Delicious traditional sweet made during Diwali/ Deepavali. Ukkarai is made just 6 ingredients, chana dal, jaggery, coconut, cashewnuts and ghee with tocuh of cardamom.
Ukkarai is one of the traditional sweets made during Deepavali/Diwali. Without them it is difficult to think about a Diwali celebrations. Amma used to make large quantities to give to friends and families. One thing that always amazed me how everybody’s Ukkarai taste different. The process is always same.
How to Make Ukkarai
Ingredients
You need 6 ingredients to make this delicious Ukkarai.
1) Split chana dal is used mainly . There are version of Moong dal or mix chana dala and moong dal. When you using moong dal/ Mung beans use split version.
2) Jaggery: Jaggery is used as sweetner in this recipe.
3) Coconut; I have used dessicated coconut. If you are using fesh coconut try to toast little bit to remove the water content. You can add depending upon your taste.
4) Ghee: Ghee is used to prevent sticking from while cooking the dal and jaggery.
5) Cashew Nuts; Split cashew nut is added, you can use either salted roasted version or just roast the cashewnuts if you are using
6) Cardamom : This is only spice used in this recipe.
Points to Remember
You can prepare the chana dal for this recipe two ways 1) Soak the chana dala and grind and steam cook
2) Steam cook the chana dal and grind without any water
For cooking chana dal you can use instant pot or pressure cooker. For instant pot about 18 minutes at high on manual pressure. If you are pressure cooking the chana dal give 7-8 whilstles on high flame.
when you are grinding don't add any water .
Strain the jaggery to remove the impurities.
If you want you can reduce the amount of ghee but don't skip it. That will affect overall taste.
If you are adding coconut make sure to pulse few time so that it won't remain separately in the Ukkarai.
Only spice used in the recipe is cardamom you can make fine ground powder by grinding sugar and cardamom pods.
First soak the chana dal, cook or grind or grind or cook and then add jaggery (unrefined sugar) and stirring continuously to make a powdery preparation. When amma made it she won’t get that powdery consistency, it tasted great, while grandma made a really good one with taste and texture.
I loved to lick the last bit of it left after Diwali. Ukkarai is one of my childhood delicacies. It is like yesterday when we would impatiently wait near to amma in the pretext of helping her with stirring the Ukkarai. Actually we were not helping her; we just wanted to taste in between. Poor mom knew this; still she would let us do our mock helping.
After marriage I started making Ukkarai for Deepavali/Diwali. I enjoy making them. It is delicious rich in protein content due to chana dal, with the sweetness of jaggery and a touch of coconut and ghee to take it to another level. Traditionally it is made with chana dal, so I used chana dal, if you wish you can try with any other dal like moong dal, toor dal except urad dal. Here is the recipe.
Other Traditional Indian sweets are
Ukkarai
Delicious traditional sweet made during Diwali/ Deepavali. Ukkarai is made just 6 ingredients, chana dal, jaggery, coconut, cashewnuts and ghee with tocuh of cardamom.
Servings: 6 serving
Calories: 322kcal
Ingredients
- 1 cup Chana dal/Split chick peas
- 1 cup Jaggery
- ⅓ cup Grated coconut
- 2 tablespoon Ghee/Clarified butter
- 1/45 cup Cashew
- ½ cup Water
- 3 pods of Cardamom
Instructions
- Dry roast the chana dal for about 7 minutes or until its raw smell is gone. Then wash and soak the chana dal for 3hours and drain them in to colander and set aside for 30 minutes so that water will be drained as much as possible.
- Grind them into fine paste without adding any water. Steam cook the ground paste for about 25 minutes or until they are well cooked.
- In a thick bottomed pan add jaggery and water, when jaggery melts completely remove them from the fire and strain it to remove impurities.
- Grind the coconut into a coarse powder ( this step is optional). Set aside. This step will help to get uniform texture of chan dal mixture and coconut.
- Reheat the jaggery water when it become soft ball stage add cooked chana dal paste along with coconut and cook them until it becomes powdery mass. Add ghee except 1 teaspoon in small amount to the above mixture of chana dal-jaggery-coconut. It takes about 10- 15 minutes in slow flame.
- In a small pan heat 1 teaspoon of ghee and add cashew and fry them until they become golden color. Add these cashews to Ukkarai and switch off the flame.
Nutrition
Calories: 322kcal | Carbohydrates: 54g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 9g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Cholesterol: 13mg | Sodium: 3mg | Potassium: 37mg | Fiber: 8g | Sugar: 35g | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 68mg | Iron: 2mg
Tried this recipe?Mention @nidhinikhil or tag #zestysouthindiankitchenrecipes!
This is Swathi ( Dr. Ambujom Saraswathy Ph.D) from Zesty South Indian Kitchen who loves to explore cuisines from all over the world. Whenever possible I try to to give an Indian touch to several of the world cuisine, and has weakness for freshly baked bread. All the recipes you see here are created by me and approved after taste-test by my family.
Rosa's Yummy Yums says
What a delicious combo! Happy Diwali!
Cheers,
Rosa
Jaisy James says
looks delicious belatd happy diwali
Yummy Team says
This sweet is new to me..Kettitte ella pakshe kandittu superb!! Belated Diwali wishes to you and your family, Swathi..
Faith says
Wishing you a very happy and prosporous Diwali too, Swathi! Love the dal in this dessert, very healthy!
Ellie (Almost Bourdain) says
Happy Diwali, Swathi! Thanks for sharing this traditional dish.
Anu says
Happy Diwali to you and your family!!
Home Cooked Oriya Food says
Happy Diwali! Yummy sweet!
G.Pavani says
Happy Deepavali and dessert looks yummy..
Joanne says
Happy Diwali Swathi! I love that this dessert has chana dal in it...that makes it health food right?
Khaugiri says
Happy Diwali Swati!!!! Lovely treat:)
Reeni says
Such a scrumptious treat Swathi! Happy Diwali to you and your family!
Lena Rashmin Raj says
happy diwali Swathi.. snap is too tempting
Uma says
looks so good. Happy Diwali to you and your family as well 🙂
Gulmohar says
Thanks for sharing this authentic sweet...Happy Diwali to you and your family !
Dimah says
Sounds delicious! Thanks for sharing.
Dimah
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aipi says
Wishing u and ur family a safe,happy and prosperous diwali dear..
Very new n delicious sweet!
US Masala
sinfullyspicy says
Delicious looking sweet 🙂 happy diwali to you
PALATABLE says
Happy Diwali dear...This is new to me but looks so yummy...
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Kalyani says
Delicious !!!!
Happy diwali to u and ur family .......
Ms.Chitchat says
Wishing u and ur family a joyous Diwali.
Rachana says
Delicious ukkarai!
Wish you a happy and prosperous Diwali 🙂
Indie.Tea says
Delicious 🙂
I wish you and your family a happy and prosperous Diwali!
Priya says
Wishing u a happy and prosperous diwali Swathi..Ukkarai looks super tempting,now i can enter ur blog dear..missed ur beautiful entries..
Sayantani says
Happy Diwali. the sweet looks delicious.
Sreelekha Sumesh says
Love ukkarai.Happy Diwali Swathi.
Pushpa says
Happy Diwali to you Swathi....Ukkarai looks delicious.