Delicious Goan Ragi Coconut Milk Pudding

Vegan, Gluten-free, Instant Finger Millet Pudding

Today’s recipe is a gluten-free instant ragi pudding or nachni pudding. I’m going to show you how to make this tasty finger millet pudding the Goan way. The recipe has a modern twist. Instead of starting with soaking the ragi seeds, we’ll start with Ragi flour. And the pudding is made with no sugar, no milk, and yet it’s an iron and calcium rich dessert. This delicious instant ragi pudding is a modern take on a traditional Goan recipe, and is made with ragi flour, jaggery, and coconut milk. Perfect for a healthy dessert, it’s a vegan dish, and a naturally gluten-free pudding.

This quick version cuts down on time but keeps all the flavour. Ragi is a super millet that helps in lowering bad cholesterol levels and also believed to slow down the process of aging. It is called nachni in Goa and Maharashtra, and finger millet in English.

If you’re interested in some other tasty puddings, you might enjoy the Goan tizaan (a softer and less sweet version of today’s pudding), multigrain Goan pudding – goddxem, my steamed caramel bread pudding, the creamy no agar-agar, no gelatin, mango pudding, my easy coconut pudding, my super tasty coffee pudding,  my baked and steamed versions of mango pudding without corn flour, and creamy mango kheer.

Ingredients

90g (¾ cup) nachni satva /nachni (ragi) flour

1 ¼ cup coconut milk (from ¾ cup grated coconut)

½ cup water

¼ tsp salt

160g (¾ cup + 1 tbsp) grated jaggery

½ tsp ground cardamom

3 tbsp chopped cashew nuts

2 tsp ghee

A few cashew nuts and pistachios for topping

2 tsp sesame seeds

6-inch cake pan for setting the pudding

Procedure

1. Extract coconut milk or reconstitute coconut milk powder or use canned coconut milk.
2. Add nachni satva to pan. Add coconut milk. Mix. Stir in ½ cup water and ¼ tsp salt.
3. Heat on medium-low flame with constant stirring till it forms a soft mass free from lumps (takes around 5 minutes).
4. Add finely grated jaggery. Mix and continue heating for another 5 minutes till the mixture thickens considerably. Add ground cardamom and chopped nuts. Mix. Cook for 2 minutes. Add in the ghee. Continue stirring for around 3-4 minutes till the mixture leaves the sides of the pan.
5. Pour a little into a small greased vati / mould and the rest into a greased 6-inch round pan, the bottom of which has a light sprinkling of sesame seeds and a few cashew nut halves.
6. Let the pudding cool completely. To enjoy it cold, chill it in the fridge for an hour.
7. Unmould the pudding. Slice and taste it.

Enjoy!