Diwali time is the gifting time in North India and particularly Delhi NCR. A week before Diwali, the traffic will be unbearable because everyone is going around to everyone’s houses with gifts. The biggest gift item is nuts – cashews, almonds and pistachios. The two big sweet houses – Haldirams and Bikanerwala also sell packaged nuts.
Ofcourse the whole gifting scene needs a lot of improvement. More often than not its a bunch of inane crockery or plastic items that get passed around a few times and finally make it to the garbage dump. The Chinese stuff is thankfully reduced over the last few years, otherwise China had a bumper Diwali while small traders in Bharat struggled to sell their wares.
One of the staples during Diwali at home is nut laddoos. They are the easiest thing to make and taste great !
My nut laddoo is ofcourse inspired by OPOS. I lightly roast cashews and almonds. With the Air Oven (Product Review – Havells Air Oven Digi) its really easy to dry roast nuts. The following pics show peanuts that have been roasted in the Air Oven. It has a rotating basket. I wish they come up with a finer mesh so that smaller lentils etc can also be roasted in the Air Oven.
Method to make the nuts laddoos
Take 1/4C each of dry roasted cashews, almonds and pistachios in the smallest mixie jar. Add ten de-seeded dates. Pulse a few times like you would do for peanut butter, but don’t take it all the way. The tiny grains should remain. Put it into a bowl and shape them as you like !
If you notice some laddoos are a little more greener, those have more pistachios :).
You can shape them into energy bars or like katlis. Whatever shape gets you going !
This is the healthiest safest energy bar that you can lay your hands on.
Go on, turn those nutty gifts into healthy nuts laddoos.
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