The upvas favourite
Peanut Laddu
शेंगदाणा लाडू
The original energy ball, long before the gyms.
₹120 per 250 g
Roasted peanuts
Jaggery
Desi ghee
- Roasted peanuts
- Jaggery
- Desi ghee
Two ingredients, no apologies
Shengdana laddu never needed a festival. It sat in steel dabbas all year round: in school bags, in farm bundles, on upvas days when the kitchen went quiet. Peanuts and jaggery, roasted and pressed together, solving hunger honestly for generations.
There is nowhere to hide in a two-ingredient recipe. The peanuts have to be roasted exactly right, dark enough for depth and light enough to stay sweet, and the jaggery has to be good enough to eat on its own. That is the entire quality control, and it is ruthless.
Somewhere along the way the world discovered protein bars. Maharashtra solved this problem a few hundred years earlier, and ours tastes like a sweet, not a compromise.
Three straightforward steps, like all honest things.
How it comes together
Peanuts and jaggery, that's it
Plump peanuts and soft dark jaggery, with a spoonful of ghee to bring them together. Nothing else is allowed near this laddu, and nothing else is needed.
The roast and the rub
Peanuts are roasted till their skins crackle and slip off between the palms. The kitchen fills with that unmistakable warm peanut smell, and half the batch is at risk of being eaten right here.
Crushed, mixed, rolled
The peanuts are crushed coarse, never to powder, so every bite keeps a little crunch. Melted jaggery binds them, and the laddus are pressed tight while the mixture is still warm.
