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 (62.5 g) 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 (0.5 teaspoon) baking powder
- a generous pinch of salt
- a pinch of black salt/kala namak optional
- 1/4 cup (70 g) sweet potato puree well mashed boiled sweet potato or plain canned
- 1 Tablespoon Oil
- 1-2 Tablespoons (1 Tablespoons) water
Glutenfree version: Makes 12-14
- 1/4 cup (30 g) Oat flour
- 2 Tablespoons Brown rice flour
- 3 Tablespoons Tapioca starch
- 1/3 teaspoon (0.33 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 (236.59 g) ground raw sugar or other vegan sugar
- 1 cup (250 ml) water
- a pinch of salt
- 1/4 teaspoon (0.25 teaspoon) cardamom powder o r 2-3 cardamom pods seeds crushed
- 1/4 teaspoon (0.25 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
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.
Shanya Kapur
Hi,
I want to try the gluten free version.
So can I use soya milk powder and almond flour instead of oats?
How do I make the sweet potato purée?
Also am planing to air fry it a little before frying, any tips on that?
Laxmi Iyer
I tried the GF Vegan gulab jamun this morning…
There was a burst of jamoons..
The whole splash all over the kitchen few on my hand…
Then I finally airfried them..
Turned out dam hard such a disaster…
I followed the recipe as it is…
Wonder where I went wrong…
Vegan Richa Support
oh no!!! I hope that your hand is better…. did you place them in the oil gently?
Richa
It sounds like too much leavening. Did you accidentally use baking soda instead of baking powder?
Pri
Can brown rice flour be substituted with white rice flour?
Vegan Richa Support
yes – In most baking applications, the two are virtually interchangeable.
Navjit
Thanks so much for this delicious recipe! The gulab jamuns tasted great, however, they were flaking apart when I went to fry them in the oil. I tried a second batch with a little less sweet potato and lower oil temperature but the same thing happened. This was with the gluten free and vegan version. Do you have any thoughts on what might have gone wrong?
Vegan Richa Support
Oh! sorry to hear that. did you let the batter sit for 10 min? less sweet potato would make them a little drier – so try adding a little more until the batter looks like the photo. for the wheat version – dough should be soft and non sticky. Use a few teaspoons more water or wheat flour if needed. and for the GF version: Add a tbsp soy flour and that should help with the binding and moisture
Anand
Almost perfect replacement of dairy-heavy gulab jamun! I made this for the first time for Deepavali 2020 and it came out great. About 90% the same as regular gulab jamun. Only the texture was slightly different. It is going to be hard to mimic the fine and soft texture of milk powder in the regular gulab jamun. Overall it greatly exceeded my expectations. I don’t think there is any need to make dairy-heavy gulab jamuns anymore.
The instructions said that the dough should not be sticky. Mine was sticky even after adding a bit more water and flour. I was afraid to add more. It turned out fine in the end. Almost all of them held their shape very well.
Richa
Awesome! Yes it can get sticky as you work the dough. It’s just right amount of mixing and witb a light hand. Even when it is sticky you can shape then using flour dusted hands.
Yes milk powder has the different protein and chewy ness that probably will need some processing of some ingredients. Maybe one day some brands will crack that and make some
Anonymous
Hi Richa, Thank you for putting your recipes out into the world. Have you tried this recipe with coconut milk powder? If yes, how would you suggest modifying the gluten-free version / which ingredients would you suggest replacing or adding to make that work? Looking forward to your response. Thanks!
Richa
I haven’t tried this particular recipe. I think coconut milk powder is too fatty without any volume substance to work here
Aishwarya
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?
Richa
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
Aishwarya
How do I know what’s the optimum temperature. Do you generally recommend low to medium flame?
Aishwarya
Oh forgot to add. I’m trying the regular ones with every flour
Richa
I usually use medium but stoves vary so try low-medium
Priyanka
Is there a substitute for the sweet potato puree? Would perhaps butternut squash or pumpkin puree work?
