We are past the festival of Uttaran or Makar Sankranti – the time when locals here near Ahmedabad, Gujarat say the cold will start to diminish. The past winter months, I have had a gala time here in this Trimandir ashram gorging on amazing Gujarati food delicacies. And considering that it has been quite cold since mid November, I am thrilled at the plethora of special winter sweets we get here that are meant to warm us up! In fact, some of them can become too warm if you already have body heat issues.

Yes, these are “sweets” – for someone not familiar with traditional Indian sweets – they are usually sweet in taste, but not using white sugar. They typically contain jaggery or dates and Ghee. The base is Ghee – clarified butter variety, very popular in India.

Ghee is a very important part of the Indian foods and it is one of the most superlative ingredients as per the Ayurveda course I have been doing. It is made from milk (usually cow milk) and milk, buttermilk/curd are also considered brilliant; Ghee beats all of them and takes #1 position. The reason for this, is that, milk, curds, buttermilk all cool the system (in a good way) BUT they also cool the digestive fire. Which may not be good because we want a good digestive fire to digest the food properly. Undigested food is the source of all diseases as per Ayurveda from what I understand. Thus, GHEE is considered as the golden elixir which not only cools the system but also heats up the digestive fire.

Now why would we want to take a lot of Ghee in winter, if it cools the system? I am not sure but probably because simply consuming heat generating substances could cause too much heat in the system – these substances can be really potent. So Ghee probably acts as a balancing force.

Also,

1. fats/oils are good with regards skin dryness in winter. Ghee is the best fatty substance one can take.
2. it’s strength giving

Dates / Jaggery are both strength and heat giving plus, they provide a sweet (pleasant) taste for the food item.

Without further ado (and food related gyaaan which I can keep giving considering I have just done a small Ayurvedic course 😀 )

Gujarati Winter Sweets that generate heat and warm us up !

• Adadiyu: a traditional must – made of adad (urad flour), ghee, gundar (gum), dry fruits, seasoning and jaggery – strengthening and heating!

• Salampaak: a traditional must – made of saalam (not sure what this is, but it is probably a local awesome ingredient), jaggery, dry fruits, ghee and edible gum

• Methi Laddoo: a total delight – methi powder or some extract of the bitter methi leaves is used here (because we can’t actually see any green leaves in the sweet) jaggery, ghee, dry fruits. These laddoos I get in this ashram retain just enough bitter taste of the methi – I love it!

• Kachariyu – white & black – made of sesame white or black. A mix of the usual other ingredients – ghee/dry fruits with a heavy dose of sesame. Sesame are very heat generating.

• Gundarpaak – a lot of edible gum along with the usual ghee/dry fruits.. gundar is said to be very strength giving!

• Khajur paak: another delight when made well – lots of dates mashed up into lumpy squares and added dry fruits. No ghee in this afaik. That’s all. Pure delight. Possibly beats any chocolate bars in nutrition value and taste! 😀

• Soonth Gol: Made of dry ginger powder (soonth) , ghee and jaggery. Very easy to make at home. And a home remedy for cold related diseases. In fact for COVID-19, it is a home remedy recommended profusely by many relatives. It has helped many of them maintain their strength and body heat during COVID-19 infection.

So, one winter when the COVID madness is behind us, do visit Gujarat and try out some of these sweets. In fact, these sweets are only the tip of the iceberg. I am sure there are many more which I don’t know about. There are also a plethora of other (vegetarian) foods that are famous winter delicacies like Undhiyu, Lilva Kachori, Ponk and more. Read my blogs on those here:

https://maproute.in/joy-of-gujarati-winter-vegetables-undhiyu-umbadiyu-tuver-papdi-and-more

Have you tried any of these sweets? How did you like them? And any more I should add and try out? Let me know…