Raksha Bandhan Recipes: Ditch Sugar and Replace it With These 3 Natural and Healthy Sweeteners

Raksha Bandhan is just around the corner. A festival to celebrate the sacred as well as a little painful and most often annoying bond with your siblings (pun intended). However, no celebration is complete without sweets!Also Read – Raksha Bandhan 2022 Date, Timings, Puja Muhurat in Gujarat

To celebrate this bitter-sweet relationship between brothers and sisters, Kajal Wattamwar & Bushra Qureshi, Dieticians and Co-Founder of Healthy Steady Go share 3 amazing sugar-free desserts that we bet you will fall in love with. Also Read – This Raksha Bandhan, Look Insta-Worthy With These Makeup Tips by Shahnaz Husain

Ragi Balls

Nice, soft and nutty Ragi balls, made with minimal fat and coated with dark chocolate are sure to melt in your mouth, and you will end up asking for more. Also Read – Woven With Sneh: Ferns N Petals Launches Special Rakhi Collection

Ingredients:

• Ragi Flour- 2 cups
• Cashew Nuts- ½ cup
• Almonds- ½ cup
• Walnuts- ½ cup
• White sesame seeds- 1 tsp
• Jaggery-3/4th cup
• Green Cardamom Powder- 1/4th tsp
• Ghee- 1.5tbsp
• Dark chocolate- >70% cocoa

Method:

1. Roast Ragi flour with ghee for a few minutes.
2. Add all the finely ground nuts to it and roast some more.
3. Switch off the flame and add jaggery & cardamom powder.
4. Once cooled blend once more in a blender and roll into balls.
5. Coat them with dark chocolate and sprinkle some sesame seeds on top.

Nutty Dates Burfi- You may end up forgetting your normal burfi once you had a bite of this one.

Ingredients:

• Dates- 1 cup
• Dried Fig- 1 cup
• Pistachio- 1/4th cup
• Almonds- 1/4th cup
• Walnuts- 1/4th cup
• Milk- 1 tbsp
• Ghee- 1 tsp

Method:

1. Roast loosely chopped nuts for about 2-3 mins and keep aside.
2. Blend dates and figs in a blender and transfer onto a hot pan with milk and ghee.
3. Once the mixture becomes a little soft, combine your roasted nuts and let it set in a mould of your choice.
4. Cut into square burfi pieces and relish.

Halim Ladoos

This would be the most apt dessert option for your diet-conscious sister or brother. Halim seeds are one of the riches sources of iron and hence a great food choice for someone with anaemia or excessive hair fall.

Ingredients-

• Halim/ Aliv/ Garden-cress seeds- 2 tbsp
• Milk- 1 cup
• Grated fresh coconut- 1 cup
• Jaggery- ½ cup

Method:

1. Soak Garden Cress seeds in milk for 2 hrs
2. Roast grated coconut for 2-5 mins and add jaggery to it.
3. Combine the garden cress seed mixture & cook until the mixture leaves the sides.
4. May take around 30-35mins
5. Once cooked, let it cool and roll into small balls.

Expert Tip

Although these are great sugar substitutes for your refined sugar, over-indulging in these is also not recommended.

Cause, at the end of the day, these sugar alternatives also do have calories!
Eat mindfully to have a stress-free and healthy celebration.