Oats Ladoo Recipe (Healthy Oats Laddu with Jaggery)
Soft oats ladoo made with roasted oats, nuts, seeds, and jaggery. No refined sugar, ready in about 25 minutes, with optional ghee for binding.
Equipment
- Wide pan or kadai
- Mixer jar or food processor
Ingredients
For the oats ladoo
- 1 cup rolled oats about 90 g
- 1/3 cup almonds
- 1/4 cup cashews
- 1/4 cup roasted peanuts or raw peanuts, roasted with the oats
- 1 tablespoon sesame seeds optional
- 1/2-2/3 cup grated jaggery about 80 to 100 g, to taste
- 3-4 soft dates pitted, optional, for extra bind and chew
- 1/2 teaspoon cardamom powder
- 1-2 teaspoons ghee warm, only if needed to bind
- pinch salt optional
Instructions
Roast the oats and nuts
- Heat a wide pan on medium-low. Add the rolled oats and dry-roast for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring often, until they smell toasty and look a shade deeper. Do not let them brown hard.
- Tip the oats onto a plate to cool. In the same pan, roast almonds, cashews, and peanuts for 2 to 3 minutes until fragrant. Add sesame seeds for the last 30 seconds if using. Cool completely before grinding.
Grind
- Add the cooled oats to a mixer jar and pulse to a coarse flour with a sandy texture.
- Add the roasted nuts and seeds. Pulse a few times until coarsely crushed, leaving some small pieces for crunch.
- Add grated jaggery, dates if using, cardamom, and the optional pinch of salt. Grind until the mixture looks evenly moist and starts to clump when pressed. Taste and adjust jaggery.
Bind and shape
- Transfer the mixture to a bowl. Take a small handful, press firmly in your palm, then roll into a smooth ball. Repeat to make about 12 to 14 medium ladoo.
- If the mix is powdery and cracks, grind 20 to 30 seconds longer. Still dry? Warm 1 teaspoon ghee, drizzle in, mix, and test again. Still stubborn? Add one more soft date or a teaspoon of warm milk, then reshape while slightly warm.
- Let the shaped ladoo rest 15 to 20 minutes so they firm up.
Notes
Soft, moist block jaggery often binds without ghee. Dry powdered jaggery usually needs a little warm ghee.
Cool oats and nuts fully before grinding. Warm nuts turn pasty and the first batch can crumble.
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for 5 to 7 days in cool weather, or refrigerate up to 2 weeks. Do not freeze.
For a nut-free school version, swap tree nuts and peanuts for roasted makhana and seeds, then bind with dates.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!