Recipe of Thandai Keto Ladoo or Keto Thandai Ladoo
Happy Holi everyone and let’s celebrate this festival of colors with these delicious, sinfully healthy Thandai Keto Ladoo. And, it’s vegan.
This year, with an aim to be 100% vegan, I started a journey that focuses on plant-based diet. My vegan eating started back in 2017, but I was on a reducetarian mode back then. Gradually, I realized my body accepts vegan foods more happily than animal-based foods. This year, after observing the Veganuary, I am on a spree. Love my new eating style, still low-carb, and enjoying something that I always wanted to incorporate in my lifestyle.
Once you’re vegan or plant based, things don’t always fall into place quite easily. Sometimes, it might be food or sometimes even religious festivals. Being vegan and low-carb is rather difficult when you’re celebrating an Indian festival. Because Indian celebrations are all about rich sweets, vegetarian feast and loads of dairy. And, Holi is one of these festivals.
What is Holi?
Holi is an Indian festival often known as the Festival of Colors.
What is the special dish of Holi?
Thandai, Gujiya, Malpua, laddoos (bhang and thandai ladoos) and ras malai are popular Holi special dishes.
What is thandai?
It is festive drink made with dairy-based milk, thandai powder or spice mix and sugar.
What is thandai masala or spice mix?
Thandai Masala or Spice Mix is an incredible spice concoction that can be pre-made in your home. With the subtle flavors of cardamom, saffron, infused rose petal or syrup and packed with nutty goodness, this spice mix is a terrific addition to any dairy-based or vegan drink and even desserts.
What can you make with thandai masala?
You can make thandai drink, kheer, or even thandai ladoo. This spice mix is very versatile and can be added in mousse or cake too. Here is my vegan thandai. Click here.
Thandai is very synonymous to the Holi festival. This drink is again a dairy based drink made with a spice concoction and sweetener. This year, I am taking the vegan thandai to another level. I am making this Keto thandai Ladoo.
Yes, it’s super easy and a crowd pleaser too. We have nutty goodness of almonds, crunch from crushed pistachios and light saffron flavor in this complex flavored Keto Ladoo recipe. Let’s see how the recipe is made.
Thandai Keto Ladoo Recipe - Step-by-Step
Step 1: Prepare the flour
- In a small nonstick pan, take one cup and two tablespoon almond flour.
- Roast in a low flame unless the flour feels warm and oozes a nutty aroma.
- Set aside.
Step 2: Make thandai powder/masala
- Here is what goes in the thandai mixture.
✓½ cup Almonds + ⅓ cup pistachios or cashew
✓ 1 teaspoon Black peppercorns
✓ 2 tablespoon Fennel seeds
✓ 2 tablespoon Poppy seeds
✓ 1 tablespoon Watermelon seeds
✓1 tablespoon Cardamom pods from green cardamom
✓ ¼ teaspoon Saffron
✓ 1 tablespoon Dried rose petals or 1 teaspoon rose water or rose syrup
- Add all ingredients to a spice blender or a coffee grinder and blend to a fine powder.
- Set aside ½ cup of the mix and keep rest of the masala mix in an air-tight container.
Step-3: Make the dough:
- Now take the roasted almond flour in a mixing bowl.
- Add thandai powder, ¼ cup of chopped nuts and mix well.
- If keto, add in 2 tablespoon to ¼ cup of sugar substitute (I used Swerve) and mix well.
- If not keto, add in ½ cup of powdered sugar and mix well. Increase the sugar quantity if you love a sweeter ladoo.
- Add 2 tablespoon to ¼ cup of warm almond milk and mix well till the mixture forms a dough.
- Microwave the mixture for 3 minutes with occasional stirring in every 30 seconds. The mixture at this point will dry out and become a lumpy mass.
- Knead for few minutes till the mixture feels smooth and non-sticky. You can also knead using a silicone spatula.
- Allow the mixture to cool down.
Step-4: Make Ladoos:
- When the mixture-dough is cool enough to work with, you can start making small balls from the dough by using your palms. Don’t forget to grease your palm for easy rolling.