Richa
Yes or use vegan yogurt or thick cashew cream
Leena Menon
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
Richa
You can air fry these. They won’t brown as much. Poke a hole after done and then soak
Srishti P
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.
Vegan Richa Support
good to know Srishti, thanks a million.
Kartik Kamdar
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!
Richa
Try the regular flour one. Not the Glutenfree. That is the closest to regular Jamuns
Radhika
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
Vegan Richa Support
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.
Vivina
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.
Richa
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.
Sunshine
Hi, I tried these and failed! They were hard as rocks and inedible. What could have been the problem?
Richa
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
Lynley
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.
Richa
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.
Lynley
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.
Chand
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!!
Richa
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!
Swati
Hi Richa,
I’d love to make this recipe for Diwali, is there a replacement available for the nuts?
Thanks
Richa
You can use coconut cream and some breadcrumbs and omit the nut flours
Vibha Jain
Hi,
I wanted to try gluten free option, can I use corn starch in place of tapoica starch?
Also I have almond flour and wanted to use in this recipe, plz let me know if I can use it somehow…
Richa
yes cornstarch is ok. you can add 2 tbsp almond flour. you might need abit more sweet potato puree for binding
DS
Oats is not gluten free. It has another variant of gluten in it. So strictly not a gluten free recipe
Richa
You can find certified gluten-free oats. Most oats often get contaminated while handling and processing. hence uncertified might not be safe as glutenfree. People can also be sensitive to pure oats. As far as I know Oat sensitivity is generally not put under glutenfree. Many people who are sensitive to gluten can eat uncontaminated oats. Products will have labels that say gluten-free and oat-free.
ab2018
Are the gluten free versions soft and light like the real ones, or are they more dense like donuts? Thanks!
Richa
both versions shouldbe soft. It depends on the process and handling etc. just like real gulab jamuns when youmake them at home, they can be hard or soft, hit or a miss depending on so many factors. So you would have to adjust things based on your ingredients, the dough etc and with practice they will be exactly like the real ones
Yanis
You said Gluten Free but I see you used wheat flour in the recipe what’s up with that?
Richa
Both recipes are in the same widget. See under gluten-free ingredients. The process is the same. So you can use either the wheat ingredients or the gluten-free ingredients to make the balls. See instructions. i’ll prbably move them into 2 different recipe widgets.
Niati
Hi Richa,
I made this recipie(glutenfree)….faced the following issues, please help:
1. The batter was very dry, so I added 2 tablespoon sweetpotato puree and 1 tbsp oil more to get it all together.
2. The GJ balls fried very well and smooth, but the moment I put them in the sugar syrup, they started disintegrating.
Please suggest what should I improve next time. My son loves GJ and I really want to make these healthy ones for him.
Thanks,
Richa
hmm, gluten free jamuns are pretty hard to figure out why they are disintegrating. You might need extra binding, somemore starch with the added sweet potato. In the book version i use soy milkpowder which helps bind the jamuns even more.
Gayatri Melkote
Richa, Indian Sweet Potato is the same as American Yam. American Sweet potato is not even related to it. Which one do you mean Indian or American Sweet potato?
Richa
use yams
Vidhi Shingla
What oil do you use for frying the balls? Thanks
Richa
organic high heat canola or safflower
Pooja Mehta
I tried this for Diwali this year and they’re brilliant! I’ve missed Gulab Jamun ever since I turned vegan, and was so delighted with these. The first few crumbled up a bit but I think that’s because my oil was not too hot…the ones after that were great! They’re delicious, thank you Richa 🙂
Richa
yay! awesome! yes, its the small tweaks and rules that we figure out based on the setting and such. Glad they worked out!
Johanna Unger
I’ll definitely try it but should it not include rose water??
Richa
yes you can add rosewater or other flavors to the sugar syrup towards the end.