Thinai kesari/ Foxtail millet is a healthy and delicious sweet that can be prepared easily with handful ingredients during festivals like Navaratri/ special occasions. Kesari is a traditional sweet in South India and is made with sooji/ rava/ semolina which tastes super yum and can whipped up quickly as an evening snack/ offered as neivedyam/ sweet for guests also. According to me the best tasting rava kesari is always the one given as prasadam in temple😋😋 and feel it is unbeatable.
Back to the recipe so to keep the recipe healthy I prepared this sweet with millet (thinai) and also used brown sugar/ cane sugar. You could also try making kesari with other millets like barnyard millet and Varagu. As I the color from brown sugar was appetizing to look at I skipped orange/ yellow food color in which kesari typically appears. So let’s get to the making of foxtail millet kesari!!
You may be interested in other recipes below:
If you have missed other Navaratri posts/ recipes they are below:
- Green gram sweet sundal
- Karamani sundal, Black eyed peas sundal recipe
- Sweet corn sundal
- Kollu sundal, Horse gram sundal
- Channa masala sundal
- Rajma sundal recipe
- Green chana sundal, Chana sundal
- Moong dal sundal recipe, Pasi paruppu sundal
- Jowar/ Cholam ladoo
- Varagu sakkarai pongal
- Broken wheat sweet pongal, Sakkarai pongal recipe
- Jowar/ Cholam ladoo
- Varagu sakkarai pongal
- Karupatti thengai poli
- Chana dal halwa
- Tapioca halwa
- Malai ladoo
- 1. Thinai/ Foxtail millet – ½ cup
- 2. Water – 2 cups
- 3. Brown sugar/ cane sugar – 1/3 to ½ cup
- 4. Cardamom powder – 2 tbsp
- 5. Cashews – 4
- 6. Dry grapes/ Raisins - 4
- 7. Ghee - 3 to 4 tbsp
- * 1 cup = 235 ml
- Wash thinai/ foxtail millet and soak it in water for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes drain the water and keep it aside. Soaking makes millet cook faster.
- Now in a pan add a tsp ghee and fry cashews and raisins. When cashews turn golden brown and when raisins plump remove it from the pan and keep it aside. Now in the same pan/ pot add a tsp of ghee and soaked thinai. Roast it for a minute.
- When thinai looks little roasted add 2 cups water and cook the millet with lid on in low to medium flame until fully cooked. This should take about 10 minutes. After 10 minutes remove the lid and thinai will be fully cooked with little water left.
- Now to this cooked thinai add brown sugar/ white sugar and cardamom powder. Mix well and the kesari will loosen up. Finally add the ghee fried cashews, raisins and remaining ghee. Mix well and serve it hot..
How to make Thinai kesari with step by step images
- Wash thinai/ foxtail millet and soak it in water for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes drain the water and keep it aside. Soaking makes millet cook faster.
- Now in a pan add a tsp ghee and fry cashews and raisins. When cashews turn golden brown and when raisins plump remove it from the pan and keep it aside. Now in the same pan/ pot add a tsp of ghee and soaked thinai. Roast it for a minute.
- When thinai looks little roasted add 2 cups water and cook the millet with lid on in low to medium flame until fully cooked. This should take about 10 minutes. After 10 minutes remove the lid and thinai will be fully cooked with little water left.
- Now to this cooked thinai add brown sugar/ white sugar and cardamom powder. Mix well and the kesari will loosen up. Finally add the ghee fried cashews, raisins and remaining ghee. Mix well and serve it hot.
Related posts:
Channa masala sundal, Kondakadalai sundal recipe, How to make chickpeas sundal
Green gram sweet sundal, Pachai payaru sundal
Varagu arisi sakkarai pongal, Millet sakkarai pongal
Padhir peni recipe, Chiroti recipe
Chana dal halwa recipe
Jowar ladoo recipe, Sorghum ladoo, Cholam ladoo
Tapioca halwa recipe, Cassava halwa
No onion no garlic veg pulao recipe, Vegetable pulao
Karupatti thengai poli recipe, Coconut poli
Malai ladoo recipe, Chena ladoo
