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Desi ghee recipes: ladoo, panjiri & everyday classics

Pure ghee is the soul of Indian sweets and comfort food. Here are a few simple, time-tested recipes that show it off.

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Why ghee makes the difference

In traditional sweets and tadka, bilona ghee brings the aroma and richness no oil can match. Use pure ghee and the same recipe simply tastes better. Here are three classics to start with.

Recipe 1

Besan ladoo

You need: 2 cups besan (gram flour), ~¾ cup pure ghee, ~¾ cup powdered sugar, a few cardamom pods, chopped nuts.

Method: Warm the ghee in a heavy pan, add besan, and roast on low, stirring constantly, until golden and fragrant (15–20 min). Cool slightly, mix in powdered sugar and cardamom, then roll into ladoos and press a nut on top. Let them set.

Recipe 2

Atta panjiri

You need: 1 cup whole-wheat flour (atta), ~½ cup pure ghee, ½ cup powdered jaggery or sugar, mixed nuts & seeds, edible gum (gond) optional.

Method: Roast atta in ghee on low until deep golden and nutty. Add nuts/seeds (and fried gond), then sweetener off the heat. Serve warm or store — a traditional winter and post-partum food.

Recipe 3

Everyday ghee tadka

The simplest one: heat a spoon of pure ghee, crackle cumin/mustard, add hing and dry red chilli, and pour over dal or sabzi. Because ghee has a high smoke point (see ghee vs butter), it’s ideal for tadka without burning.

Recipe 4

Sooji (rava) halwa

You need: 1 cup sooji (semolina), ~½ cup pure ghee, ~¾–1 cup sugar, ~3 cups hot water or milk, cardamom, chopped nuts and a few raisins.
Method: Warm the ghee in a heavy pan and roast the sooji on low–medium heat, stirring constantly, until it turns golden and smells nutty. Carefully pour in the hot water or milk (it will splutter), add the sugar, and keep stirring so no lumps form. Cook until it thickens and leaves the sides of the pan, then fold in cardamom, nuts and raisins. The whole thing lives or dies on the ghee — a good aromatic ghee is what makes halwa taste like halwa.

Good to know

Cooking with ghee: a few tips

A few things that help. Ghee has a high smoke point (around 250°C), so it handles tadka, roasting and shallow frying without burning where butter would. For the best aroma, add a spoon of ghee at the end of a dish too, not only at the start. Baking? Ghee can stand in for butter roughly one-to-one — use a touch less, since ghee has no water. And because pure ghee keeps well, store it in a clean, dry jar away from heat and sunlight, and always use a dry spoon. A little goes a long way, so quality matters more than quantity — see ghee calories & nutrition.