Diwali Faral & Snacks 2026: Less-Oil Chivda, Chakli, Ladoo and Annakut

You can make a full Diwali faral plate at home with far less oil than the usual deep-fried batch: roast poha chivda and makhana chivda in a kadai, roast besan ladoo in ghee, and shallow fry or bake the shankarpali, chakli and karanji. Make the dry snacks a week ahead, keep them in airtight jars, and save the last two days for Govardhan Puja annakut.

Pour yourself a chai, because faral is a project. In most Maharashtrian and Gujarati homes it starts the week before Dhanteras, with the whole family rolling chakli on the dining table and arguing about how much sugar goes into the shankarpali. The good news is that most of it does not need a kadai full of oil. It needs a proper roast, a bit of patience and a pan that does not stick.

What is Diwali faral?

The word comes from Marathi, but the habit is everywhere. In Gujarat it is the nasta tray, in the north it is the namkeen and mithai you put out for every visitor. Whatever you call it, the idea is the same: a few savoury, a few sweet, and enough to send a small box home with anyone who drops in.

If you are hosting a Diwali party, the faral plate is your starter course sorted. Put it out with chai when guests arrive and you only need to cook the mains on the day.

Which Diwali snacks can you make with less oil?

A pan that releases cleanly matters more for faral than for almost anything else you cook. Roasting poha or besan in a dry pan is exactly where food catches and scorches. Asai ceramic cookware is PFAS-free and PTFE-free, so you can roast on a ceramic kadai and shallow fry on a ceramic frying pan with a thin layer of oil, and nothing welds itself to the bottom.

1. Poha chivda (thin poha, roasted)

Makes about 6 cups · about 25 minutes · Cook it in: a ceramic kadai

The roast is the whole trick. Thin poha goes crisp in a dry kadai on low heat, so you never need to fry it.

You need: 4 cups thin poha, 2-3 tbsp oil, 1/2 cup peanuts, 1/4 cup roasted chana dal (dalia), 2 tbsp dry coconut slices, 1 tsp mustard seeds, 2 green chillies, 15-20 curry leaves, 1/2 tsp turmeric, 1 tsp powdered sugar, salt.

1. Roast the poha. Dry roast the poha in the kadai on low heat in two batches, stirring, for 8-10 minutes until it is crisp and breaks with a snap. Tip it out.
2. Fry the add-ins. Heat the oil, fry the peanuts until they crackle, then add the dalia and coconut for a minute.
3. Temper. Add mustard seeds, chillies, curry leaves and turmeric, and let the leaves go crisp.
4. Toss. Turn off the heat, add the poha back with salt and sugar, and toss gently until every flake is yellow. Cool completely before you put it in a jar.

2. Makhana chivda

Makes about 5 cups · about 15 minutes · Cook it in: a ceramic kadai

A lighter chivda that is ready in the time it takes the chai to boil. Good for anyone at the table who is skipping fried snacks.

You need: 4 cups makhana (fox nuts), 1-2 tbsp ghee, 1/4 cup peanuts, 2 tbsp cashews, 10 curry leaves, 1/2 tsp chaat masala, 1/2 tsp red chilli powder, a pinch of turmeric, salt.

1. Roast the makhana. Roast in 1 tbsp ghee on low heat for 8-10 minutes, until one crushes cleanly between your fingers.
2. Roast the nuts. Push the makhana aside, add the rest of the ghee, roast peanuts, cashews and curry leaves.
3. Season. Turn off the heat, add the powders and salt, and toss well. Cool before storing.

3. Besan ladoo

Makes 12-14 ladoo · about 35 minutes · Cook it in: a ceramic kadai

Besan ladoo is all about the slow roast in ghee. Rush it and the ladoo tastes raw. Keep the heat low and keep stirring, and a wide kadai stops the besan from catching at the edges.

You need: 2 cups besan (coarse if you can find it), 1/2 cup ghee, 3/4 cup powdered sugar or 1 cup grated jaggery, 1/2 tsp cardamom powder, 2 tbsp chopped nuts.

1. Roast. Melt the ghee in the kadai, add the besan and roast on low heat, stirring, for 20-25 minutes, until it turns golden and smells nutty.
2. Cool slightly. Take it off the heat and let it cool until it is warm, not hot. Hot besan melts the sugar and the ladoo will not hold.
3. Mix and shape. Add sugar or jaggery, cardamom and nuts, mix well and roll into ladoo.

Want sweets with even less sugar? Our five lower-sugar Diwali sweets use jaggery, honey and dates.

4. Shankarpali (shallow fried or baked)

Makes a big jar · about 45 minutes · Cook it in: a ceramic frying pan

Sweet, flaky diamonds that disappear first from every faral plate. Instead of a deep kadai of oil, fry them in a single layer in a frying pan with a thin film of oil, turning once.

