Moongfali laddu
Preparation Time
7 minutes
Cooking Time
19 minutes
Difficulty Level
moderate
Meal Type
Dessert
Serves 12
Key Ingredients
- Raw groundnuts (moongfali)
About This Recipe
Groundnut laddus turn up at winter festivals and in travel tins across the south. The idea is the same everywhere: roasted groundnuts and jaggery, with nothing else doing the binding.
This version melts the jaggery with a spoon of water to the soft-ball stage, then folds in the peanut powder, cardamom and a spoon of ghee. The syrup sets as the laddus cool, so each ball holds a rough, nutty bite inside a chewy jaggery. The taste is roasted nut against dark jaggery with a lift of cardamom. There is no flour or milk, and the one skill in the recipe is judging the syrup stage.
Chopped jaggery cubes stand in for the powder, and a spoon of white sesame seeds stirred in before shaping adds a second crunch. Whole groundnuts make a chunkier laddu; the coarse powder keeps them even and round. Read the peanuts guide for the nut's names, nutrition and more recipes.
Ingredient List
Serving Size:
1x
2x
3x
Roasting
- Raw groundnuts (moongfali) — 1 cup
Syrup
- Jaggery powder — 8 tbsp
- Water — 2 tbsp
Mixing
- Ghee (1 tbsp in the mix, 1 tbsp for the palms) — 2 tbsp
- Green cardamom powder — 1/2 tsp
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Serving Suggestions
Serve with a glass of warm milk or a cup of chai; two laddus make an evening sweet. They travel without crumbling, so they suit train journeys and school tiffins, and they sit well on a festive plate. The peanut chikki sets the same two ingredients hard instead of soft.
Tips for Cooking Moongfali laddu
Roast the nuts a shade lighter than you think; they keep browning in the hot kadhai. Pulse the peanuts in short bursts so the powder stays coarse and dry. Judge the syrup by the water test, not the clock: a soft ball that holds its shape is right, a thread that floats away is not. Shape while the mix is warm and keep the pan covered between laddus.
Chef’s Note
The soft-ball stage is the whole skill: too early and the laddus flatten as they cool, too late and the batch hardens before the last ball is rolled. Each laddu carries about 119 kcal, 2.9 g protein and 1.2 g fibre; the groundnuts bring the protein and fibre, the jaggery the sweetness.
Per serving (approx.): 119 kcal, protein 2.9 g, carbs 10 g, fat 7.1 g, fibre 1.2 g. Computed from IFCT 2017 / USDA values for the listed quantities. Measures: 1 cup = 240 ml, 1 tbsp = 15 ml, 1 tsp = 5 ml.
Happy Cooking
!!
ByCOWBERRY
Sep 06, 2026
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