Finger Millet Peanut Sesame Seeds Balls | Ragi Simili Urundai | Ragi Laddoos

Finger Millets, Peanuts and sesame seeds – all sum up to a very healthy, nutritious sweet balls called Ragi Simili Urundai / Finger Millet Peanut Sesame Balls, catering to all age groups. This traditional South Indian sweet delicacy from Tamil Nadu region is a unique dish and I am sure just like me, you will love it for its unique taste.

Finger Millet is rich in calcium and is a great source of nutrition. It helps control diabetes, weight loss, digestion, treat anaemia, increase bone strength and also lactation in a nursing mother, among various other health benefits.

Sesame seed is high on protein and once again comes with a lot of health benefits on similar lines as finger millets.

Some interesting recipes using few of the below mentioned ingredients:

Lets quickly look into the recipe:

Total Time: 35 minutes

Preparation Time: 20 minutes

Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Makes: 33 (medium sized balls)

Ingredients:

Finger millet flour / Ragi flour: 1.5 cup

Peanuts: 0.75 cup

Jaggery: 1 cup

Salt: A Pinch

Sesame Seeds: 2 tbsp.

Ghee: 5 tbsp.

Cardamom Powder: 0.5 tsp.

Water: 1 cup (For the dough)

Quick Video:

Method:

Roast the peanuts until you get the nutty fragrance and keep aside. Next, roast the sesame seeds until the seeds spurt and keep aside. Last but not the least, roast the ragi flour and keep aside

In a bowl add 1 cup of water to 1.5 cups of ragi flour and a little salt and knead well to form a sticky mass

As a next step, make 6 equal balls from the mass and keep aside

The next step is to pat / roll the balls flat. You can make it in different ways as below :
- Use banana leaf: Wash a square part of the banana leaf (just enough to pat an appam sized roti), pat it dry and gently heat it over a stove. Make sure not to burn it. Heat brings out the natural oils and this in turn imparts a light natural fragrance to the dish. As a next step, grease it with ghee and with greased fingers, gently pat the ragi balls to form a flat roti (Which is as thick as appam)
- Directly pat it over the greased tawa : You may do this, only if you are very sure that you will not burn your fingers while patting on a hot tawa. This certainly reduces on the extra props required otherwise. But, for all the newbees, there is nothing to worry, you can simply opt for the first or the next option
- Use a butter paper / Baking sheet : According to me, this is the easiest. Take a piece of the baking sheet, grease it well, pat the ragi balls flat

Meanwhile, preheat the tawa / skillet
Grease the preheated tawa with ghee and transfer the flattened ragi roti to it and with enough ghee, cook on both the sides. This might approximately take about 2 minutes for each of the rotis

Meanwhile, in parallel, put the roasted and cooled peanuts in a mixer and grind coarsely. To the same mixer, add the roasted sesame seeds and grind, once again, coarsely

Now, we have the rotis ready and stacked up. As a next step, roughly tear the rotis and transfer to the mixer. Powder this finely

Put all the powdered ingredients in a bowl. To this, add the cardamom powder and mix well. Keep aside

As a next step, in a pan take about 1/8th cup of water and jaggery. Heat over medium flame until the jaggery dissolves. At this stage, you may strain the mixture to discard any dust particles. Bring the mixture to boil and continue cooking until it attains the consistency of honey. The jaggery syrup is ready. Pour this over the powdered mixture

Carefully mix everything. Once everything is mixed well, proceed to the next step
Grease your palms again with ghee and take a small portion of the mixture. Make medium sized balls / laddoos and transfer it to a container. Repeat it until the mixture is utilised

The Finger Millet Peanut Sesame seeds balls / Ragi Simili Urundai are ready to relish !!!

Note:

You may use the skinned peanuts, fry it and deskin it, if you dont have deskinned peanuts at home
You may even optionally use black sesame seeds

Ragi Simili Urundai Stories :

As a kid, I was not very fond of ragi, all thanks to the unpleasant experience I had with the Ragi Mudde !!! Ragi Mudde is one of the staple and most liked food around Bangalore and Mandya regions. I always wondered, how could a tasteless ragi mudde be so sought after, until I realised that there is a certain way to eating it. Ragi Mudde needs to be swallowed as is to actually like it. This is one thing, which I have not been able to learn until now, with multiple failed attempts !!! As kids, mom used to prepare ‘Ragi Malt’ for us, to be consumed with milk, which by the way, I thoroughly enjoyed !!! My mother-in-law always has a box filled with ragi flour in her pantry and occassionaly prepares ragi balls, which are yum to taste and atleast once in a week, she prepares ragi dose / dosa which is equally tasty. I have ragi flour in my pantry too and use it occasionally to prepare instant dose !!!

Sometime ago, I was served Ragi Simili Urundai at my friend’s house who happened to be a Tamilian and I instantly loved it !!! For this Sankranthi, I wanted to prepare something with peanuts, jaggery and sesame seeds and when I sneaked into my pantry, my ragi flour box promptly jumped into my hands to be used !!! And so here is the dish !!!

I thank my dear friend who introduced me to this special dish .Special thanks to my little girl, who gave me ideas for for photography and shared her kitchen kit for the same 🙂