Almond and Amaranth Ladoo

• Dry roast the amaranth seeds in a pan over a medium flame until they start popping. Remove from the gas and set aside.
• Dry roast almonds in a pan for 3 minutes on a medium flame. Set aside.
• Crush jaggery into small pieces.
• Heat a pan and add jaggery pieces to it. Cook on a low flame.
• Keep crushing and stirring the jaggery with a spatula until it melts.
• Add the roasted amaranth seeds and almonds to the melted jaggery. Mix well and remove from the flame. Cool the jaggery mixture for 4 minutes.
• Wet your hands with water, take a small portion from jaggery mixture, and shape into a small ball.
• Divide the jaggery mixture into 15 pieces and shape into small round balls.
• Cool the almond and amaranth ladoos for an hour and then serve.

Trivia

Amaranth or rajgira means “immortal” or “everlasting” in Greek because it contains minerals in abundant quantity. No other grain except amaranth contains Vitamin C. The amaranth kernels are very small, a teaspoon would contain about 4000 kernels.

Amaranth has been cultivated for 8000 years and was a part of the staple diet of the Aztecs. The Aztecs shaped images of their gods with amaranth and other cereals during the sacred month of Huitzilopochtli. At the end of the month, the statues were eaten to "take the god into them". Nowadays, on the Day of the Dead, amaranth seeds are offered as snack foods for spirits in Mexican culture. Edible skulls were made with amaranth seeds in olden times.