Friday

Festival of 'eats' - Moong Dal Ladoo

My contribution to the ongoing sugar bonanza and my absolute favorite ladoo. Moong dal ladoos taste great; ranking right in the upper leagues of yumminess along with rawa and besan; but they get brownie points in my book for being really easy to prepare. You just cannot mess these ladoos up. And as anyone who has had a couple of disasters in the Diwali cooking department will tell you, easy is good!

The key lies in toasting the dal. Toast until your kitchen is redolent with the fragrance of moong dal and members of your family start hovering nearby in anticipation.

If those very members have sneakily raided your jars of Diwali goodies before the festival has even begun then these ladoos also make a good back up plan :-)

moongladoo

MOOGA DAALI LADOO (Moong Dal Ladoo)
(makes 6)
1 cup yellow moong dal (split green gram)
heaped 3/4 cup sugar (adjust to taste)
3-4 cardamoms, peeled and powdered
a pinch of nutmeg (jaiphal) powder (optional)
8-10 cashews, broken into pieces
about 10-12 teaspoons of ghee

On low heat toast the moong dal till it is a uniform reddish brown color. Remove from heat and spread on a plate to cool.

Powder sugar in a blender. Heat a teaspoon of ghee and saute cashews until light brown. Remove in a bowl and keep aside.

Grind moong dal to a fine powder and mix with cashews, sugar and cardamom-nutmeg powder.

Heat about ten teaspoons of ghee in a wide sauce pan. Add dal mixture and stir until well combined. Remove from heat and shape into lemon sized balls when the mixture is still warm. Add teaspoons of hot ghee gradually if the mixture cannot be easily shaped.
Wishing all of you a very HAPPY DIWALI.

Entry for JFI - Diwali hosted by Vee at Past, Present & Me
Entry for VCC Q3 hosted by VKN of My Dhaba

40 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh my!
What an adorable laddus they are. Believe it or not, we also prepare similar laddus with whole moong dal flour. Just like urad dal laddus (sunnundalu), they too taste great and were often our evening snack sweet in my home growing up.:)

Great entry and beautiful photo, Ashwini.

Wishing you and your family a prosperous and subha Deepavali!

4:52 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yummy yummy laddus!!
Happy Diwali Ashwini!

10:19 PM  
Blogger Ashwini said...

Indira now that you mention it I remember the urad dal ladoos you had posted were similar. They are a great treat arent they?
Thanks so much for your wishes and Happy Diwali to you too.
Bhargavi - thanks and Happy Diwali to you too

11:46 PM  
Blogger Meena Kandlakuti said...

moongdal ladoos are great...happy diwali ashwini to u and your family members

3:00 AM  
Blogger Menu Today said...

Hi Ashwini,
Asusual Your pic looks awesome!!!
Thanks for sharing your version of ladoo recipe.
Happy Diwali!!!

3:54 AM  
Blogger Shah cooks said...

Oh my, I can't decide whether your laddoo or Chandrika's laddoo looks more delectable...:)
Wish you and your family a very Happy Diwali.

8:39 AM  
Blogger indosungod said...

Ashwini, "Happy Deepavali"
love these laddus, they were my favorite growing up and still are.
Yours look amazing.

11:17 AM  
Blogger Swamy VKN said...

Happy Diwali Ashwini! Moong Dal ladoos are our favorite too. Here is our personal invitation to you to participate at VCC Q3 2006. See you at the show.

vkn
My Dhaba

1:36 PM  
Blogger Krithika said...

Happy Diwali to you and your family, Ashwini. Lovely ladoos.

2:19 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Those ladoos looks DELICIOUS!

Happy Diwali to you and your family !

3:19 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey! Happy Deepavali to you and yours! Moogache ladu look great! Ani kay kay faraal kelas?

Thanks for the warm wishes! My body is still feeling beat but my mood is very upbeat, and the mood always wins!

Have a great celebration!

4:25 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wishing you too a happy Diwali.Ashwini, the ladoos are mouth watering..:)

11:21 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

We have an aunty who makes amazing moong dal halva and I was thinking of that when I saw your moon dal laddus :) now I have to try this. Happy diwali. Hope you had fun!

12:23 PM  
Blogger Jayashree said...

Your moong dal laddoos look delicious....

1:00 PM  
Blogger Ashwini said...

Meena, MT, Indo, Krithika, Priya, Lera, Jayashree - thanks all of you for your wishes and compliments
Shaheen - try both!! Moong dal ladoos are delicious and so are Chandrika's ..I know because I made them too :-)
VKN - thank you so much VK. Will surely send my entry this time around.
Manisha - good to know your spirits are high :-) Thanks for the wishes..ani tehmicha pharal - karanji/ shankarpali vagere!
Mandira - I loove moong dal halwa...though it has a gazillion calories I know :-) Let me know if you make the ladoos

1:31 PM  
Blogger indianadoc said...

A very happy diwali to u ashwini...lots to catch up with...so many mouth watering dishes around....

5:57 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yum! I love moong dal ladoos and make them the same way. Lovely picture!

cheers!

8:32 AM  
Blogger FH said...

