Vella Sadam | Jaggery Rice

Are you looking for some simple sweet recipes this festive season? Then here is perfect sweet jaggery rice, popularly known as vella sadam in Tamil.

Check out how to make this delicious rice with step-wise pictures.

Indian festivals are incomplete without sweets, and we offer sweets as offering to God for all the major festivals. In Tamil, we call these offerings as neivediyam or prasadam.

Vella sadam or the sweet jaggery rice is my goto option for sweets, especially when the festivals fall on working day here in the US. Instead of kheer, I make this vella sadam. Are you wondering why? It’s super easy and effortless.

I learned this recipe from my MIL, and I can’t thank her enough for this recipe.

You might all ask if vella sadam is chakkarai pongal, or what’s the difference between these two? Vellam sadam is not chakkarai pongal but more like it. For vella sadam, we don’t use moong dal; also, we don’t add any milk. So you can easily customize it and make it a vegan sweet.

We make a similar sweet with poha and it’s vella aval. Do check it out as well. 

Vella sadam involves two main steps-

1. Cook the rice
2. Prepare the jaggery syrup and mix it with the rice.

And you add some roasted cashews, but that’s optional. That’s it. Isn’t it easy?

So I cook the rice for the jaggery rice separately in the pressure cooker using the stackable pans and dal and veggies. And then, I prepare the jaggery mix and add the rice and let it sit. By the neivediyam time, the rice would have absorbed all the syrup and tada it will be all ready.

Vella sadam recipe with detailed step-wise pictures-

Cook the rice-

• Rinse the rice and cook it in your preferred way. I cooked my rice in the pressure cooker by adding 1 cup of water for three whistles. Let the pressure subside and set the rice aside.

Prepare the jaggery syrup/mix and mix with the rice-

• Bring 1 cup of water to boil in a saucepan. Then add the jaggery and cardamom powder. When the jaggery melts, add the coconut and mix. We don’t need to worry any about any consistency here. Make sure you melt the jaggery completely.
• Now add the cooked rice and mix well. You will notice that the rice will be watery. That’s normal. Just cook for 4 to 5 minutes over medium-low heat. Then turn off the heat. 
• As the rice cools down, it thickens completely. The rice will absorb all the water. So don’t worry if you see some moisture in the rice. 

Prepare the cashew tempering-

• In a separate tempering pan, melt the ghee. When the ghee melts, add the cashews and roast until it turns till golden brown. 
• Add this roasted cashews to the vella sadam. Mix and enjoy!

Serve it warm.

Recipe Notes-

• Adjust the jaggery amount as per your taste.
• I used grated coconut for this recipe. But you can use small coconut pieces and roast it in ghee or oil and add it to the rice.
• Along with cashews, you can use raisins and other nuts also.
• The jaggery variety that I used didn’t have any impurities, so I did not filter it. But if you feel your jaggery has impurities, before adding coconut, strain it once. 

Flavor variations-

• I usually add cardamom. But you can add a pinch of edible camphor and some grated nutmeg or cloves and make it more like sakkarai pongal. All these are flavor enhances, so adjust it according to your personal preference.

Make it vegan-

• Unlike sweet pongal, we don’t need any milk for this rice. So you can skip the ghee tempering and keep it vegan and nut-free. Or you can use vegan butter or margarine and do the tempering. 

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5 from 1 vote

Vella Sadam | Jaggery Rice

Perfect sweet jaggery rice, popularly known as vella sadam in Tamil. Check out how to make this delicious rice with step-wise pictures.

Prep Time5 minutes mins

Cook Time40 minutes mins

Total Time45 minutes mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Tamil Nadu

Servings: 4

Calories: 288kcal

Author: Srividhya G

Equipment

• Instant Pot or Pressure Cooker
• Saucepan or kadai

Ingredients

Measurement Detail: 1 cup=240ml; 1tbsp=15ml; 1tsp=5ml;

• ▢ ½ cup raw rice I used handpound rice
• ▢ 2 cups water divided 1 cup for cooking the rice.
• ▢ ¾ cup jaggery
• ▢ ¼ cup coconut grated
• ▢ ½ tsp cardamom

To Temper

• ▢ 2 tsp ghee
• ▢ 1 tbsp cardamoms broken into small pieces

Instructions

Cook the rice

• Rinse the rice and cook it in your preferred way. I cooked my rice in the pressure cooker by adding 1 cup of water for three whistles. Let the pressure subside and set the rice aside.
• Prepare the jaggery syrup/mix and mix with the rice-
• Bring 1 cup of water to boil in a saucepan. Then add the jaggery and cardamom powder. When the jaggery melts, add the coconut and mix. We don't need to worry any about any consistency here. Make sure you melt the jaggery completely.
• Now add the cooked rice and mix well. You will notice that the rice will be watery. That's normal. Just cook for 4 to 5 minutes over medium-low heat. Then turn off the heat.
• As the rice cools down, it thickens completely. The rice will absorb all the water. So don't worry if you see some moisture in the rice.

Prepare the cashew tempering-

• In a separate tempering pan, melt the ghee. When the ghee melts, add the cashews and roast until it turns till golden brown.
• Add this roasted cashews to the vella sadam. Mix and enjoy! Serve it warm.

Notes

• Adjust the jaggery amount as per your taste.
• I used grated coconut for this recipe. But you can use small coconut pieces and roast it in ghee or oil and add it to the rice.
• Along with cashews, you can use raisins and other nuts also.
• The jaggery variety that I used didn't have any impurities, so I did not filter it. But if you feel your jaggery has impurities, before adding coconut, strain it once.
• Flavor variations-
• I usually add cardamom. But you can add a pinch of edible camphor and some grated nutmeg or cloves and make it more like sakkarai pongal. All these are flavor enhances, so adjust it according to your personal preference.
• Make it vegan-
• Unlike sweet pongal, we don't need any milk for this rice. So you can skip the ghee tempering and keep it vegan and nut-free. Or you can use vegan butter or margarine and do the tempering.

Nutrition

Calories: 288kcal | Carbohydrates: 58g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 4g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Cholesterol: 6mg | Sodium: 8mg | Potassium: 61mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 38g | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 28mg | Iron: 1mg

I am not a nutritionist. The nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. It varies depending upon the product types or brands.

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Update notes- Recipe updated with step-wise pictures, new pictures, and recipe cards in 2020.