Diwali is around the corner and it’s that time of the year to take some time off, spend some time with the family and of course gorge on some Diwali Sweets. I absolutely love jaggery and love adding it to most of my home made sweets. I also pop a small piece of jaggery whenever I have a sweet craving. Here are three of my favourite Diwali Sweet recipes. I have learnt these from my grandmother and she never missed an opportunity to treat us with these healthy goodies!
Sesame Laddoo or Ellu Urundai
First up is my absolute favourite and easiest laddoo recipe. Ellu Urundai is a traditional south indian name for a sweet that is made up only of Sesame seeds and Jaggery. Ellu is Sesame and there couldn’t be a healthier or easier recipe for a laddoo. All you need is 2 cups of sesame and 1 cup of jaggery.
Step 1: Take 2 cups of Sesame and roast it evenly in an iron utensil till it turns light brown for about 5 to 7 mins.
My Grandmother’s tip: Sesame tends to burn quickly, keep stirring it and roast it on a low flame.
Step 2: Once the roasted sesame cools down, blend it to a fine powder.
Step 3: Take one cup of solid jaggery. It can be grated into a bigger bowl so that it is easy to mix with the roasted and powdered sesame. Mix well and make it into tiny little laddoos.
The colour of the ellu urundai should be a dark brown.
Coconut Laddoos (without the outer filling)
The coconut laddoo is the same thing that goes inside a modak that is steamed and made usually during the festival of Ganesha Utsav. I like to eat it as a laddoo. I usually don’t have time time or patience to make the whole steamed modak with rice flour from scratch.
All you need is 1 cup coconut, ¾ cup jaggery and 1 tbsp of cardamom powder.
Here’s how you make it:
Step 1: Heat a pan, add 1/4 of water and add grated jaggery. Strain the Jaggery to remove any impurities.
Step 2: Add the strained jaggery juice again in the pan, and keep it on a low flame . When the jaggery juice starts to boil, add grated coconut, cardamom powder and stir well continuously.
Step 3: Slowly the moisture of the jaggery will be absorbed by the coconut and the mix gets thicker.
Step 4: Allow the coconut and jaggery mix to cool down and make small ladoos in the size that you wish.
Vegan Payasam
My grandmum used to make this for us very often and it’s a cup full of warm love in the form of a payasam. This one has a few more ingredients than the above two recipes but it is the most delicious payasam. Here’s what you need:
3 tbsp Split Bengal Gram
3 tbsp Grated Coconut
1 cup grated Jaggery
10 pieces of Cashews
4 pieces of Cardamom
1 cup coconut milk.
Step 1: Heat a pan: add chana dal and grated coconut and roast till a nice aroma comes and the coconut becomes slightly golden brown colour.
Step 2: Grind the roasted chana dal, coconut along with cardamom to a mixer jar. Grind everything to a nice smooth batter by adding water.
Step 3: In a pan, add grated jaggery and give a good mix. Allow the jaggery to melt completely.
Step 4: In another pan, pour 1 cup of water. Pour the dal-coconut paste into the pan. Allow the dal-coconut paste to cook in low flame for 5 mins. After 5 minutes add the melted jaggery. Stir well and keep in flame another 5 minutes in low flame
Step 5: Add the coconut milk and heat for couple of minutes and let the coconut milk mix with all the ingredients.
Step 6: The cashews can be roasted till light brown and added as a crunchy topping.
Try out these recipes, enjoy the festival and wish you a very Happy Diwali!
Good one Rashmi. Incidentally I made seeds and nuts ladoo.