Yummy looking Laddoos Ashwini!
Hope you had great Diwali!:)

10:39 AM  
Blogger Rajesh &Shankari said...

Happy Diwali Ashwini, I kept visit your blog and drooling over this one and just realized that I had not wished you a happy Diwali

12:08 PM  
Blogger Luv2cook said...

Ashwini -

We make moong dal laddo too but with green moong (either split or whole). Beautiful picture....

10:11 AM  
Blogger KA said...

Ashwini
Moongdal laddu(sunnundalu that's what we call in telugu) look delicious!
Beautiful pictures!

On a separate note: Loved your three mice :-)

1:18 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

The photo is so warm and inviting Ashwini! Your photography is just getting better and better...

lovely ladoos

5:29 AM  
Blogger TNL said...

I have never had these before...Should make some!!

Thanks for the recipe!

Cheers,Trupti

8:05 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Ashwini,

I made these ladoos ..just could'nt resist them after seeing your pic and they were yum!!!...

Thanks for a great recipe and thanks for participating!!!

Belated Happy Diwali, BTW..

7:14 PM  
Blogger Ashwini said...

Shynee - thanks, we do have a virtual treat in front of us dont we? Have fun :-)
Saffron, Asha - thanks
Shankari - thanks for your wishes. Happy Diwali to you and your family too
L2C - thanks. Yes we have green gram ladoos too though I have never tried making them myself
KA, Nandita - thanks for your lovely words
Trupti - they taste like something you would get in a halwai shop :-)
Let me know if you give them a shot
Vee - ohmygod!!! when did you find time to make so many faral items?? Looks like the kids have been handed over to the spouse as you mentioned in your post :-D
Glad you liked the ladoos. I loved participating in JFI...wonderful job hosting Vee.

9:20 PM  
Blogger Prema Sundar said...

Ladoo looks grat Ashwini.. A very lovely picture which tempts me to take one.

4:56 AM  
Blogger Anupama said...

Hi Ash, Hope you had a fab Diwali. Those Moong dal laddoos must not have lasted very long. They must have really disappeared in a matter of hours. I'll try your recipe with ready made Moong flour and let you know how it turned out.

3:57 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Made these ladoos on Friday for my husbands colleagues. They loved it.

10:04 AM  
Blogger Ashwini said...

Thanks Anupama. I know you had a fabulous Diwali for sure, what with your sister visiting :-)
Let me know how they turned out with readymade flour.
Priya - I hope you managed to get a bite?!! Or did the colleagues enjoy them all :-D

5:11 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks for the recipe those Mooga Daali Ladoo are mouth wateringly good great for the holidays.

4:36 AM  
Blogger Seema Bhat said...

Hey Ashwini: man these laddus are mouth watering ...from the min i saw these i just keep coming back to your site just to have a peak at those yumm yum laddus ....will definately give it a try soon.
-
regards
Seema

4:21 PM  
Blogger Lisa said...

I reaaly want to try this recipe. Sounds easy to follow. Can you tell me when we toast te moong dal, we toast them in ghee, right?

9:14 PM  
Blogger Ashwini said...

Hi aprilisa, the dal should be dry toasted so there is no need for ghee. Spread in a wide pan and toast on low heat.

9:10 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Just wanted to say that I tried the recipe and turned out very well, thanks for ur wonderful blog.

5:00 PM  
Blogger Nandini said...

Hi Ashwini...tried out this recipe and the laddus turned out really nice..thankyou. Just wanted to know how long do we toast the moong dal to get that colour.
Your blog is brilliant and cannot wait to try out more recipes from here.
Great job, beautiful photos!
Happy Diwali to you and your family!

2:37 PM  
Blogger Ashwini said...

Seema - dont just drool; make them and enjoy them!

Meena - so glad you liked these.

Thanks Nandini for your wishes. Diwali greetings to you and your family too.
I can't tell you the exact time (if I prepare them again this year I will update my post), but in terms of texture - the moong dal should be golden with a tinge of red. The whole kitchen should smell of dal, the aroma is hard to miss.
Btw the ladoos are a light yellow in color. Not sure how yours turned out but photos can mislead because of sunlight. Hope this helps.

3:10 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

EXCELLENT LADDUS! It came out really well.I did not have cashews at the moment. So I replaced them with fried badam.And I did not add food colour as I did not have any.
THis is a quick & easy recipe. Only thing is I could not roll them hot. So I had to ask my aunt for help. :-)
Thanku for sharing this recipe.
SHUBH DEEPAVALI!!

8:11 AM  
Anonymous devi said...

devi - i want to know how to prepare the ladoos if we buy the ready made moong dal flour from indian store do we have to dry fry it first the way we do it with sooji halwa

12:05 PM  
Blogger Ashwini said...

Shruti - glad you liked them. Btw the ladoos don't have any color in them.

Devi - it won't be the same but I suppose you could try it with the same process used for besan ladoo. Roast the flour until it changes color (this will of course take longer) then add sugar, cardamom and ghee. Hope this helps.

3:53 PM  
Blogger Swarna V said...

hi ashwini,
thanks for the gr8 recipe...
i made these and came out good.
also i added a small variations.. coated with grated almonds which look good.

thanks a lot.
swarna

12:43 AM  

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