Healthy Dry Fruit Ladoo Recipe – Nutritious, Delicious, and Easy to Make

Home ArticlesHealthy Dry Fruit Ladoo Recipe – Nutritious, Delicious, and Easy to Make

Here is a dry fruit ladoo recipe that is not only lip-smackingly delicious, but also healthy, and filling, and can be preserved for up to 5 days in an airtight container.

Healthy Dry Fruit Ladoo Recipe – Nutritious, Delicious, and Easy to Make

Ladoos find their own special place in the world of Indian sweets. These bite-sized sweet treats are an important part of every festival, celebration, and even daily get-together. It's the versatility that truly sets ladoos apart from other Indian sweet dishes. In this recipe, you will be exploring a healthier take on the classic dry fruit ladoo recipe giving you a delicious blend of dry fruits, nuts, and seeds.

This is a perfect recipe to consume before religious fasting because of its high nutrient density. It is also very filling and keeps you feeling full for a long time.

Healthy Dry Fruit Ladoos

Ingredients:

121 gm almonds
122 gm cashews
63 gm pistachios
254 gm dates
121 gm apricots
62 gm raisins
123 gm honey
64 gm ghee
2 tsp cardamom
A pinch of salt
Coconut

Instructions:

First, you have to dry roast almonds, cashews, and pistachios in a pan over medium heat, and stir them constantly to get a uniform roasting.
After the nuts have turned light brown with a fragrant smell, you need to take them off the heat, and allow the nuts to cool completely.
You are going to grind the cooled nuts in a blender or food processor to make them into a fine powder.
In a large mixing bowl, you will add the finely ground nuts along with chopped dried dates, dried apricots, and raisins.
In a small pan, you are going to heat honey and ghee over low heat by stirring the mixture constantly until it gets smooth and well combined.
You will pour the honey and ghee mixture over the dry fruit mixture and mix well so everything gets well coated.
With your hands, now shape the mixture into small balls, about 1 inch in diameter. You should end up with approximately 20-25 laddoos.
Place the laddoos on a parchment lined baking sheet and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes so that they can set.
After the laddoos have set, you can refrigerate them for up to 5 days in an airtight container.

Tips and Variations:

Adding a pinch of cardamom powder or few strands of saffron to the mixture adds an extra depth of flavor to laddoos.
Keep some of the dry fruits and nuts whole and roughly chopped and roll it into the laddoo mix to give some bite to the laddoos.
Rolling shredded coconut or chopped nuts in it before serving makes the laddoos look lovely and inviting. You can even mix freshly shredded coconut flakes with slightly roasted ones for a textural surprise.
To add a few tablespoons of chia seeds or flax seeds to the mixture turns your laddoos even healthier. You can even mix in a few teaspoons of roasted pumpkin seeds to enhance the sweet, nutty flavor.
The use of dry fruits in your laddoos will not only add natural sweetness and flavor but will also boost fiber, vitamins, and minerals.

Benefits of Using Nuts and Seeds:

Nuts and seeds will provide crunch and texture as well as give a boost of healthy fats, protein, and fiber. In addition, nuts and seeds help to bind the mixture, making it easy to shape into balls.

A Short History of Laddoos

Laddoos have a very rich and storied past that goes back to ancient India. The first laddoos were a gram flour-sugar-ghee mixture, given out as sweets at special occasions. Later, laddoos evolved with the regions in India, and the Indians made them according to their tastes and available ingredients. Now, laddoos are devoured across the globe in thousands of flavors and textures. For example, Besan Laddoo, made with roasted chickpea flour, ghee, sugar and roasted nuts, is a festival staple. They also have a much longer shelf life as compared to slightly more syrupy laddoos like Motichoor Ladoo, which is made by frying chickpea flour is tiny balls, soaking them in fragrant sugar syrup. Coconut Ladoo, on the other hand, made with fresh grated coconut, condensed milk and whole cardamom, is a much less syrupy ladoo and also has a comparatively longer shelf life than Motichoor ladoo. Sesame ladoo, made by binding roasted sesame seeds with sugar or jaggery, is touted to have benefits on bone and gut health, among others.