Rajgira Wadi and Amaranto con chocolate

Rajgira Wadi is a favourite during fasts in India. It's sweet and crumbles in your mouth. It's also gluten free and you can make the recipe vegan by swapping the ghee for something vegan! Do not eliminate the ghee from the recipe altogether, since that'll make the wadis hard and difficult to eat.
It's very quick and easy to make. All you've to do is make a hardball consistency syrup with the jaggery and ghee and then pop in the puffed Rajgira, nuts, coconut and cardamom powder. Mix it all up, pop it into a pan and once it sets, dig in!
Checkout my Rajgira Wadi recipe here.

Amaranto con chocolate is a similar Mexican recipe. It uses honey instead of jaggery syrup, and cocoa powder for flavouring. There's no nuts in this recipe.Checkout Sylvia's recipe here.

Rajgira Wadi

Rajgira Wadi is made using puffed Rajgira grain, also known as Amaranth. It's quick and easy to make. This recipe can either be formed into ladoos or wadis. A good Rajgira ladoo/wadi should be firm but not hard to bite into. My favourite way to eat these (apart from per se), is to dunk them in some milk. That way, you get a sweetened milk with puffed rajgira, just like cornflakes, but without the corn! Here's how to make them:

Recipe for Rajgira Wadi

Ingredients:

Jaggery, broken into small rocks	1 cup
Water	2 tsp
Ghee	1/2 tsp
Puffed rajgra	1 cup
Dry coconut, grated and roasted	1/4 cup
Roasted peanuts, ground as coarse or fine as you like	3/4 cup
Cardamom Powder	1/2 tsp

How to make Rajgira Wadi:

1. Mix the water. ghee and jaggery in a pan and heat it. continue until you reach a hardball stage and turn off the heat. 
2. Add the coconut, peanuts, puffed rajgira and cardamom powder and mix well.
3. Stir the mixture for 3-5 minutes and then turn it onto a greased wadi/ baking tin. Pat it to level it evenly. Score the slab into wadis (usually square shaped) and let cool.
4. Once done, break the slab into wadis allong the score lines and you're done!

These can be stored into an airtight container and stay well for ~1 month on the counter.

Rajgira / Amaranth

Rajgira, also known as Amaranth is a perinial plant. In India we eat Rajgira leaves (like spinach), cooked into a bhaji as well as the seeds. The seeds are popped/puffed and made into quite a few recipes like Rajgira ladoo or wadi. Rajgira flour is used to make bhakri, (an Indian flatbread) or puri especially when fasting. Amaranth is rich in proteins and is a naturally gluten free food. It is considered a complete protein as it contains all essential amino acids. It is a good source of calcium magnesium and iron.