Light Up Your Diwali Parties With Recipes From Padma Lakshmi and Maneet Chauhan

Celebrate the festival of lights with samosas and sweets from some of our favorite chefs.

By

Food & Wine Editors

Updated on November 2, 2023

Chicken Samosas — Photo:
Greg Dupree / Food Styling by Micah Morton / Prop Styling by Claire Spollen

Diwali is the most significant holiday in India and throughout the South Asian diaspora. The festival celebrates the triumph of light over darkness. Also known as the festival of lights, the celebration lasts five days, during which time people decorate their homes, buy new clothes, exchange gifts, and gather with families and friends to enjoy a magnificent feast of sweet treats.

We've joined Hetal Vasavada, Maneet Chauhan, and Padma Lakshmi for their Diwali parties in the last few years, and have collected recipes from them and other chefs to celebrate vibrancy of this holiday with samosas, peanut chaat, tandoori fish, and mango rasmalai.

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Pani Puri

Pani Puri — Greg Dupree / Food Styling by Micah Morton / Prop Styling by Claire Spollen

Pani puri is an Indian snack of crispy puffed bread filled with potato and spicy mint water. Using store-bought puri ensures it comes together easily.

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Mango Lassi

Mango Lassi Recipe — Matt Taylor-Gross / Food Styling by Barrett Washburne

This sweet lassi is made with canned kesar mango purée and blended with the yogurt or buttermilk until smooth. A bit of lime juice balances the sweet mango and makes this a refreshing drink.

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Masala Nuts

Maneet Chauhan's Masala Mixed Nuts — Matt Blair

These fried peanuts, cashews, almonds, and walnuts by Maneet Chauhan are seasoned with a mix of spices, including mild Kashmiri chile powder and garam masala. You'll find yourself digging into a bowl of these spiced mixed fried nuts over and over again. The ginger-garlic paste blends with the corn, rice, and chickpea flours and spices to create a seasoned batter that fries up to make the nuts extra crunchy. The dusting of tart chaat masala after the nuts are fried makes them especially irresistible at a Diwali party.

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Mango Lemonade

Mango Lemonade — Greg Dupree / Food Styling by Micah Morton / Prop Styling by Claire Spollen

Alphonso mango pulp lends fruity, floral sweetness to this sparkling lemonade.

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Aloo Samosas

Potato Pea Samosas — Kelsey Hansen / Food Styling by Annie Probst / Prop Styling by Gabe Greco

These Punjabi-style samosas are filled with cumin-spiced potatoes and peas and then baked in a pastry wrapper that crisps and browns in the oven, eliminating the need to fry.

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Spiced Pumpkin Lassi

Spiced Pumpkin Lassi — Marcus Nilsson

For this thick and creamy pumpkin lassi from chef Rupam Bhagat of Dum in San Francisco, be sure to use a nice, healthy squash for a smooth texture and rich flavor. If you want a thinner consistency, add water gradually, 1/4 cup at a time.

07 of 23

Laal Maas (Rajasthani Goat Curry) with Sweet Saffron Zarda Pulao

Maneet Chauhan's Laal Maas (Rajasthani Goat Curry) — Matt Blair

Spicy goat curry meets sweet saffron rice in this holiday meal. Both Maneet Chauhan and her husband, Vivek Deora, grew up eating spicy goat curry. Chauhan created this recipe, which is Rajasthani in style, based on what Deora's mother made when he was a child for Diwali. When you spoon up the spicy, savory goat curry along with the sweet saffron rice, you taste a medley of sweet, spicy and gamey flavors accented with the crunchy nuts. If you can't find goat meat, substitute cubed leg of lamb for this celebration meal.

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Hash Brown Chaat

Hash Brown Chaat — Andria Lo

Sweet, spiced apple butter chutney and an herbaceous green chutney, crunchy toppings, and plenty of spices and herbs make this potato-based snack, which blogger and cookbook author Hetal Vasavada serves at her Diwali celebration, a riot of texture and flavors that is so essential to chaat (a category of Indian cuisine that roughly means "snacks"). Don't skip out on the black salt, which adds distinct funkiness to the dish. Save leftover green chutney to top scrambled eggs, tacos, or grilled chicken.

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Boiled Peanut Chaat

Boiled Peanut Chaat — Victor Protasio

Vishwesh Bhatt's boiled peanut chaat is boiled with turmeric, ginger, garlic, and other spices to create a delicious and aromatic snack.

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Pista Burfi Bark

Pista Burfi Bark — Andria Lo

Floral, fragrant cardamom shines in this rich and nutty dessert inspired by burfi (a type of fudgy, milk-based Indian sweet), so sourcing fresh, quality spices is a must. For her Diwali celebration, blogger and cookbook author Hetal Vasavada tops her bark with edible flowers and gold leaf, making for a stunning presentation. Edible foil must be 24-karat gold or pure silver to be safe for consumption. They can be purchased from Slo Food Group. Order dried organic rose petals from Rose Dose or look for fresh calendula or pansies. (Petals from Whole Foods or other retailers will work as long as they marked as "edible.")

