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Another Year, Another Indian festival. Holi marks the end of winter, celebrates the onset of Spring, and celebrates the victory of good over evil in several mythological stories. It is a carefree happy festival of colors celebrated for 2 days. On the first evening, bonfires are lit with old dried trees and leaves to make way for the new and for warmth. The bonfires also have several stories associated with them depending on the region. On the second day, people usually use dry or wet color to drench you in multiple colors.
Because sometimes everyone needs to indulge in the foods we grew up with(deep fried mozzarella! now that is also on the to-do list), I try to vegan-ize the not necessarily healthy desserts as well. I make these deep fried sweet balls or similar decadent sweets, two or three times a year. Once mainly during Diwali and then for other festivals if we decide to celebrate them with friends.
This post has the new and improved version of the Gulab Jamuns. And if you dont like all that gluten from the wheat, I have an awesome gluten-free version in the post too. Nothing is Impossible. 2 recipes, same deliciousness. I served the wheat version to unsuspecting people at a Diwali get together last year, and most did not catch the missing dairy. No milk powder, No Khoya, Similar taste = everyone happy, including the cows and calfs.
The top jamun with less cracks is glutenfree.
Please pardon the title, eggless and dairy-free seem to get thousands more search queries compared to the vegan keyword :).
The idea of using Sweet potato in the dough is adapted from Dr Varadarangan’s recipe. I dont have all purpose flour in the house anymore, so I use whole wheat flour and a little cashew and oat to add more texture to the Jamuns. The sweet potato adds the perfect moist denseness to the jamuns like the usual dairy ones.
I love both versions. The wheat ones are softer while the Glutenfree ones retain their shape much better. There is a very slight difference in taste if you go looking for it. But in a bowl of both together, you wont find the gf ones. Oh, and did I mention, there is No Soy. No soy milk powder or tofu. 🙂 Make them!
Most Indian Desserts can easily fit into a non-Indian spread. These GJs are somewhat like Sweet Potato doughnut holes. the difference being that these balls are soaked through with flavored sugar syrup instead of thick icing. Use your favorite flavors in the syrup(cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, gingerbread spice) and these can be your sticky soft doughnut hole dessert.
More Veganized Indian Sweets collection here.
I love the texture of the GJs.
Steps:
Mix all dry.
Add wet to dry and make dough . Wheat cashew dough below.
Glutenfree Oat batter dough below.
Let sit for 10 minutes. Make balls and fry.
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Soak the balls in sugar syrup for half an hour before consuming.
These recipes updated for even better gulab jamuns in my cookbook! Now Available worldwide!!
The Best Vegan & Glutenfree Gulab Jamuns. Dairyfree Eggless Recipe
Ingredients
Wheat version:
- 1/2 cup wheat flour, or 1/4 cup flour and 1/4 up bread crumbs
- 2 Tablespoons ground raw cashew, or almond
- 1 Tablespoon Oat flour
- 1 Tablespoon ground raw sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- a generous pinch of salt
- a pinch of black salt/kala namak, optional
- 1/4 cup sweet potato puree, well mashed boiled sweet potato or plain canned
- 1 Tablespoon Oil
- 1-2 Tablespoons water
Glutenfree version: Makes 12-14
- 1/4 cup Oat flour
- 2 Tablespoons Brown rice flour
- 3 Tablespoons Tapioca starch
- 1/3 teaspoon baking powder
- a pinch of salt
- 2 Tablespoons Sweet potato puree
- 1 teaspoon oil
- 2 teaspoons water
- Variation: Add a Tablespoon of ground raw cashew for added texture and a tbsp soy flour for additional binding and moisture
Sugar Syrup:
- 1 cup ground raw sugar , or other vegan sugar
- 1 cup water
- a pinch of salt
- 1/4 teaspoon cardamom powder o, r 2-3 cardamom pods seeds crushed
- 1/4 teaspoon saffron strands
Instructions
- Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the wet and mix well.
- The wheat dough should be soft and non sticky. Use a few teaspoons more water or wheat flour if needed.
- The glutenfree dough will be soft, more like a very thick batter and will get a bit dryer and more dough like after the 10 minutes.
- Cover the doughs with a towel and let sit for 10 minutes till you prep the sugar syrup and heat up the oil.
- Oil your hands and Make balls of the dough with a light hand. 1/2-3/4 inch size balls.
- Once the oil is hot, fry the balls on medium heat. The wheat balls will double in size and the glutenfree ones will increase to 1.5 times the size, so fry in small batches to keep enough space and cook evenly. If the oil is too hot, the jamuns will get dark quickly Or crack open and not cook from the inside.Turn them around every 2 minutes.
