Ingredients
Makes 12 modaks. Scale using the Modak Calculator. Tap any ingredient to tick it off.
Method
Verify your jaggery
Pure jaggery from sugarcane is vegan. Some commercial brands use animal-derived clarifying agents. For strict veganism, source certified vegan jaggery or substitute coconut sugar — it gives excellent flavour and is clearly vegan.
Make the filling
Melt jaggery, add coconut, cook 7–8 minutes until dry. Add cardamom, coconut oil off heat. Cool completely. Identical to ukadiche — jaggery and coconut are naturally vegan.
Make the dough
Boil water with salt and coconut oil. The oil will be visible as droplets until full boil — correct, it incorporates during mixing. Add rice flour at once, stir, rest 5 min. Knead with coconut-oil-greased hands.
Shape and steam
Standard hand-shaping. Steam on banana leaf 10–12 minutes. Shells slightly less shiny than ghee versions — the coconut oil difference. Still beautiful.
Serve
Drizzle with tiny amount of coconut oil instead of ghee for the traditional sheen. Indistinguishable from the traditional version to most guests.
Tips & Variations
Almost — the rice flour, coconut, and jaggery filling are all plant-based. Only the ghee is non-vegan. This recipe addresses that with coconut oil.
Narali + jawas + dry fruit + hirve modak — all can be made fully plant-based. A complete vegan Ganesh Chaturthi prasad plate is achievable.
About This Recipe
The traditional ukadiche modak was almost vegan before veganism existed as a concept. The rice flour shell, coconut, and jaggery filling are entirely plant-based. Ghee is the only non-vegan element — and coconut oil replaces it without any compromise. For the growing number of plant-based devotees, vegan modak resolves the tension between festival participation and dietary values.