ladoo can be prepared this Navratri. Roast ingredients like almonds, cashew, peanuts, dates, and peanuts, or other ingredients in the dry fruit category of your choice. After removing the moisture, this mix must be ground further. The mix can then be mixed with oats and coconut flakes. Turn them into balls and fry till they harden.

These laddus are completely sugar-free and rely on the sweetness naturally derived from the dates and raisins – a guilt-free experience to relish, without even using an artificial sweetener.

Along with dry fruit ladoo, the best giveaway during Navratri is the sugar-free gift hampers. This will add a weightage to your existing gift. For those living in Mumbai, you can order a premium chocolate giftbox Mumbai from Toujours. This is a healthy alternative that is free of sugar and Maida. 

Sugar-free desserts: Cashew Katli

Cashew Katli has got to be the most extravagant and luxurious dish on this list. Cashew Katli or cashew barfi is a sweet made of ground cashew nuts adorned magnificently with a silver coating. Serving your guests Cashew Katli this Navratri will surely impress.

This healthy version is made out of honey, a natural sugar substitute. Broken cashew is roasted either in an oven or pan. These broken cashews are subjected to a food processor till they turn into a paste. Raw honey is added to the cashew batter and further mixed. The batter is cut into alluring square-like shapes and served.

Sugar-free Kheer

Kheer has got to be the most popular dish during festive seasons that appeals to those who possess a sweet tooth. Very Similar to phirni, Kheer is a tasty dish made of vermicelli and sweet milk that seems to have a huge fanbase.

Sugar-free kheer can be made by boiling milk and adding rice paste to it. Blended dates devoid seeds are added to the mixture. Then, add nuts, almonds, pistachio, raisins, and butter, and these are cooked until the mixture is thick. Saffron and cardamom powder are used here to bring taste.

Kheer is the most traditional variety that is served in almost every Indian festival. If you are looking for a customised dessert in Mumbai then you can order from the best traditional bakery in Mumbai. They not only use traditional techniques to craft your dessert but also pay close attention to detail and use imported ingredients. 

Sugar-free desserts: Rabdi

Milk lovers will find this dish very enticing. Rabdi is sweet where most of its appeal lies in its milky, rich, pleasant texture and overwhelming sweetness. The taste of milk dominates this dish.

A litre of milk is heated until it thickens naturally. Boiled almonds and pistachios, with peeled skin is added to this mixture. The milk is allowed to thicken, the cream is removed to the sides and the bottom is stirred regularly. Gradually the milk reduces in quantity. Sugar-free Substitute powder is added as necessary along with rose water, cardamom, and garnishing of choice. Your sugar-free desserts are ready for you to relish.

Sugar-free Sweet potato halwa

What makes this dish so healthy is that it is made out of sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes are nutritionally dense superfoods that naturally sweeten this dish. Comparatively, this dish is probably the healthiest sugar-free recipe on here. High in carbohydrates, this dish will give you a lot of energy to survive in frantic festive environments.

To attempt this dish, mash two or three sweet potatoes. The potatoes then should be roasted with ghee. Slowly add more ghee to the mixture. Once the ghee is blended, add your favourite dry fruits and allow the mixture to puff up.