- Remove the balls once golden brown all over, not dark brown.(6-8 minutes). Let the balls sit out for a minute before adding to the hot sugar syrup.
- Place the balls in hot sugar syrup. keep the sugar syrup on low heat. Turn them around after 5 minutes and switch heat off. The balls soak unevenly for the first few minutes and look uneven too, but will even out after some time.
- Let them soak for at least half an hour. turn them around every 10 minutes. Serve warm or cold. Keep refrigerated for upto 3 days.
Sugar syrup:
- Mix the sugar and water and bring to a boil. Simmer for a few minutes until just about 1/2 string consistency.
- Add cardamom powder and saffron strands and keep ready.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Even though, the festival of Holi is about happiness and colors, it has several effects on people and the environment. Apart from the toxicity of the colors used(the colors are almost never tested and are toxic on the skin and eventually also end up in water sources), and the Holika Dahan bonfires(approx 30,000 bonfires each burning approximately 100 kg of wood are lit in one season), the other big impact is the usage or rather wastage of water. Water is an important commodity, with fresh water resources being used up rapidly and rampantly without a thought about the future.
Please read the excerpt below and choose to celebrate this Holi with natural color dry powders(turmeric, beet, spinach, tomato powders etc) and with no water.
Aabid Surti is a distinguished Indian painter and author. Aabid has written around 80 books but no story so moved him as the truth about water scarcity on the planet. “I read an interview of the former UN chief Boutros Boutros Ghali,” he recalls, “who said that by 2025 more than 40 countries are expected to experience water crisis. I remembered my childhood in a ghetto fighting for each bucket of water. I knew that shortage of water is the end of civilized life.”
Once he was sitting in a friend’s house and noticed a leaky tap. It bothered him. When he pointed it out, his friend, like others, dismissed it casually: it was too expensive and inconvenient to call a plumber for such a minor job – even plumbers resisted coming to only replace old gaskets.
A few days later, he came across a statistic in the newspaper: a tap that drips once every second wastes a thousand litres of water in a month.
That triggered an idea. He would take a plumber from door to door and fix taps for free – one apartment complex every weekend.
He began by simply replacing old O-ring rubber gaskets with new ones, buying new fixtures from the wholesale market. He named his one-man NGO ‘Drop Dead’ and created a tagline: save every drop… or drop dead.
Every Sunday, the Drop Dead team – which consisted of Aabid himself, Riyaaz the plumber and a female volunteer Tejal – picked the apartment blocks, got permission from the housing societies, and got to work. A day before, Tejal would hand out pamphlets explaining their mission and paste posters in elevators and apartment lobbies spreading awareness on the looming water crisis. And by Sunday afternoon, they would ensure the buildings were drip-dry.
By the end of the first year, they had visited 1533 homes and fixed around 400 taps.
Conservatively, it could be estimated that he has single-handedly saved at least 5.5m litres of water till date.
Hi Richa. I tried this recipe multiple times but something isn’t quite right. The balls are too fudgy and hard and don’t seem to cook from inside. Also the balls don’t double in size as it’s mentioned in the recipe. I have verified that my baking powder is active. In fact I use it for other baking dishes which turn out great. Any other tips on what I should change or tweak?
Are you making the regular version or Glutenfree. I think the oil maybe too hot. That causes them to get too hard without actually cooking enough inside
How do I know what’s the optimum temperature. Do you generally recommend low to medium flame?
Oh forgot to add. I’m trying the regular ones with every flour
I usually use medium but stoves vary so try low-medium
Is there a substitute for the sweet potato puree? Would perhaps butternut squash or pumpkin puree work?
Yes or use vegan yogurt or thick cashew cream
Hi Richa,
I love your recipes. Would love to try GJs. Could you please try a non-fried version as I do not use oil. I look forward to reading an oil free version in the future.
Plan to make your almond ladoos for Diwali. Wish you and your family a very Happy Diwali.
Thanks
Leena
You can air fry these. They won’t brown as much. Poke a hole after done and then soak
What temperature and how much time in the air fryer?
380 , 4-7 mins spending on the size of balls . Smaller balls will cook faster and evenly
Taste and texture turned out amazing! I used whole wheat flour and also used it in place of the oat flour. Definitely will make this again especially for Diwali. Had cracks in my gulab jamun as well when frying, but will tweak the frying temperature and amount of oil next time.
good to know Srishti, thanks a million.
