Rava laddu/ Ravè unde is a traditional sweet from Karnataka. It is most commonly made during festivals. A variation of these laddus is quite popular in Maharashtra too.

As the name suggests, it is mainly made of rava/ sooji/ semolina which is nothing but cream of wheat. The other major constituents are freshly grated coconut and sugar. Often times, milk and ghee are used for binding these laddus. But, the recipe I’m sharing here is vegan.

This is one of the simplest and quickest sweets to make for festivals. This is my mom’s recipe and she’s been making these laddus with the same proportion for fifty years now. This recipe has served me faithfully for two decades now. Between mom and me, the recipe has been tried and tested for seventy years now!

Sweets made with any kind of string consistency in sugar syrup are always a bit tricky but this recipe is quite forgiving and can be fixed if the making of sugar syrup doesn’t go your way…do read through the post for a smooth cooking process.

Sharing Ravè Unde Recipe below. You might also like to make something interesting from the wide variety of sweets recipes I have shared earlier:

• Dairy-based:
• Bajra Kheer
• Beetroot Kheer
• Genasina Payasa: Sweet Potato Pudding/ Shakarkand Kheer
• Instant Kalakand
• Rice Kheer
• Basundi
• Colostrum Milk Cake : Ginna | Junnu | Kharvas | Posu | Karambu | Bari | Colostrum Milk Cake with powder
• Pumpkin Halwa / Kumbalkai Halwa
• Kashi halwa / ash gourd halwa
• Mango Sheera/ kesari
• Gulkand Shrikhand
• Kesar Pista Badam Shrikhand
• Mango shrikhand / aamrakhand
• Mango mastani
• Orange Custard
• Laddus & Barfis:
• Aralu Hittina Unde : Popped jowar flour laddu
• Putani Hittina Kardantu : Roasted chana barfi
• Lauki/Bottlegourd Barfi : Instant no-mawa recipe
• Ragi/Finger Millet Laddus
• Roasted Chana Modak : No cooking recipe
• Makhana/Foxnut Laddus
• Marie Biscuit Laddus : quick, no-cooking recipe
• Oreo laddus : quick, no-cooking recipe
• Oats-Almonds-Chia Seeds Laddu – quick, no-cooking recipe
• Putani hittina laddu / Roasted split gram laddu : quick, no-cooking recipe
• Baked Goodies:
• Carrot Cake – No oven recipe
• Creme Caramel – No oven recipe
• Pineapple Upside-down Cake in pressure cooker
• Strawberry Galette : in convection microwave
• Lemon-blueberry cake – Convection microwave recipe
• Cold/ Frozen Treats:
• Chikoo Kulfi
• Jamun Popsicle
• Litchi Kulfi
• Malai Kulfi
• Mango Kulfi
• Paan Kulfi
• Thandai Kulfi
• Gadbad ice cream
• Fried ice cream
• Strawberry & Cream Popsicle
• Sweet Lime-Mint Popsicles
• Watermelon Popsicle
• Chocolate Panna Cotta
• Pomegranate Panna Cotta
• Rose Panna Cotta
• Traditional Sweets:
• Poornam Boorelu – an Andhra special
• Hoornada Kadabu
• Hoornada Modak
• Rava Laddu – Karnataka style
• Others:
• Nutty Chocolate Bark

How to make a good rava laddu?

The key to making a good rava laddu is in the little things during the process.

• Start with a regular-grained rava…not as small as in chiroti rava nor as big as in bansi rava. Your regular upma rava will work perfectly fine.
• Always use freshly grated coconut from a coconut that’s been cracked open fresh. Do not use something that’s been sitting in the fridge for a few days. It would have lived some of its shelf life already. Fresh works the best for a better shelf life of laddus.
• Always roast the rava in a thick kadai on low to medium-low flame. To avoid burning or unevenly roasted rava, always keep stirring continuously until roasting is done.
• Often times, ghee/oil is used for roasting rava…just like you would do while making upma. With time I have realised that it is not quite necessary. The rava and freshly grated coconut can be dry roasted in a thick kadai even without adding any fat. This cuts down on a few calories without compromising on taste. I dry roast them on medium-low heat while stirring continuously without leaving it unattended.
• While roasting rava, often times the question arises as to “How to know when it’s done roasting?” My mom says to watch for the change in colour and the fragrant aroma that emanates while roasting and to taste a pinch of rava to ensure it is not raw.
• Here’s a simpler technique that helps me each time that I’m dry roasting semolina or any flour: add the cashew nuts along with the rava while dry roasting. The change in colour is quite evident on the larger surface area of a cashew nut than it is on rava. Rava and cashew nut both seem to have a similar tolerance for heat and roast the same way.

Rava Laddu Recipe

Makes 18 laddus
1 Cup = 240 ml

Ingredients:

• Freshly grated coconut – 150 gm
• Semolina/ rava – 300 gm
• Sugar – 300 gm
• Water – 150 ml
• Green cardamom – 3, powdered
• Cashew nuts – 2 tbsp
• Raisins – 2 tbsp

Instructions:

1. I don’t use coconut very often, so no gizmos to scrape it either…had disposed them all year ago. 🙂 Had to literally separate it from the shell in as many pieces as it took to get it all out… my hammer came in handy!

2. I used the medium side of my grater to shred it.

3. Add the regular semolina/ rava to it.

4. Mix both of them together with your hand. This helps semolina soak up some of the juices from fresh coconut. Mixing with a spoon doesn’t work that well.

5. Transfer to a thick bottomed kadai. Add cashew nuts. Saute on medium-low flame until the rava begins to turn light brown. You can notice that the cashew nuts also change colour along with the rava. Iit took me about 8 minutes to reach this stage.

6. Add raisins and continue dry roasting for another 8 minutes.

7. You will notice a prominent change in colour of cashew nuts along with that of rava. Turn off heat.

8. Transfer the roasted rava & coconut mix to a plate or mixing bowl.

9. Wipe the kadai clean and add sugar to it.

10. Add water.

11. Add green cardamom powder.

12. Heat the kadai on medium-low flame and mix well until sugar dissolves completely.

13. Continue stirring and bring the sugar syrup to a rolling boil. It took me about 5 minutes to reach this stage. Check by picking up a drop of syrup with your index finger and thumb. Pull your fingers apart and check for the viscosity of syrup. The syrup should reach a single string consistency. Turn off heat.

14. Add the roasted rava mix.

15. Mix well until the rava mix soaks up all the syrup. Note: If the laddu mix is too dry, mix a little milk to bring it to binding consistency. If it is too wet, let it cool if for some time, it’ll give the laddu mix some time to soak up the syrup well.

16. Take a fistful of laddu mix and shape them into laddus.

The laddus will stay fresh for a couple of days on the counter because of fresh coconut used in the making and upto a week in the fridge. But refrigeration will turn them a little hard. Let them sit on the counter for a couple of minutes for them to soften a bit before eating.

If you happen to try this Rava Laddu Recipe; leave a comment, let me know how it turned out. Click a picture, send a DM or share on Instagram and tag @theredplatechronicles , I would love to see your creation. See more of my work on the hashtag #trpc and follow me on

Have a great day!
Love
M❤️

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