Amaranth Til Ladoo for Fasts: A Pure Fasting Recipe, A Remedy for Cough

One nut-based ladoo that serves two purposes - a fasting snack and a remedy for cough. Well, you may be wondering how a nutty ladoo can be a cough remedy. Well, you do not need to scratch your brains. I am here to make things easier for you.

ladoo for fasts: cough remedy

Let me take you to my childhood. I have seen mom often use black pepper as a cough remedy. Her signature cough remedy is to

• take a tablespoon of ghee
• add black pepper powder and almonds
• drop in little amount of sugar
• turn off the flame when the almonds look roasted

Try this remedy for cough and you will instantly find some relief. Mom would serve this to dad with a roti.I would love to enjoy this fiery roasted almond mix with a cup of ginger tea.

Today, I am fighting cold symptoms. Hubby has a sore throat. While I am giving him Anita Chahal aunty ji's dry cough syrup, I wanted to experiment with mom's cough remedy.

So here I am with an altogether different recipe.

Now you might be wondering why I have dubbed it as a fasting recipe - well, primarily because it uses

• almonds
• sesame seeds
• black pepper
• ghee
• amaranth flour (which is a flour for fasts - it makes yummy amaranth ladoos, amaranth cookies, rajgira kadhi, and rajgira vrat paranthas)

Trust me, you will love every single bite of these nutty ramdana ladoos for fast. Of course, you may have these sweet bites at any time. These are addictive and oh so healthy.

You need not have a sweet tooth to enjoy these melt-in-mouth beauties. Even if you detest the very name of sweets, you can still manage to eat at least 2 amaranth ladoos in one go.

The more, the merrier !!!

But of course, keep some control on yourself.

It is still summer time and we do not want you to indulge too much in sesame seeds. 

Less is more here!

All right, let's get back to the cough remedy-cum- fasting recipe.

Sesame seed benefits 

Since they are a rich source of copper, sesame seeds are known to help rheumatoid arthritis patients manage their symptoms. Calcium in sesame seeds helps protect colon cells, preventing colon cancer, osteoarthritis, PMS, and even migraine. Zinc in sesame improves bone mineral density and boosts bone health.

Black Pepper benefits for cough, cold

Black pepper is known to stimulate mucus flow and help relieve mucus congestion.

Almond Benefits

benefits of almonds

almond benefits

Ladoo for Fasts: Ingredients for Amaranth Ladoo

I always make small batches, so my ingredient list clearly points toward that. I could make 4 ladoos from these ingredients. If you are not making these for fasts, you may add dry ginger powder or saunth to make it a perfect cough remedy.

1/4 cup- almond powder (grind almonds to powder)

1/4 cup- amaranth flour (rajgira/chulai/ramdana atta) - you may substitute with besan/oats or any other flour you fancy for a non-fasting recipe

1/4 tsp or little more - black pepper powder

1/2 tsp- ghee/clarified butter (replace with any plant-based oil for a vegan recipe)

1/4 cup- sesame seeds (til)

5-6 almonds

1 Gur piece (you may add more if you have a sweet tooth, I like it subtly sweet- or you may add sugar instead)

1/4 cup- water

How to make ladoo for fasts: A Perfect Cough Remedy

graphic courtesy: harsharan-the graphic artist

If your fasting rules do not include any of these ingredients, you are free to skip them!

cough ladoo

1. Add ghee
2. Roast sesame seeds and chopped almonds.
3. Add amaranth flour.
4. Remove in a separate vessel and mix with almond powder.
5. Add water, black pepper powder, and gur in the pan.
6. Heat it on medium flame until gur dissolves in water.
7. Stir in the aforementioned roasted powder.
8. Mix everything well. Add more black pepper powder if you so wish to.
9. Turn off the flame when the mix comes together as a ball in the center of the pan.
10. Make balls when it is still warm, otherwise it will become difficult to roll out ladoos.
11. You may make it in fudge or burfi form.
12. Roll each ladoo in almond powder if you wish to.
13. Enjoy healthy, yummy ladoos for fasts.
14. Of course, the cough remedy is a visual treat to the eyes and a melt-in-mouth sweet that you would want to try out again and again.