I just bought some chickpeas to make ladoo, as I had wanted some the other day. But after looking up a recipe which had a cup of ghee, I thought can this be made vegan and/or raw? I had never heard of it. But I imagine that if I sprouted the chickpeas and chopped them up and dried them slightly, and replaced the sugar with dates it might be ok? I don't know I thought I better ask before I just experiment with unknowns. It should taste good, and be digestible, so I thought all the creative people here would have some great suggestions. Thank you

Coconut butter/oil is a good substitute for ghee I'd think. I have some that has no flavour at all, we use it for popcorn on nights we play cards or I go out and a babysitter is here with the kids.
I'm not familiar with your dish, if it works out please post your successful procedure in the recipe section! I would personally use sunflower seeds, raw chickpeas are hard for me to digest. Love to hear how it turns out anyhow...

Coco,
Its a traditional indian sweet, usually made from chickpea flour, sugar, ghee and cardamon. It has large amounts of sugar and ghee. Actually about 1 part each, so its about 2/3 sugar and ghee, what everyone needs right? Just being sarcastic in case anyone is wondering. Some recipes suggest using oil. Coconut oil might be a good sub, but would totally change the flavor. I would have never thought of trying sunflower seeds.

The coconut oil I have really doesn't have any flavour, it wouldn't change the taste at all I am pretty sure. Butter just tastes like greasy salt so an unflavoured coconut oil with some salt would be a perfect match.
I use sunflower seeds in everything . Macamamia nuts might work for this recipe as well, or a combo of them with sunflower seeds.

Sounds sweet, this dish of yours. Is it just for fun or for a party?

hmmm basically really refined coconut oil? that would work flavor wise, the "raw" oil I think though would taste to coconutty.... I know when I worked at a movie theater, all we used for popping our popcorn was coconut oil, then they added the weird butter crap to it... people loved it though, people would often come in and buy our popcorn, and leave, they didnt even watch a movie,lol... at least it was healthier than normal popcorn:/...

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Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?

Mislu,

I'd use coconut oil, but also grind some of the chickpeas to make a coarse paste, ensuring the mixture will cohere. It would then have to be dehydrated a bit after it's formed. I'm not sure if dates and raw chickpeas are a good combo taste wise, but give it a go and let us know how it went!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/02/2011 02:07PM by Tamukha.

Mine is high end raw coconut oil. Some brands taste coconutty and others don't.

I grind chickpeas (cooked ones though) by putting them through the omega juicer (single auger type) so that I don't have to blend them with any liquid or oil, that makes a great hummus, smooth but not too smooth and not too diluted in taste. If you have a juicer like that it would work. Otherwise you can try it in a food processor but you'll have to stop and scrape down the sides a lot.

ah, cool, ive never had a high end coconut oil,lol... good idea with the chickpeas btw, maybe I will make some raw hummus sometime!

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Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?

There are some recipes for hummus with zucchini and/or sunflower seeds instead of chickpeas, I just can't eat those raw sprouted. They don't taste very nice and they make me gassy. Lots of people like raw sprouted chickpea hummus though.

I think consistency wise, the sunflower seeds sound best to me, or a mix of them and zucchini...

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Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?

Wow! a lot of great responses. I wanted to make them just because I got a craving for them. I would want to perfect the recipe before I ever present it to someone else. I found some whole cardamon at whole foods, but couldn't buy them because I was fresh out of money. But I at least know its available.

I don't know either if dates would taste good with sprouted chickpeas. I am thinking that I am open to any other suggested sweetners, I would rather avoid processed sugar if at all possible, however. When I am done I am sure I will have to totally rename the sweet, as it probably will not taste much like ladoo. Thats ok, as long as the result is good!

Mac and sunflower might be a better choice for the base, as they have some oil to help stick stuff together, as the original seems to rely on the oil or ghee to stick stuff together. I will probably try very small portions at first, probably even individual sweets before I make a batch...I hate to waste food. Waste not, want not!

yeah, maybe reduce the recipe enough to make like one serving... tiny amount at a time... I think Raw Ladoo has a cool ring to it though,lol... just like raw pizza, and raw crackers, are completely different frmo their non raw coutner parts, it could still work...

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Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?

I sprouted some sunflower seeds and chopped them up with an equal amount of dates last night. It made a moist mixture that didn't stay together very well, but if I put it in the fridge it probably would have. It tasted good, had an interesting texture. I thought it would be better mixed in a food processor, but hand chopped is probably better than a paste.

