Ramadan month has been started, and date is the must ingredients in every iftar meal.
Dates are high in sugar to give you a natural energy boost. After fasting all day, your body is craving carbohydrates and sugars to maintain its energy sources. Dates are naturally high in sugar and the right kinds of carbohydrates to rejuvenate your body’s energy levels.
Hence, dates are consumed widely during the month of ramadan.
The nutritious fruits are not only the start to most worshippers’ iftar meals but also a part of many desserts traditionally prepared during the holy month.
Today, I am sharing a sweet or dessert, which is made of dates and other dry fruits and seeds. These desserts are like energy balls with no sugar, and they are completely gluten-free.
The sweetness of the dessert comes from dates and other dry fruits. Dates also act as a binding agent for my ladoos. Unlike other laddos,which are loaded with ghee and sugar, these dates are much more healthy and delicious. I used only 1 tablespoon of ghee to these ladoos. They are very delicious and I am sure you and your family will enjoy them.
Recipe
- Serves: 14-15 ladoos
- Preparation time: 20 min
- Cooking time: 10 min
- Difficulty level: easy
Ingredients
1 cup Date paste or deseeded Dates
2 cup Foxnuts/Makhana
1/2 cup Almonds
1/2 cup Cashew
1/4 cup Pistachio
2 tablespoon dry Coconut flakes/dessicated Coconut
2 tablespoon Pumpkin Seeds
2 tablespoon Flax Seeds
1 tablespoon Ghee
1/2 teaspoon Cardamom powder
1/4 teaspoon dry Ginger powder
Method
Dry roast fox nuts for about 5-6 minutes or until they are crisp .
Remove them to a cook place to cool down.
Grind the roasted fox nuts to make coarse powder. Set aside.
Also, dry roast or toast almonds,cashews, pistachios, and seeds separately so that their natural flavour enhance.
My nuts and seeds are ready now to use.
Chop the nuts roughly with a knife or nut crusher. Set aside.
If you are using whole dates,then deseed them and then grind them coarsely. I have date paste,so I used them directly to my recipe.
Heat a broad pan with 1 tablespoon of ghee.
To that add in 1 cup of date paste or coarsely grinded dates.
Stir and cook in low heat for about 5 minutes so that the paste becomes hot and separated. Dates are naturally so sticky, so stir it carefully to spread.
After 5 minutes of cooking, switch off the flame.
To the hot date paste, add in fox nut powder,coconut flakes/dessicated coconut, all the chopped nuts and seeds.
Also, add in cardamom powder and ginger powder. Cardamom and dry ginger go very well with this sweet or ladoo.
Stir well to mix everything well.
When the mixture cools down a little bit, mix with your hand to make a lump. You can do it easily as the stickiness of dates will help to incorporate everything together.
Now take small lemon size portion from the lump, and roll to make a ball or ladoo. Keep it to a dish.
Similarly, make all the ladoos with the help of your palms.
Energetic, healthy and delicious ladoos are ready now.
Store them to an air-tight container and consume within a week.
You can also give them the shape of barfi or fudge. For that, transfer the date mixture from the pan to a greased square tin. Make a layer of 1 inch thick square mixture.
Press the surface with a spatula to smooth and even shape.
Set for 30 minutes and then cut in desired shape.
Note
You can use any kind of dry fruits to your ladoos. The base of the dessert is date. You can add other ingredients as per your choice. You can use raisins, dry cranberries, figs, walnuts, etc. to your ladoos.
Barak Kitchen 