Jump to Recipe Jump to Video Print Recipe

Okkarai is a famous traditional South Indian sweet dish that is made on the auspicious day of Diwali. I still remember my older days where in my mom prepares only Okkarai and Vadai for Diwali. Probably we weren't afford to make other sweets and snacks during those days. Even today, in many brahmin families Okkarai is one of the mandatory sweet which is prepared on the auspicious day of Diwali. This simple dish Okkarai needs only less expensive ingredients and readily available materials in any house.

For Diwali, we make lots of Sweets and Snacks and most of the sweets are made of sugar. This okkarai is mainly made with Kadala Paruppu (Split Bengal Gram) and jaggery. We all have elders at home who might have diabetics and other medical conditions that prevent them from having sugary sweets. This Okkarai is one special sweet that suits everyone in our family.

Table of Contents

How to get perfect Diwali Okkarai | Ukkarai

Soaking or Pressure Cooking Dal : We can dry roast the dal and soak in hot water for about 2 hours and then grind it to paste and follow the rest of the crumbling procedure.
Pressure cook for just 3 whistles with less water: We need to add water just till 1" more than the roasted dal. Also allow only for 2-3 whistles. We don't need mushy dal for this okkarai.
Jaggery Consistency: We don't need any particular consistency for jaggery. We need to melt, strain and bring it to boil till the syrup is sticky. My grandmother used to grind jaggery along with the dal and crumble the whole dal+jaggery mixture in a pan. But nowadays most of the jaggery has lots of dirt and hence to strain those dirt we are not grinding with dal.
Do not over cook: Once the Okkarai starts to crumble, switch off the flame. Do not over cook or it will turn chewy. The mixture gets even more crumbled upon cooling.

You can also try other traditional Sweets:

Recipe Card:

Method with Step by Step Pictures:

PREPARING SPLIT BENGAL GRAM (CHANNA DAL / KADALAPARUPPU)

Add hot boiling water to chana dal and soak the dal for 2-3 hours

After 3 hours, drain water from the soaked dal and let the dal rest for 20 mins till all the moisture is drained.

GRINDING DAL

Take the soaked and drained dal to mixer jar and grind it to thick smooth paste

Heat 2 teaspoon of ghee in a pan. Add the ground dal paste and give a good mix.

Keep the flame low, and keep stirring till the mixture gets crumbled completely.

Take this crumbled mixture in a mixer jar and give a pulse or two to get perfectly crumbled texture of the dal.

PREPARING JAGGERY JUICE

Take the grated jaggery in a vessel and add ½ cup of water and keep it in flame. Let the jaggery gets dissolved in water completely.

CRUMBLE OKKARAI

Remove the vessel from flame and strain the jaggery juice to a pan to get rid of all sand or dust particles in jaggery

Keep the pan in flame and bring the jaggery suryp to boil. When the syrup starts to thicken, if you take a drop of syrup and add it to a cup of water, you should be able to roll the syrup as a soft ball. This is the correct consistency.

To the syrup, add the crumbled dal mixture along with cardamom powder and grated coconut. Mix well. Slowly the channadal mixture starts to cumble and becomes soft like puttu.

Add 1 tablespoon of ghee and keep the flame very low and occasionally mix the okkarai. Heat another pan, add a teaspoon of ghee and roast the broken cashews till they turn golden brown color.

Add the roasted cashews and mix well.The okkarai breaks down into smaller pieces and it should be soft. When we take the small pieces in hand and make into ball then this is the right stage to remove the okkarai out off the flame.