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Pecan Banana Rice Balls (Aval Laddu)

Made with “aval” or rice flakes and a mashed banana, these cardamom, cinnamon, and vanilla spiked, Pecan Banana Rice Balls are a quick, indulgent, and energizing treat!

Spiced Pecan Banana Rice Balls - Aval Laddu

With Einstein’s words: “time is relative; its only worth depends upon what we do as it is passing” in the back of my mind, I took the last few days of July off to spend some quality time with my daughter doing what made her heart happy – and apparently, what made her heart happiest was us packing up and heading north to New York City.

So, these past nine days found us sampling Cronuts, Catch’s Hit Me, Levain Bakery cookies, Amorino Gelato roses, Don Antonio’s pizza, and eating all the pistachio treats at our favorite Brooklyn cafe and bakery: Fabiane’s! We also indulged ourselves in early morning runs at Central park and walking for miles through the boroughs, averaging about 18-20 conversation-filled miles every day – and to me, every second meant so much!

New-York-ggnoads

We were also so very fortunate to be able to spend time with some of my favorite New York Bloggers. Lindsey @ American Heritage Cooking and Suzanne @ Pug In The Kitchen who shared with us some cheek-hurting laughs and gave us so much food for thought. And, David @ Spiced, his wife, and little son who spent a whole day engrossing my daughter and I in spirited conversations and then sent us home with a whole bunch of Saratoga Springs mementos.

Aval Laddu - Spiced Pecan Banana Rice Balls

Yes, these past nine days was time well spent for my daughter and me – time well spent before she starts her crazy senior year of high school next week! Now that we are back home in Atlanta, our eats and treats have reverted back to homemade ones. As I am trying to ease into cooking again, these little “Aval Laddu”or Spiced Pecan Banana Rice Balls require no baking or cooking of any sort.

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These Aval Laddu are a twist on a favorite childhood snack my Mother and Grandmother would feed me using simple “aval” or rice flakes and a mashed banana. If the banana wasn’t ripe enough, jaggery, brown sugar or date syrup was added to sweeten it up. All ingredients were usually placed in a bowl and mixed by hand and then formed into balls or bites which were eaten asap.

Aval Laddu - Spiced Pecan Banana Rice Balls

However, my version of Aval Laddu ~ Spiced Pecan Banana Rice Balls uses flavorings like cinnamon, cardamom and vanilla and coconut flour, pecans and coconut flakes. I also used some of the maple syrup David @ Spiced shared with me, though you could also use brown sugar. I also made these Aval Laddus on Sunday night and have stored them in the fridge for the past couple of days – though I wouldn’t recommend storing them in the fridge for more than 4 to 5 days; just like I wouldn’t recommend eating these as soon as they are made as they taste better when they have been left to chillax in the fridge for a couple of hours or so.

Aval Laddu - Spiced Pecan Banana Rice Balls

Aval Laddu ~ Spiced Pecan Banana Rice Balls

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 10 minutes

Made with "aval" or rice flakes and a mashed banana, these cardamom, cinnamon, and vanilla spiked, Pecan Banana Rice Balls are a quick, indulgent, and energizing treat!

Ingredients

  • 1 cup aval, flaked red rice available at most South Asian Stores
  • 1 mashed banana
  • 2 tablespoons maple syrup or 1/4 cup brown sugar/jaggery
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon cardamom
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 2 tablespoons coconut flour
  • 1/4 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
  • 1/4 cup pecan chips

Instructions

  1. Place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix together using a spoon.
  2. Then, using your hands, form each bite in a ball
  3. Chill for a couple of hours and enjoy

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Aval Laddu - Spiced Pecan Banana Rice Balls

No Bake White Chocolate Almond Bites - Savory Spin

Wednesday 2nd of June 2021

[…] you are looking for more easy, no-bake treats, make sure to check out these Pecan Banana Rice Balls as well as these Caramel Chocolate […]

Puja Darshan

Friday 5th of August 2016

It's so tempting and I feel like gobbling up everyone of those pieces that I see. Great share Shashi!!!

Megan - The Emotional Baker

Friday 5th of August 2016

It sounds like you had so much fun in NY!! I'm way over due for a trip north!

These balls look like a great treat! I have to hunt down these special ingredients :)

Kevin | Keviniscooking

Friday 5th of August 2016

It sounds like a fantastic time was had by all. I love visiting and walking around places we visit and getting in with the people who live there and it sounds like you did all that and more. NYC is so fun! I recently came across Lindsey's site and am so glad I did. Happy to hear you met up with David and the family. Isn't the food blogging world so fun and when you meet others in person it's icing on the cake. Loving the favors in this and the spices, too Shashi.

Ben Maclain

Wednesday 3rd of August 2016

Shashi, this trip sounds like full of fun (And apparently, delicious food haha.) But welcome back and thanks for bringing these delicious balls! Did you manage to put all my favorite things in them? Cardamom, cinnamon, bananas, pecans, maple syrup...well I'm tired of counting:) Stop, you didn't put any lavender! Disappointed:) Well done, indeed. When you have your next trip, I hope you'll be flying above Canada and be able to drop a food parcel for me:)

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