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Chivda

Chivda — Photo by Greg Dupree / Food Styling by Margaret Monroe Dickey / Prop Styling by Thom Driver

Popular during Diwali, this snack mix has many variations. Yamini Joshi's version, which she keeps on hand for visitors during the holiday, includes crispy rice flakes, nuts, shredded coconut, spices, seeds, raisins, and roasted split chickpeas. Fragrant from curry leaves, sour from ground dried pomegranate arils, and lightly smoky from black salt, it's a crunchy, chewy blend that's wonderful with hot chai.

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Masala Chai with Green Tea

Masala Chai with Green Tea — Andria Lo

Though masala chai is more commonly made with just black tea, blogger and cookbook author Hetal Vasavada adds green tea to give a nice earthiness to her version of the drink. Sourcing the proper tea is important for the best results; look for Wagh Bhakri brand or Typhoo Tea at your local South Asian grocer or online. Simmering the dry tea in a small amount of water allows it to fully infuse the scalded milk, which has subtle caramel notes.

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Tandoori Pomfret

Maneet Chauhan's Tandoori Pomfret — Matt Blair

Pomfret or another light, flaky fish is seasoned with a spice-rice yogurt marinade and then broiled for a quick and flavorful supper. Maneet Chauhan calls pomfret a prized fish, noting that in India, it is one of the few freshwater fish that doesn't have a lot of bones. She says it works especially well cooked in a tandoor oven, or when cooked using the highest broiler setting in a home oven. If you can't source pomfret, swap in sea bass, tilapia, or another light, flaky fish.

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Hare Mutter Ki Samosas (Green Pea Samosas)

Green Pea Samosas (Hare Mutter Ki Samosa) — © Marcus Nilsson

Sanjeev Chopra has advice for filling his delightful vegetarian samosas: "Mash the peas, but not too finely; you want little pieces, for texture." He makes his own buttery dough, but frozen empanada wrappers, widely available in supermarkets, are an excellent substitute.

15 of 23

Chhundo and Goat Cheese Crostini

Chhundo and Goat Cheese Crostini — Andria Lo

Chhundo, a pickled marmalade-like condiment that's tangy and sticky-sweet, with light heat and fragrance from Kashmiri chile powder, tops these goat cheese crostini, which blogger and cookbook author Hetal Vasavada serves at her Diwali celebration. Green mangoes are essential for this recipe—seek out large mangoes with light green skin and crisp white flesh.

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Chicken Tikka Masala Samosas

Maneet Chauhan's Chicken Tikka Masala Samosas — Matt Blair

Creamy chicken tikka masala is the filling for these flaky samosas. Maneet Chauhan created these Chicken Tikka Masala Samosas for her son, Karma, as part of her family's Diwali celebration. The ginger-garlic paste, tandoori masala, and garam masala spice blends give the chicken a lot of flavor, while the creamy tomato sauce adds richness. These samosas are large, so feel free to cut them into smaller pieces if you prefer.

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Jalebi

Jalebi — Anna Stockwell

Anytime around Diwali, you'll find golden, translucent, crispy, sticky, jewel-like jalebis in boxes stacked up high inside mithai shops and Indian grocery stores all around the world. Jalebi, a Persian-origin sweet that is popular in India, is a treat made from batter that's drizzled into hot oil to deep-fry it, and then briefly soaked in a fragrant saffron- and cardamom-infused syrup.

18 of 23

Cardamom Shortbread Cookies with Dulce de Leche Peda Filling

Cardamom Shortbread Cookies with Dulce de Leche Pedalboards Filling — Andria Lo

Adorned with edible flower petals and gold leaf, these spiced sandwich cookies, which blogger and cookbook author Hetal Vasavada makes for her Diwali celebration, are an occasion unto themselves.

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Mango Rasmalai

Mango Ras Malai — Greg Dupree / Food Styling by Micah Morton / Prop Styling by Claire Spollen

This creamy dessert is spiked with cardamom and infused with a touch of floral saffron.

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Marigold Poori and Rose Halwa

Maneet Chauhan's Marigold Poori and Rose Halwa — Matt Blair

This dessert recipe features a rose-scented pudding and pooris accented with sugared marigolds. When creating a dessert for Diwali, Maneet Chauhan went all out, infusing fried pooris with marigolds, and pairing them with a halwa made with rose water syrup and dusted with rose petals and pistachios.

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Chicken Samosas

Chicken Samosas — Greg Dupree / Food Styling by Micah Morton / Prop Styling by Claire Spollen

Garam masala-spiced chicken is the star of this classic samosa recipe.

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Ombré Coconut Burfi Cake

Ombre Coconut Burfi Cake — Andria Lo

Underneath the purple-and-white ombré coat of sweetened coconut, cookbook author and blogger Hetal Vasavada's slim, tall layer cake is bound with a cloud-like layer of Swiss meringue buttercream. But the best part is the chewy coconut filling, inspired by burfi, a type of fudge-like, milk-based Indian sweet.

23 of 23

Crispy Turkey Kathi Rolls with Mint and Date Dipping Sauce

Crispy Turkey Kathi Rolls with Mint-and-Date Dipping Sauce — © John Kernick

Kathi rolls, a popular street food in India, are made by rolling vegetables or meat in roti, an Indian flat bread. In her fabulous take on the recipe, Padma Lakshmi wraps flour tortillas around a succulent filling of ground turkey, fresh ginger, curry and basil, then pan-fries the rolls until crispy for decadent hors d'oeuvres that can be eaten as finger food.

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