Ganesh Chaturthi 2021: Sugar-Free Modak Recipe Made From Dried Fruits And Nuts (Watch Video)

We look forward to our festivals as an opportunity to meet our friends and relatives and also as a time to feed the glutton in us, by bingeing on a host of delicious foods. Our diets are all thrown out of the window as festival time is the time of gorging on sweets and delicacies of all types. Options are aplenty as our house is flooded with toothsome goodies and it gets difficult to resist the temptation of getting stuffed. Ganesh Chaturthi 2021 begins on the 10th of Sept and as preparations for welcoming Lord Ganesha into our homes begin, markets are flooded with various different types of sweet meats. Modak, in particular, is the star of the dessert pack as it is the favoured sweet of the elephant-headed Lord himself. Modak is known to be a favourite of Lord Ganesha out of all the sweets and therefore holds an important place during the festival.

But modaks available in the markets are all prepared using artificial flavours and excessive amounts of refined sugar. If you need a break from all that sugar consumption, but still want to enjoy the sweetness of the festival, then there are healthier ways of doing so. For one, eating homemade sweets is much healthier than going for store-bought ladoos and modaks for Ganesh Chaturthi 2019. But if you're on a diet that doesn't allow you to consume refined sugar, you may want to stock your kitchen with dried fruits. It may come as a surprise to you, but you can actually make modaks at home, without using a single granule of white sugar. The natural sweetness of dried fruits like dates, figs etc. can be used to fashion sugar-free modaks.

(Also Read: Ganesh Chaturthi 2021: Date, Time, And Significance And Modak Recipes)

Ganesh Chaturthi 2021: Healthy Dry Fruit Modak Recipe

This recipe contains different types of nuts and dried fruits in a delicious combination. Soaked figs and dates are mixed with assorted ground nuts like almonds, cashews, peanuts and pistachios. The recipe also contains healthy seeds like sesame seeds, chironji seeds, khus khus seeds etc. Follow this easy recipe for making sugar-free dry fruit modaks for this festive season:

1. Soak pitted dates and figs in plain water for an hour.

2. In a grinder, take all the nuts and grind them to make a coarse powder.

3. In a pan, sauté the ground nuts. Then sauté the seeds along with desiccated coconut in a separate pan.

Also Read: Ganesh Chaturthi 2021: Here's How South India Celebrates This Festival

4. Grind soaked dried fruits to a paste. Take ghee in a pan and cook the paste until the colour darkens. Add chopped raisins, the sautéed nuts and seeds to the paste and mix.

5. Add cardamom powder for flavour and then mix it well.

6. Allow the mixture to cool and then put it in modak moulds and press to give it the perfect shape.

For the full recipe and details of all the ingredients, click here. This modak recipe is perfect for serving to kids, to keep them from eating store-bought sweets.

Watch the recipe video here:

Happy Ganesh Chaturthi 2021!