Aval Varattiyathu Recipe

Sweet Poha Recipe (Aval Varattiyathu)

This dish is quite popular in our house. Amma makes this often for evening snack and we enjoy it with either karupatti kaapi or on its own. This is a traditional recipe made all around Tamilnadu and Kerala.

Jump to:

• About Sweet Poha
• Watch Aval Varattiyathu Video
• Sweet Poha Ingredients
• How to Make Aval Varattiyathu (Stepwise Pictures)
• Amma's Aval Varatti (Soaking Method)
• Expert Tips
• 📖 Recipe Card

Usually Amma makes this during festive season like Gokulashtami where we make prasadham for lord Krishna. She served this and homemade butter during the occasion. But this is super easy dish to make anytime of the year and very healthy as well.

About Sweet Poha

Aval Varatti is also known as aval vilayichathu, vella aval, aval varattiyathu, or sweet poha. It is a traditional sweet recipe made with poha for special occasions like Krishna Jayanthi or Ganesh Chaturthi. It is said that Lord Krishna is fond of poha and homemade butter so as a tradition we serve it during the occasion of Gokulashtami.

The recipe is pretty easy to make all you need is poha, jaggery, ghee, coconut, dried fruits and nuts. Amma makes this dish two ways. She uses raw poha like I have used in this recipe and makes aval varatti. But sometimes she soaks the poha in water and use that to make this dish. Both ways, it taste delicious. I have shared both recipes in this blog post.

Similar Recipes,

Aval kozhukattai

Milk Poha

Poha Sweet Pongal

Aval payasam

Watch Aval Varattiyathu Video

Sweet Poha Ingredients

Poha - I always prefer to use red rice poha or matta rice poha since it is more healthy than white poha. But you can use whichever you prefer.

Jaggery - depending on your sweetness level you can add more or less jaggery to taste.

Coconut - fresh coconut is used in aval varatti. But you can easily use frozen coconut or desiccated coconut as well.

Ghee - pure desi ghee is added for flavour and taste.

Dried Fruits & Nuts - I used cashews and raisins for making sweet poha. You can use any of your favorite nuts like almonds, pistachios.

Cardamom & Ginger powder - traditionally cardamom is added for flavouring. but amma always uses a little bit of dry ginger powder.

Poha is nothing but flattened rice. This is specially made for making easy breakfast recipes or sweet recipes. Rice is steamed, flattened and dried to make poha. Poha doesn't need any cooking, you can consume as it is or soak in water to soften it. Some recipes calls for frying poha directly in oil to make chivda a popular snack.

You can choose from the variety of poha available in the market. Red rice poha, matta rice poha, millet poha is available. Any variety of poha can be used to make this dish.

For healthy option, you can even use millet poha for making this dish.

Aval Vilayichathu or Aval Varattiyathu 2 Ways

Raw poha - this is the version which I prefer since it has longer shelf life than the second version. Since we have used poha raw, it has a bit to it and taste more delicious. It is faster and easy to make as well.

Soaked poha - Amma makes her aval varatti this way, sometimes she soaks the poha in water and use that to make this dish. This version of aval varatti uses poha which is soaked in water to make it soft. This way the end dish stays nice and soft. It is what my Aachi and amma prefer to do.

How to Make Aval Varatti (3 Easy Steps)

Jaggery Syrup - In a sauce pan take jaggery and water. Heat it till jaggery is melted. Strain it using a sieve into the kadai and bring this to a boil.

Making Varatti - Add in coconut, salt and mix well. Bring it to boil and boil for 5 minutes. Add in poha and stir well into the jaggery mixture. Cook this well till thickens. Add in dry ginger powder and cardamom powder. Mix well. Keep mixing for 5 mins.

Fried Nuts - Now heat ghee in a kadai, add in cashews and raisins and fry till golden. Pour this over poha and mix well. Serve.

How to Make Aval Varattiyathu (Stepwise Pictures)

Making Jaggery Syrup

1)take jaggery in a sauce pan. i am using powdered jaggery, but you can use regular ball or hard jaggery as well. Just break it apart and add in the sauce pan.

2)Add water to the jaggery, heat this on medium heat and cook till jaggery is completely melted.

3)Now strain this mixture directly in a cooking pot. This step is to remove impurities from the jaggery. You can add more or less jaggery as per your taste.

Cooking Coconut

4)Now bring this mixture to a full boil and boil for 2 minutes to make this slightly syrupy.

5)At this point add in coconut. This is optional, you can skip coconut if you want or you can use desiccated coconut as well.

6)Add a pinch of salt to balance the taste.

7)Cook this whole mixture for 3 to 4 minutes till the mixture gets slightly thick.

Making Varatti

8)Reduce the flame to a low, Now add in poha. Here I am using red rice poha, but you can use any poha you want.

9)Mix this really well into the jaggery syrup. The poha will absorb the jaggery syrup immediately and gets slightly soft. Stir fry the mixture on low heat till the mixture gets dry.

10)Add in cardamom powder. I crushed 2 cardamom pods in a mortar and pestle, removed the skin of the cardamom and crushed the seeds.

11)Add in dry ginger powder. This is optional.

12)Mix this into the poha.

Garnishing

13)Heat ghee in a pan, add in cashews and fry till golden brown. Once nuts gets golden, add in raisins and fry that till golden.

14)Add this into the poha mixture along with the ghee.

15)Mix this really well and serve.