Diwali celebrations at the Golden Temple, Punjab, India 

Diwali celebrations at the Golden Temple, Punjab, India 
© Shutterstock

Diwali: Food for the Festival of Lights

Diwali, the joyous festival of lights, and a time to celebrate the triumph of good over evil, has food, feasting and family at its centre.

Diwali, the annual festival of lights, is a time when millions of people illuminate their houses and streets to celebrate the triumph of good over evil. Naturally, like many festivals, it has food, feasting and family at its centre. Diwali is widely celebrated in India and is observed by Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and some Buddhists around the world. The five-day event varies according to the Hindu lunar calendar - this year it begins on November 2, but the main celebration falls on November 4. 

In addition to being a festival of light, Diwali is also a festival of flavours as it is de rigueur to devour a profusion of deep fried savoury and sweet treats. In this sense, it has some similarities to the Jewish festival of Hanukkah which follows in December. Both serve fried doughnuts as a delectable symbol of abundance and richness: flaky balushahi fried in ghee for Diwali and honey drenched sufganiyot for Hanukkah.

Indian sweetmeats known as mithai are a happy melange of snack, dessert and little morsels of sweets served invariably with a cup of masala chai, black tea spiced with green cardamom pods, cinnamon sticks, ground cloves, ginger and black peppercorn.

Favourites include kaju barfi (sweets) made with cashew, cardamom and saffron; fudge-textured mohanthal made with khoya (dried evaporated milk powder) besan or gram flour, cardamom and ghee; rice kheer made from basmati rice simmered in whole milk with sugar and flavored with green cardamom powder, garnished with slivered almonds and lightly roasted whole pistachio nuts; and gulab jamun, a milk solid based sweet.

It is a time to visit friends and family whose homes are decorated with flowers and rangoli (colourful floor designs made of flour, petals or sand) and exchange beautifully decorated boxes of mithai specialities.

Carrots, squashes, lentils, grains, chickpea flour, semolina and various beans with condensed milk or housemade yoghurt are invariably the base to which pistachio, almonds or cashew are added. The mithrai are made fragrant with sweet spices including cardamom, cinnamon, cloves or nutmeg, often heady with saffron, pandan leaf and even gold leaf embellishment. 

Savoury diwali snacks including puris (crisp fluffy puffs of unleavened bread, often deep fried in ghee for a richer special treat) and crunchy noodles like sev, which is made with a dough of chickpea (also known as gram flour), spices and oil. The ingredients are put through a sev press and the thin strands are deep-fried until crisp and golden. Puris are made with rice or lentil flour and seasoned with spices and sesame seeds.

The puris are accompanied by a dal, vegetable curry such as a rich paneer curry or namkeen, and fried snacks such as pakoras or bhajis.

On the first day of Diwali, which is associated with the worship of wealth, large-grain cracked wheat sautéed with ghee and sugar known as lapsi are often served accompanied by a curry of yard-long beans which symbolise longevity. A personal favourite is sheera, a fudgy sweet of semolina sautéed with raisins, cashew nuts, cardamom and saffron

On New Year's Day puris are often partnered with shrikhand, a chilled pudding prepared with home-made yoghurt cheese; and mixed vegetable curries made with as many varieties of vegetables as possible, as this symbolises year-round culinary riches.

Shrikhand is an Indian dessert prepared with home-made yoghurt cheese
© Shutterstock
Shrikhand is an Indian dessert prepared with home-made yoghurt cheese
Sudi Pigott
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