Nuts and Dry Fruits Medley

                                                                        

 

A sweet is always good in life. And when it is loaded with more of nutrition and less of carbs, it becomes all the more enjoyable. The other good thing about it is that, it has no sugar, no ghee, and no gluten and definitely no guilt!!! It has only dry fruits with the richness of honey/jaggery. Believe me, you can really have it daily, in all seasons and at any time! You can give it to your children with breakfast or in tiffin or at any time of the day. And when it comes to honey/jaggery in it, it has enumerable benefits to your health. Eating jaggery daily in winters really does wonders. And the sweetness of honey is chock-full of goodness of skin and health.

Also, not to forget, nuts and dry fruits may help reduce the risk of heart disease, reduce cholesterol, improve blood sugar in diabetes, help you lose weight and decrease the risk of certain types of cancer. Tree nuts are cholesterol-free and full of important nutrients including protein and fiber. They also contain vitamins such as folic acid, niacin and vitamins E and B6, and minerals. Isn’t it too much…

So just start savoring the sweet…

Ingredients:

• Almonds – 1 bowl
• Cashew nuts – ¾ bowl
• Pistachios – ½ bowl
• Raisins – ¼ bowl or Dates- ¼ bowl (deseeded and chopped in small pieces)
• Sesame seeds- ¾ bowl (needed if preparing during winters)
• Coconut Powder – ¾ bowl (optional)
• Cardamom Powder – ½ tsp
• Jaggery – 1 ¼ bowl (grate it and then measure in a bowl. Just lightly put it into the bowl. Don’t press. Take 1 full heaped up bowl and ¼ more).             OR
• Honey – 250 gm (approx)

 

Method:

Dry roast almonds, cashews, pistachios and sesame seeds separately. Put almonds in kadai on low flame and roast it till they become really hot, stirring frequently. Similarly, do it for cashews, pistachios and sesame seeds. For sesame seeds, the color will become light brown. (You can do dry roasting in microwave also).

Let them cool (room temperature) and then coarsely grind them separately. Grind only till you get fine pieces and not the powder.

Grind only half of the sesame seeds. Store the other half for putting as whole.

Now mix all of the above in a big bowl. Add raisins or dates, coconut powder and cardamom powder to it. Mix everything well. Dry mixture is ready.

Binding with Honey

Grease your hands with little ghee. Start by putting honey in small parts of the mixture, mix it by hand and bind into small laddus. Repeat the process. Since the mixture becomes sticky, don’t put full honey at one go. 

Binding with Jaggery

Grease a plate (1 inch deep) with ghee.

Making Jaggery syrup – Take jaggery in a pan and put water in it (till it is submerged in water). Keep on low flame and start boiling while stirring. Keep boiling till a drop of syrup put on a plate sticks there and doesn’t roll over.

Now immediately put the dry mixture into the hot syrup, mix well and spread in the greased plate to set. Let it set for about 6-7 hrs and then cut into squares. If binding into laddus, then let the syrup cool a bit and then put it into the mixture and quickly bind in laddus.

If stored in an airtight container, they can be consumed for about a month.

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Coming up with more interesting recipes.