- Now add some chopped pistachios on the top of each ladoo. If you want, you can also use some desiccated coconut or saffron for garnishing these ladoos.
- Your Keto Thandai Ladoo is ready to serve.
Nutrition of Thandai Keto Ladoo:
The recipe yields 10 small-medium sized ladoos. The calorie per serving is mentioned below.
Want to know how many ounces, spoons and grans in a cup? Here is a detailed cups to oz calculator and downloadable chart.
📖 Recipe
Thandai Keto Ladoo
Ingredients
Thandai Masala/Powder
- ½ Cup Almonds
- ⅓ Cup Pistachios
- 1 teaspoon Black Pepporcorns Whole
- 2 tablespoon Fennel seeds
- 2 tablespoon Poppy seeds
- 1 tablespoon Watermelon seeds
- 1 tablespoon Cardamom pods from green cardamom
- ¼ teaspoon Saffron
- 1 tablespoon Dried rose petals or 1 teaspoon rose water or rose syrup
Thandai Keto Ladoo
- 1 cup +2 tablespoon blanched almond flour
- 1-2 tablespoon sugarfree sweetener or ½ cup powdered sugar
- ½ cup Thandai Masala
- 2 tbsp-¼ cup Almond Milk
- ¼ cup Chopped pistachios + Almonds
Instructions
Prepare the flour
- In a small nonstick pan, take one cup and two tablespoon almond flour.
- Roast in a low flame unless the flour feels warm and oozes a nutty aroma.
- Set aside.
Make thandai powder/masala
- Add all ingredients to a spice blender or a coffee grinder and blend to a fine powder.
- Set aside ½ cup of the mix and keep rest of the masala mix in an air-tight container.
Make the dough:
- Now take the roasted almond flour in a mixing bowl.
- Add thandai powder, ¼ cup of chopped nuts and mix well.
- If keto, add in 1-2 tablespoon of sugar substitute (I used Swerve) and mix well.
- If not keto, add in ½ cup of powdered sugar and mix well. Increase the sugar quantity if you love a sweeter ladoo.
- Add 2 tablespoon to ¼ cup of warm almond milk and mix well till the mixture forms a dough.
- Microwave the mixture for 3 minutes with occasional stirring in every 30 seconds. The mixture at this point will dry out and become a lumpy mass. At this point, add the two tablespoon of almond flour.
- Knead for a few minutes till the mixture feels smooth and non-sticky. You can also knead using a silicone spatula.
- Allow the mixture to cool down.
Make Ladoos:
- When the mixture-dough is cool enough to work with, you can start making small balls from the dough by using your palms. Don’t forget to grease your palm for easy rolling.
- Now add some chopped pistachios on the top of each ladoo. If you want, you can also use some desiccated coconut or saffron for garnishing these ladoos.
- Your Keto Thandai Ladoo is ready to serve.
Notes
- Add warm almond milk little by little while making the dough.
- The mixture doesn't need any additional oil or ghee.
- If the dough feels sticky, cook for a few more minutes in microwave before kneading the dough.
Nutrition
Other awesome low-carb and keto Holi recipes from the blog are here!
Meghna
Delicious treat, I must say absolute perfecto for the festive season. I never thought of vegan thandai ladoos, making me drool .
Sophie
Thank you so much!
Ipsa
Delicious ladoo. This is perfect for this festive season of holi. I ll màke this for holi desserts.
Sophie
Thank you so much dear.
Harshad
These Thandai Ladoos look so good and yummy. I wish I could grab one from my screen. 🙂
Liked the photography, too!
Sophie
Thank you Harshad!
Deepthi
I made these and the taste was AWESOME. Mine turned a lil brown though but did not matter as the taste was soooo good
Sophie
I am so happy to hear that. Thank you Deepthi.
Dolly
Hi..
Just tried ur recipe.. it tastes too good.. i made it with stevia but the issue is the laddoos are very soft n they are loosing their shape .. pls help me n suggest anything to add to make it hold the shape