Ragi laddu | Nachni ladoo

Ragi laddu are delicious, healthy & nutrient dense ladoos made with ragi flour, jaggery, nuts & seeds. These ragi ladoo or nachni laddu make a amazing snack for toddlers, kids & women. I have made these countless number of times for my family & always turn out wonderful.

Red millet or finger millet are known as ragi or nachni in most Indian languages. These tiny grains are a powerhouse of nutrition and are mostly used as a health food in most South Indian homes. To know more about these wonder millet you can read this detailed post on Ragi or finger millet.

There are a few laddu recipes for which one need to understand or have experience with string or ball consistency. Such recipes are surely not for beginners. So this easy ragi ladoo recipe is for those who have difficulty getting the right ball consistency.

These ragi ladoo were made by my mom when I was home in India. They were so tasty that I was tempted to make another batch of these for the blog post.

When I made the nachni ladoo, I made 4 times the quantity of what I mentioned in the recipe which made up to 40 ladoos which were quite a lot. So the quantity in the pictures might not match the recipe.

Which flour to use?

I have used sprouted ragi flour, you can use plain ragi flour too. You may like to check this post on how to make sprouted ragi flour. I roasted the flour in ghee for some time since using raw flour may cause stomach upset.

For more ragi recipes, you can also check
Instant ragi dosa
Ragi roti
Soft ragi roti
Ragi mudde
Instant ragi rava upma
Ragi halwa

For similar healthy ladoo recipes, check
Dates sesame ladoo
Sesame seed peanut ladoo
Dates and nut ladoo
Almond ladoo
Oats laddu
Peanut cornflakes ladoo

Preparation

1. Fry 1 cup ragi flour in 2 tbsp ghee till it turns aromatic. Dry roast peanuts until aromatic. If you prefer you can remove the skin once they cool down. Lightly roast dried coconut (optional) and almonds or sesame seeds. Cool them. Grate jaggery and set aside. I used palm sugar, you can use jaggery.

2. Powder together peanuts, sesame seeds, coconut and cardamoms. You can even powder each of these separately if doing in large quantity, like i did.

How to make ragi ladoo

3. Mix all the ingredients and add them to a grinder jar. Grind it until you begin to see the oil oozing out. The oil from peanuts , sesame and coconut begins to ooze out.

4. Take small portions of this mix and roll them to nachni ladoo. Finish rolling while the mix is warm. If needed add the left over ghee and make the ladoo.

Store ragi ladoo in an airtight jar and handle with moist free hands.

How to make ragi ladoo with less ghee?

The other ingredients that I used here like dry coconut, sesame seeds, and peanuts help to reduce the amount of ghee that might be needed otherwise. They also add lot of taste and aroma to the ladoo.

If you like to use more ghee, skip all the other ingredients and make them just with flour, cardamoms, jaggery and ghee. But then the taste would entirely be different.

Some people believe that ragi in any form like ragi malt, ragi mudde or ragi roti or ragi ladoo can lead to cold and phlegm especially in the monsoons. If you are someone who believes that, I suggest you to use half teaspoon of dry ginger powder. You can barely feel the spice in the ragi ladoo.

Variations of ragi ladoo

You can adjust the quantity of sesame seeds, peanuts and desiccated coconut to whatever you desire, but the total proportion of these should be ¾ to 1 cup for every 1 cup of ragi flour.

This yields the best tasting ragi ladoos. You can even skip any of these ingredients and increase the quantity of the other ingredients.

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