Moong dal ladoo recipe | How to make moong dal laddu

Moong dal ladoo recipe – Ladoo or laddu are traditional Indian sweets made mostly using lentils or flour, ghee and sugar or jaggery.  These moong dal laddo are made of skinned split mung lentil called as mung or moong dal. These balls turn out to be very aromatic and taste great.

These are called as pesara sunnundalu, a classic sweet from the state of Andhra pradesh. Traditionally these are made with urad dal, a generous amount of ghee and sugar or jaggery.

Any ladoos made of lentils or flour would require lot of ghee for binding, so does these moong dal ladoos. If a generous amount of ghee doesn’t fit into your diet, then you may take a look at the second recipe I have shared towards the end of this post.

This moong dal laddu recipe is apt to make for festive occasions, celebrations or when you have guests home.

For more laddu recipes, you can check besan laddu, suji or rava laddu, almond / badam ladoo, crunchy peanut laddu.

Moong dal ladoo recipe

Moong dal ladoo

Moong dal ladoo are sweetened lentil flour balls usually made for festivals. These are high in protein and are great for anyone looking to include more protein in the diet.

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Prep Time15 minutes

Cook Time10 minutes

Total Time25 minutes

Servings14 moong dal ladoo

AuthorSwasthi

Ingredients (1 cup = 240ml )

• 1 cup moong dal split skinned mung lentils
• ¾ cup sugar (prefer organic, or use powdered jaggery)
• 4 green cardamom
• 6 to 7 tablespoons ghee (use more if needed)
• 10 Cashews broken
• 15 raisins

How to make the recipe

Preparation

• Dry roast moong dal on a medium to low heat until it turns crunchy and roasted well.
• The dal also turns aromatic and changes to deep golden color.
• Moong dal should not have even little raw taste.
• Add the cardamoms to the hot dal to bring out the flavors. Cool this completely.
• Add them to a blender jar and make a fine powder. If you prefer smooth ladoos, then you may need to sieve it but I do not do. Set this aside.
• Powder sugar in the same jar. Set aside.
• Heat a pan with ghee, fry the cashews until golden.
• Switch off the heat.
• Add sugar and flour. Mix well and allow the mixture to cool down for a minute.

How to make moong dal ladoo

• Take small portions of this mix and then begin to form balls holding it in the fist.
• Shape them well. If needed melt some ghee and pour it.
• Cool moong dal ladoo completely and store in a air tight jar.

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NUTRITION (estimation only)

Calories: 111kcal | Carbohydrates: 18g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 3g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 7mg | Sodium: 1mg | Potassium: 128mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 10g | Vitamin A: 5IU | Vitamin C: 0.7mg | Calcium: 9mg | Iron: 1mg

Alternative quantities provided in the recipe card are for 1x only, original recipe.

If you are new to cooking, follow my detailed step by step photo instructions for best results.

Preparation for moong dal ladoo recipe

1. I have used organic moong dal here. I prefer to wash my lentils before using, this is optional but suggested. I wash it a few times and drain them completely to a colander.

Shake off the colander to remove excess water. Spread it on a clean cotton cloth, preferably white. Rub it with the cloth and leave it for 10 mins. You can also sun dry this. Dal need not be dry completely.

This step is completely optional but highly recommended if making for kids.

2. Begin to roast the dal on a medium to low heat stirring often until the dal turns aromatic and golden. You can also roast the dal in 1 tbsp ghee.

3. Dal turns crunchy when it is roasted completely. You can eat a few and check if it is still raw. There should not be even little raw taste in the dal. Add the cardamom seeds or the entire pod.

4. Cool completely and add to a blender jar. Make a fine powder. We don’t sieve the flour since slight coarse texture gives crunch to the moong dal ladoo. Set this aside.

5. Add sugar to the same jar and powder finely.

6. Set this aside as well. Mix both the sugar and flour. You can also store this mixture in a air tight jar for few months. Use this when ever needed to make laddu.

How to make moong dal ladoo recipe

7. Heat ghee in a pan. Fry cashews until golden. You can add raisins if you like.

8. I had set side 2 tbsp ghee after frying the nuts. Switch off the stove.

9. Add the flour and sugar mix.

10. Mix very well and check if the mixture binds well. If doesn’t then add back the 2 tbsp of ghee set aside earlier.

11. Mix a few times until the ghee coats the flour well. You can add as much ghee as you like. But the measurements given in the recipe card work well for me.

12. When the mixture is still hot, begin to roll to balls. Take small portions and roll them.

13. This recipe makes about 12 to 14 ladoos.

Store moong dal ladoo in air tight jar and handle with clean hands. These stay good for about 2 weeks.

Method 2 – moong dal ladoo – Low fat version

This Moong dal ladoo recipe needs very little ghee to fry the dal and nuts, raisins. Dry coconut and sugar together help the flour to bind. But if you wish to have the best taste you can use extra ghee that also helps to bind better.

I had prepared these not during any festive season so I just prepared using minimum ghee. If you are preparing for any special occasion I suggest you follow the first method.

Using coconut is optional, you can skip it or you can use any other ground nuts like cashews or almonds. You can even mill the dal to flour and it stays good for several months that is how in most andhra homes it is done for preparing sunnandalu. You can instantly make the ladoos when needed.

Ingredients
1 cup moong dal / pesara pappu
3/4 cup grated dry coconut (copra/ endu kobbari)
1 cup sugar
2 to 3 green cardamoms
1 tsp. Raisins and nuts
1 1/2 tbsp. ghee

Method

1. Heat a heavy bottom pan with ½ tbsp. ghee and fry this dal on a high flame for 2 to 3 mins and then on a low flame till it turns crunchy & golden to light brown. This needs a bit of patience if you are using rinsed dal. Off the heat.

2. Add coconut, cardamoms and mix well. The heat from the hot dal and pan is enough to bring out the aroma from coconut. Set this aside to cool completely.

3. Transfer this to a jar and powder to a fine mix. Set this aside.

4. Add sugar to the jar and make a fine powder.

5. Heat a pan with rest of the ghee and fry raisins and nut.

6. Now transfer the powdered dal mix to the sugar jar.

7. Run the mixer till the mix becomes warm. At this stage the mix begins to look lumpy.

8. Immediately transfer the ghee fried nuts, raisins to the mix. Take small portions of this warm mix and make moong dal ladoo. If the mix cools up, you may not be able to make the balls. In that case, you will have to grind the powder again and warm up the mix or use more ghee.

You can find more moong dal recipes on the blog,
moong dal halwa
mung dal dosa
moong dal recipe