As Diwali embarks shortly from now to enlighten our mind and spirit, we should welcome it with all our heart wide open. This is a great occasion to exchange pleasantries, happiness and whatever good in life. Through this blog, I am delighted to share with you a sweet recipe, much loved and adored and called mung laddu or muger methai. It is sweet indeed, soaked generously in ghee. But we should not bother, since it is diwali time and we will enrich our life with the extra sweetness. A very happy diwali to all 🙂

Ingredients to serve 20 pieces :

1. Mung dal/lentils – 150 gm.
2. Sugar – 150 gm.
3. Ghee/Clarified butter – 150 gm.
4. Mawa/Khoya (grated) – 100 gm.
5. Chopped cashew nut – 1 tbspoon
6. Sliced pistachio to garnish
7. Green cardamom – 2 pods (take out the seeds and make a fine powder)
8. Few strands of saffron
9. Water – ½ cup

Procedure :

Soak the lentils in 2 cups of water overnight.

Drain the water and blend the lentils into fine paste without using additional water.

Combine the sugar and water in a kadai and put over medium flame. As the sugar melts, give the mixture a good stir, boil for another minute and then turn the gas off. Cover the pan and keep the sugar syrup aside.

Put the lentil paste and ghee together in another kadai or frying pan over low flame. Mix well with continuous stirring. Cook the mixture for 15-20 minutes or till get a nice aroma of fried mung dal with frequent stirring.

Then add mawa and cashwe nut to it, cook for another 5 minutes.

Transfer this lentil mixture to the sugar syrup and put the kadai over low-medium flame.

Add cardamom powder and saffron. Cook for another 2-3 minutes and then turn the gas off while still the mixture is soft.

Transfer the mixture in a plate. Start making laddus while the mixture is still warm.

Garnish with sliced pistachio.

Note : Stirring is important in this recipe as no lump is desirable in the lentil mixture. So keep stirring till you get the final product.