Too bad I gave my food processor away when I moved. It would have been fun to make 1/2 of the recipe with a paste to hold things together, and the other half coarse chopped. I think that would have been great. I still have yet to try it with cardamon. It reminded me of those seasame candies that come individually wrapped with some sugar mixture. I think they usually use corn syrup. So its healthier. I got some chickpeas soaked overnight, later I will try chopped with dates, and see how that works.

Wait, you're going to use cardamom this time, right? I love cardamom. That sounds delicious; let us know how it goes.

mmmmmm!

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Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?

I sprouted some chickpeas, but then I ate them all by themselves! Well, one bite with a bite of dates. I guess my craving for ladoo was really for chickpeas, I guess that shouldn't be surprising. Having them plain and sprouted seems a better way to meet the craving.

I have yet to get cardamon. I looked at some ground cardamon yesterday at the local supermarket, but it didn't seem like good quality so I didn't get it. I also thought that since its already ground it wouldn't keep its flavor. So, I will wait until I find the whole pods. That way I am hoping it maintains its power until I am ready to use it.

I had a craving for Ladoo again last night. But I found a food processor I forgot about! I was cleaning the counter, and there it was under a cover, its been there since we moved, but just forgotten. At first I thought it was my partners mothers food processor, but no its ours.

Anyways I put it to good use. I am still hesitant to go with the experiment full on, as I would have hated to waste something. I went with a cooked version. Boiling chickpeas that I soaked overnight. I used olive oil and blond raw sugar blended. It came out nice and creamy, and I didn't use as much sugar or oil. Less oil because I used moist chickpeas. The original calls for chickpea flour. Less sweet because I thought it would be better. Still I don't have cardamon.

But the results were pretty good. I think i actually like it better than the original. I don't know what anyone else would think. Perhaps its too smooth, starchy and not crumbly. The original is rather oily, very sweet and crumbles. I thought I might rename it "Low doo" as in lower fat and sugar.

I made a quinoa version last night. I really overdid the cardamon, I can only have a small bite or two before I feel overwhelmed by spice! I don't know what the effects are, but there must be toxicity to most spices, as I like the taste, but my body quickly says thats enough.

Would it be nice spread on fruit slices like apple? Or cucumber. Sometimes a strong flavour is nice paired with something mild.

Or you could mix the quinoa version with some plain chick peas to make more of it and dilute the cardamon flavour. That is a very strong spice to be sure.

Coco,
Wow, is that ever a great suggestion. I think it would have made a great spread on some type of fruit, or be mixed with cubes of fruit. It turned out to not be a problem, the spice wasn't mixed well, so other portions had less and it was ok.

I sprouted some sunflower seeds so later on I will try a version with raw seeds. This time I am going to blend the sends first while the processor is dry. that was my mistake earlier adding it to everything else while everything was wet. Also I am going to look for an exact amount, and not guess by taste. It was approximate, but I think tested amounts are better.

I finally made a blend of sprouted sunflowerseeds, dates and cardamon. It was good, a sort of paste. but it didn't taste like ladoo. I wouldn't call it that anyways.My partner even liked it. Roughly equal amounts of sprouted sunflower and dates, and a dash of spice, all blended in a food processor.

I made a raw version last night with raw chickpeas. I used blond sugar,but it was very good. Moist, fresh tasting, on the verge of divine as far as I was concerned. My partner thought it needed more cardamom.

Tonight I will try again using a blend of sprouted sunflower, chickpea and dates and more cardamom. I hope it will turn out well. I have tried different versions. But to my surprise I actually thought the raw version was better, so did my partner.

awesome ^_^

Hi curator,
I made a sunflower.chickpea, date version. That was actually not so great. It takes ALOT of dates to sweeten. I used them all up, and it didn't taste that sweet. I cheated on part of it and used a non vegan ingredient to finish another version. Actually i was rather disappointed with the results this time. My partner seems to reall like it. I used way more cardamom, and he seems to not get enough of what I made. i think i am cardamomed out for the time being...

I myself enjoy cardamom only in trace amounts, where i can taste it but it doesnt overpower other flavors...then again thats in other stuff, ive never had Ladoo, raw or otherwise be4...lol.. the raw version is starting to soundpretty tasty though...mmmm