Indian Sweet Recipe: Sugar FREE, LOW Fat, HIGH Protein Doodh Peda

Indian Sweet Recipe: Sugar FREE, LOW Fat, HIGH Protein Doodh Peda

Growing up in North Delta, next to Surrey BC, a lot of my closest friends were and are east indian so I got to experience a lot of different ethnic foods. One great thing about coming over to my friends houses as the white kid is all the food their parents would feed me and offer to me to try. This of course did NOT help me in my childhood obesity days but it was very enjoyable and gave me some major perspective on world cuisine.

One of the most interesting and tasty foods I ever tried were the indian sweets I would get around the holiday Diwali. I have a VERY strong sweet tooth so the syrupy and sugary indian sweets like Gulab Jamun, barfi, peda, and jalebi were some of my favourite addictions.

Unfortunately traditional indian sweet recipes are extremely HIGH in calories because of the deep frying and the amount of ghee (clarified butter) and sugar they use to make them. Being in the fitness and nutrition industry has gotten me more and more intrigued about creating LOWER calorie versions of these sweets.

Thus started my mini obsession.

Doodh Peda

Out of all the Indian sweets I’ve tried, one of my all time favourites (aside from Gulab Jamuns) is Doodh Peda. It is a doughy like sweet that can be nice and chewy with a hint of Cardamom and sometimes saffron.

After attempting many different recipes using condensed milk and the microwave I’ve found the LOWEST CALORIE and LOWEST FAT version I could come up with.

How?

How I was able to achieve such a LOW CALORIE version was using 0 calorie sweeteners like stevia or pure sucralose, STICK FREE Pan, SKIM Milk, and olive oil SPRAY.

The Recipe:

Ingredients:

976g (4 cups) Skim Milk 

1g Stevia

0.5g (1/4 Tsp) Cardamom

1/4 Tsp Citric Acid

6g (2 Tsp) Corn flour (dissolved in 3-4 tsp water without any lumps )

Ghee or olive oil spray – to grease

Method:

1. Boil milk in a STICK FREE pan and stir once in a while to avoid burning the bottom.
2. Approximately, after 1 hour the milk should be reduced to half. Then add citric acid (or lime juice), sweetener, and corn cornstarch dissolved in water.
3. Stir the milk every 2 to 3 minutes. Once the milk starts to thicken, stir the mix continuously.
4. Once the mix is almost thickened to a doughy state, remove from heat and allow this to cool.
5. Grease your hands with little olive oil spray, then shape them into small balls and garnish with any nuts of your choice (optional).

Macronutrients:

Serving: Full recipe 155g

Calories: 364.2

P: 33g

C: 54.2g

F: 1.7g

Sodium: 410mg

Conclusion:

This version of the Doodh Peda is not as rich or creamy compare to using sweetened condensed milk, full fat whole milk, or a whack load of ghee and sugar. This version also takes more TIME compared to the instant versions of using a microwave.

Comparisons:

Here are the Macronutrients in the microwave version using condensed milk and instant skim milk powder:

Serving: 232.25g

Calories: 1,019

P: 46.4g

C: 159.3g

F: 16.2g

Here are the Macronutrients in the stove top version using Evaporated milk and instant skim milk powder:

Serving: Full recipe 255g

Calories: 1190

P: 68g

C: 142.4g

F: 36.9

As you can see Doodh Peda is a very rich sweet and these recipes I’ve tried above are still lower calorie versions than even more traditional peda’s you typically buy in the store.

Try out the LOW CALORIE recipe above and if you want you can ADD ghee/butter OR use WHOLE MILK for a more rich and creamy version. Just don’t forget to count the extra fat calories because they will be significantly higher.

Chocolate Doodh Peda (10g of Cocoa Powder):

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