Hey,
Thanks for the recipe. I am vegan and haven’t tried making gulab jamuns yet. However, I cam across your post and now my mom and I are definitely going to try to make it. I had a question though: There are multiple gulab jamun recipes on your page: “The Best Vegan & Glutenfree Gulab Jamuns. Dairyfree Eggless Recipe” and “Gulab Jamuns, Vegan (Indian Sweet Balls In Flavored Syrup)”. Which one should I try? Should I try the gluten-free or the normal version? I want to try to the one that tastes the same as normal gulab jamuns I have to convince my brother, who is not vegan, that vegan gulab jamuns can be as good as (if not better than) the original gulab jamuns. Thanks again!
Try the regular flour one. Not the Glutenfree. That is the closest to regular Jamuns
Hi, waiting to try this recipe. I just wanted to check if I can omit the sweet potato? Want to try the wheat version and don’t have sweet potatoes currently. Please let me know if I can substitute with anything else.
Thanks !
Radhika
Yes you can replace them with pumpkin puree or thick applesauce. the sweet potato adds the fudgy moistness to them. I dint use them in my older veganized version. though that worked well too, but the potatoes take it even closer to the original texture and taste. anything would definitely taste great in cardamom syrup but others will know it is not jamuns.. with this, they dont realize it until i tell them.
I made it and they tasted superb. Finally a vegan version of gulab jamun that I could make and enjoy. I made the wheat version and still had cracks, anything I could do to avoid the cracks.
they can happen if the balls are not even or the temperature of the oil is varying. you will figure out what works with a few tries.
Hi, I tried these and failed! They were hard as rocks and inedible. What could have been the problem?
did you try the regular gulabjamun mix or gluten-free? they have have been cooked for too long. If the sugar syrup is too thick, then that wont absorb into the hard ones, you can thin it out with a tbsp or water and simmer on low heat with the balls for 15 mins. The syrup should softenthem
Dear Richa,
Firstly, thank you so much for providing such inspiring and delicious recipes! I brag about your talent to everyone who will listen, lol!
I have tried so many of your recipes with great success. The GJ recipe inspired me to try it out after reading the comments. I’ve made non-v GJs before so I’m familiar with the technique. I used your wheat version with 1/2 flour and 1/2 bread crumbs. Everything else as is. The taste is fantastic but I was disappointed with the texture. Everything looked good but it was too soft. What do you recommend? More flour? The balls puffed as expected and I took them out after around 3-4 minutes, placed them in the warm syrup and checked 30 minutes later. Two things I changed as per my mother-in-law’s old recipe given to me. I put cardamom only in the balls and not in the syrup. Second, she advised me to poke a hole with a toothpick through each GJ so that they absorb liquid better. Not sure if these details help. The balls kept their shape and did not disintegrate. They were not crowded in the hot oil and nor were they crowded in the syrup. They doubled in size in the oil and again in the syrup, but if feels like they either absorbed too much syrup or were too soft to begin with.
Would you suggest repeating everything as is and no holes? Or would you suggest all flour and no breadcrumbs? Any advice would be great.
Thank you once again for all your expert recipes.
Did you completely omit the nuts? The nuts adds a lot more density so they are more dense and and just lightly soft. I think the breadcrumbs, the brand or size, some breadcrumbs are pretty big crumbs, and no nuts would make them a much lighter ball, which would in general absorb more syrup and with the extra hole it absorbed even more if that makes sense. If you can add any nuts, add 2-3 almonst flour or cashew flour and less breadcrumbs.
I followed your recipe, nuts and all. The taste is absolutely divine, no question. Do you generally make yours with 1/2 flour and 1/2 breadcrumbs or all flour? What’s the difference in texture or taste when you give that option in your recipe?
We’re 8 hours apart so I experimented a bit while awaiting your reply. I made the recipe again with 1/4 cup + 1/8 cup flour, 1/8 cup breadcrumbs, 2 tblps semolina (sooji). I didn’t poke holes this time. I also increased the baking powder to 3/4 t. Good size increase and better texture. Still a bit too soft for my liking so I wonder now about taking them out of the syrup a bit faster and not leaving them there for more than 30 minutes.
I have to say you’ve nailed it with the sweet potato! What a kick to the taste buds. Thank you as always.
Hi Richa!
Thanks so much for the recipe, really happy to finally find some vegan and gf versions! Can I switch the oat, rice and tapioca for gluten free flour (that’s usually a mix of these kind of flowers and starch) I would use the Schär gluten free flower if possible. Please let me know. Thanks a lot!!
Yes, you can use the GF blend. Add more of the cashew or almond flour. Because the blend usually have rice flour, it will make the balls dry so you want to add more nut flour in the dough. LMK how they turn out!