Andi Unda | Kerala Style Cashew Rice Ball
Andi Unda or Kerala Style Cashew Rice Ball is a delicious and very aromatic dessert made with a special red rice called Matta Rice. It is made using just 4 ingredients and is a Vegan Dessert recipe.
When choosing recipes to make for the Christmas candy theme, I wanted to include one Indian candy. The recipe I made turned disastrous and I was looking for something that I could make at the last minute.
That is when this recipe for Andi Unda was suggested to me by Priya Srinivasan while talking in a different context. This is more of an energy bar, a ladoo, but was thinking why it would not classify under candy.
I asked my friends for their opinion and no one said anything against it. So, this Kerala Style Cashew Rice Ball is my new favorite energy ball candy that is perfect when you have a sweet tooth for a crunchy dessert.
What is special about this Andi Unda -
Kerala Style Cashew Rice Ball takes less than 15 minutes to make and has just 4 ingredients. Then we let it cool down and then grind it and make it into tight balls and that is it.
There is no added fat in the mixture to bind. The cashews and the coconut have enough fat content in them to allow us to form a nice tight ball. I used organic brown sugar to make the Andi Unda.
You could use jaggery as well but make sure you grate them before you blend everything together. There are a few recipes that suggest fresh coconut in the recipe. I used desiccated coconut as Priya suggested and it worked really well.
If you are using fresh coconut, make sure to lightly roast it to get rid of the extra moisture before combining. I roasted my desiccated coconut a bit as well for that nutty taste. Coming to the Matta rice, I have been seeing this rice for a long time in our Indian store but was not sure how to use it.
One of my friends here said that she regularly makes porridge with it. I asked her to bring me a little bit of Matta rice to taste before I bought a bag of it. So she bought me some yesterday and I asked my BM buddies for suggestions to use it.
Priya suggested this Kerala Style Cashew Rice Ball and Aravanai Payasam. I reserved a little of the Matta rice to make the Aravanai payasam and used some to make this Ladoo.
Check out my few other Quick and Easy Ladoo recipes -
Preparation time - 10 minutes
Cooking time - 10 minutes
Difficulty level - Easy
Recipe adapted from - I Camp In My Kitchen
Ingredients to make Kerala Style Cashew Rice Ball - Makes about 15
- Matta Rice / Kerala red rice - ½ cup
- Desiccated Coconut - 1 cup
- Cashew nut - 1 cup
- Jaggery / Organic Brown Sugar - 1 cup
Procedure to Make Andi Unda
- In a heavy bottom pan, roast the red rice until aromatic and starts to change color. Make sure that the heat is medium-low as the rice could get burned easily without getting properly roasted.
- Remove the roasted rice in a bowl and keep aside to cool.
- In the same pan, add the cashews and roast them until light brown. Remove this in a separate bowl and keep aside to cool.
- In the same pan, add the desiccated coconut and give it a quick stir to heat it up gently. Just fry it for about 30 seconds and remove it on a plate.
- Grate the jaggery and measure it.
- In a small mixer or a spice grinder, grind the cooled rice to a smooth powder. Remove this in the bowl.
- In the same grinder, grind the cashews to powder them. Make sure that you just pulse it or else it will end up becoming cashew butter.
- Now transfer the ground cashew, ground rice powder, desiccated coconut and jaggery in a large blender jar or food processor jar and pulse it to combine. You will notice that the fat content from the cashew and the coconut will make the mixture bind together.
- Once everything is well combined, transfer it to a bowl and start forming tight balls with your palm. We will not need any ghee or fat to bind it.
- Store in an airtight container for 2 to 3 days at room temperature and if storing further than that, refrigerate it.
More Kerala Recipes
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Recipe
Andi Unda | Kerala Style Cashew Rice Ball
Ingredients
- ½ cup Matta Rice / Kerala red rice
- 1 cup Desiccated Coconut
- 1 cup Cashew nut
- 1 cup Jaggery / Organic Brown Sugar
Instructions
- In a heavy bottom pan, roast the red rice until aromatic and it starts to change color. Make sure that the heat is medium low as the rice could get burned easily without getting properly roasted.
- Remove the roasted rice in a bowl and keep aside to cool.
- In the same pan, add the cashews and roast them until light brown. Remove this in a separate bowl and keep aside to cool.
- In the same pan, add the desiccated coconut and give it a quick stir to heat it up gently. Just fry it for about 30 seconds and remove it on a plate.
- Grate the jaggery and measure it.
- In a small mixer or a spice grinder, grind the cooled rice to a smooth powder. Remove this in the bowl.
- In the same grinder, grind the cashews to powder it. Make sure that you just pulse it or else it will end up becoming cashew butter.
- Now transfer the ground cashew, ground rice powder, desicaated coconut and the jaggery in a large blender jar or food processor jar and pulse it to combine. You will notice that the fat content from the cashew and the coconut will make the mixture bind together.
- Once everything is well combined, transfer it to a bowl and start forming tight balls with your palm. We will not need any ghee or fat to bind it.
- Store in an airtight container for 2 to 3 days in room temperature and if storing further than that, refrigerate it.
Wonderful Recipes of Ladoos , & so easy to make with less ingredients .
We should wash the rice and dry it sun or without washing the rice we can do ladoo.
Rupa, I made it without washing the rice. You could also wash and dry the rice before roasting.
OOh...this is yumm yumm. My god my bookmarks is running into pages now. And beautifully photographed
Lol I still remember our funny conversation on this..the dish has turned out great..
That is a very interesting laddoo recipe with rice. With the addition of cashews and coconut, these must have tasted amazing.
Wow.. what a interesting sweet recipe... never use rice flour for sweets (laddoo).
Fantastic andi unda, i love to munch few balls rite now. Beautiful balls there Sandhya.
This so good... rice and cashew laddu. Glad you were able to pick one at the last moment. Matta rice, just add more water and cook for five whistles instead of three. It's an acquired taste though. I can have it only with rice not with rasam or curd.
I remember the discussion. And these Andi unda looks so similar to peanut ladoos I made recently. They look absolutely yum.
Glad you could come up with a healthy alternative that is nutritious as well. I had never heard about a rice based dessert that is not cooked. These laddus sound very delicious.
Looks lovely sandhya, thanks for the shoutout! Yes, it is a simple recipe, with lot of textures, the roasted rice and the toasted coconut, must give an amazing taste! Waiting for your Aravanai!!!
Very healthy and yummy ladoos and these are so easy to prepare!! Very nice share !!
Very healthy bites, Sandhya. Glad after all you were able to come up with something as good as these bites. I wouldn't mind a bite or two myself.