You need: 2 cups maida or half maida, half atta, 1/2 cup milk, 1/3 cup sugar, 1/4 cup ghee, a pinch of salt, oil for shallow frying.

1. Make the base. Warm the milk, sugar and ghee in a small sauce pan until the sugar dissolves. Cool.
2. Knead. Add to the flour with salt and knead a firm dough. Rest 20 minutes.
3. Cut. Roll out to about 3 mm and cut into small diamonds.
4. Fry or bake. Shallow fry in batches on medium-low heat, turning once, until golden on both sides. Or bake at 180°C for 15-18 minutes. Cool fully before storing.

5. Chakli (shallow fried or baked)

Makes about 20 · about 50 minutes · Cook it in: a ceramic frying pan

Chakli is the one everyone thinks has to be deep fried. You can shallow fry it in a frying pan, a few at a time, with oil about a centimetre deep, and turn it once. Baking gives a crisp, slightly drier chakli that keeps just as well.

You need: 2 cups rice flour (or ready chakli bhajani), 1/2 cup besan, 2 tbsp hot oil or butter, 1 tsp each of sesame, ajwain and red chilli powder, salt, water, oil for shallow frying, and a chakli press.

1. Make the dough. Mix the flours, spices and salt, rub in the hot oil, then add water little by little to make a soft dough that does not crack.
2. Press. Press spirals onto squares of butter paper.
3. Cook. Slide them into the frying pan and shallow fry on medium heat until golden and the bubbling stops, turning once. Or bake at 180°C for about 20 minutes.

6. Baked karanji

Makes 15-18 · about 50 minutes · Cook the filling in: a ceramic frying pan

Karanji (gujiya up north) is the faral item most families still deep fry. Bake it instead and brush with a little ghee. The filling is where the flavour is anyway.

You need: For the filling: 1 cup grated dry coconut, 1/2 cup powdered sugar or jaggery, 1 tbsp poppy seeds, 1 tbsp chopped nuts, 1/2 tsp cardamom, 1 tsp ghee. For the cover: 1 1/2 cups maida or atta, 3 tbsp ghee, water.

1. Make the filling. Roast coconut and poppy seeds in 1 tsp ghee in the frying pan until fragrant. Cool, then mix in sugar, nuts and cardamom.
2. Make the cover. Rub the ghee into the flour and knead a firm dough with water. Rest 20 minutes.
3. Fill and seal. Roll small puris, fill, fold and seal the edges with a fork or cutter.
4. Bake. Brush with ghee and bake at 180°C for 20-25 minutes until lightly golden.

How much oil does faral need, and how long does it keep?

Store each snack in its own jar, and only once it has cooled completely. Warm chivda in a closed jar steams itself soft overnight.

What is cooked for Govardhan Puja annakut?

The story goes that Krishna lifted Govardhan hill to shelter the people of Braj from Indra's rains, and they thanked him with a hill of food. That is why the annakut is piled up into a small mountain before the puja and then shared as prasad.

You do not need 56 dishes. Most homes make a handful and fill out the plate with faral. A sensible annakut menu:

• Annakut ki sabzi: a mixed-vegetable sabzi with whatever is in season, pumpkin, brinjal, potato, beans, radish, cooked together in a big ceramic kadai with minimal oil.
• Kadhi and rice: make the kadhi in a deep pot and keep it on low while you cook the rest.
• Puri: the one thing on the plate that really is deep fried. Make a small batch.
• Halwa or sheera: suji or atta halwa roasted in ghee in the kadai.
• Leftover faral: chivda, ladoo, shankarpali and karanji go straight onto the annakut.

This year Monday 9 November is a gap day, so you get a breather between Lakshmi Puja and the annakut. Use it to cook the sabzi base and the halwa. The Diwali 2026 calendar has the full five days.

Which pans do you need for Diwali faral?

If you are setting up the kitchen before Dhanteras, a set covers all of it at once. The Everyday Trio gives you the kadai, frying pan and dosa tawa, and the Power Trio swaps the tawa for a sauce pan, which is the better pick for syrups and halwa. Going big for the festival kitchen? The Complete Quartet has all four. Browse the full ceramic cookware range, read what to buy on Dhanteras, or check the batch reports on the Asai Lab page. Prefer Amazon? Asai is on Amazon too.

The bottom line

Faral is less about oil and more about patience: a slow roast, a cool-down before the jar, and a pan that lets go cleanly. Make the dry snacks the week before Dhanteras, keep the deep frying for the puris, and you will have a full plate for every guest and plenty left for the annakut on 10 November.

References

1. Drik Panchang: Diwali Puja Calendar 2026, New Delhi (Govardhan Puja date). drikpanchang.com
2. Asai Lab: SGS and Intertek batch test reports for Asai ceramic cookware, and the BIS IS 1660:2024 standard. asaicookware.com/pages/asai-lab