Nel pori urundai - Learn how to make nel pori urundai in detailed step by step and full video guidance.

Traditionally nel pori urundai are made during Karthigai deepam festival.
Do check out my Karthigai Deepam Recipes for full collection and to know more about the festival.
I posted arisi pori urundai recipe many years back for Karthigai deepam.
As I have mentioned in that post, my mom and MIL makes arisi pori urundai only as snack and they don't offer that to God.
They make nel pori and aval pori urundai and offer it. My mom and MIL are not keen about making balls, they just mix and make it as crumbles.
Only arisi pori will be made as balls and also made for snack too at times.
Since I didn't had nel pori that time, without any choice I made with arisi pori that time and posted.
So thought of posting this authentic karthigai Nel pori for this year's post.
You can follow the same method for aval pori too. Now a days we get nel pori and aval pori at local shops.
So you can hunt for it for this Thirukarthigai / Karthigai deepam 2021 which is on November 19th Friday.
About
This whole month, mom and MIL keeps two small vilakku mostly agal vilakku in the entrance of the house in the evenings.
And even after the festival is over, we keep some lamps until all the oil and thiri nool gets over.
For this festival we mainly make only pori urundai and appam – either nei appam or instant wheat flour appam mostly.
Mom told even maavilakku is made and offered those days when my grand mom was there.
They make it with Thinai maavu especially for lord Murugan, his favorite.
I made very less for blogging sake, so do not relate the pictures to the recipe I have written.
Top tip
- Do the jaggery measurement only after powdering well or grating it. So not measure with lumps.
- Warming up the pori is necessary for a fresh taste as well as it prevents blooming instantly.
- Do not worry even it blooms, it will still taste good. In-fact, back home my mom and mom in law keeps as such only without shaping to urundais.
- As soon as switch off the flame add the pori and roasted items. Do not let it cool.
Storage
Store in a box only after completely cools down. Stays good for 3 days at room temperature.
If it sweats inside too much airtight box, then it may fall apart next day!
Do not handle the process or while handling the urundai later with wet or moist hands as that will also make the urundais fall apart.
My notes
- I have not added pottu kadalai and coconut here, so the pori quantity I have taken is more. You can reduce the pori as suggested in the recipe card notes.
- We make pori urundai soft and chewy syrup holding together the pori (It would not stick in hands or in teeth while eating).
But if you want longer shelf life, you can do a hard ball consistency syrup like we do for kadalai urundai or pottukadalai urundai.
But the aval pori needed will drastically reduce as the syrup density is more. So take a note on it and add accordingly. - If you add more pori than needed, it will not be holding it's shape later, though initially it will be.
To read the recipe in tamil, click here
Recipe card
nel pori urundai
Ingredients
- 4 cups Nel pori Approx, refer notes
- ½ cup Jaggery powdered , measured heaped
- 2 pinches Dry ginger powder
- 4 tablespoon Chopped coconut
- 1 tablespoon Sesame seeds
- 1 cardamom crushed
- 2 teaspoon Ghee
Instructions
- First clean the nel pori well to take out the skin, there will be lots of nel, so pick throw away those. Measure the pori, roast slightly to heat it up and keep aside ready.
- Fry koppara coconut bits (dry coconut) in ghee and keep aside. Roast sesame seeds too and keep aside. Powder cardamom, jaggery.
- Heat ¼ cup water with the powdered jaggery. Continue heating until the jaggery dissolves.
- Powder jaggery well to make this easy. Filter it to remove any impurities.
- Add elachi powder, sukku powder, coconut bits, sesame seeds at this stage if adding. I didn't add anything as Vj doesn’t like anything in this.
- Continue heating until you reach the right consistency. Do not keep stirring too much. Just keep checking the padham.
- That is if you pour little syrup in water and gather with hands, you should be able to form a non sticky ball (uruttu padham). It should hold shape and should not be loose. Switch off the flame.
- Add the puffed rice little by little as you keep stirring well. I added as such together, but its always better to add little by little with stirring and stop when you cant see any syrup at the bottom of the pan. Act quickly.
- Grease hands well with ghee or sesame oil. Make balls out of this, press strongly so that it holds its shape.
Video
Notes
- You can add 3 cups and add more if needed. I add 4 cups but please note I have not added roasted gram or coconut, sesame seeds.
- Choose dark colored jaggery for this, white ones may not yield good results.
- At last, the pori will stick to the pan, just heat it up a bit to loosen it and make use of it until the last pori.
- Make sure you reach the consistency, otherwise balls won't hold its shape.
- Follow the same method for aval pori – you can make your own aval pori by roasting aval, thick variety until it pops.
- Do not add more than required otherwise won't hold shape the next day.
Step by step photos
- Firstly, clean the nel pori well to take out the skin, there will be lots of nel, so pick throw away those.
- Also, measure the pori, roast slightly to heat it up and keep aside ready.
- After that, fry koppara coconut bits (dry coconut) in ghee and keep aside. Roast sesame seeds too and keep aside. Then, powder cardamom, jaggery.
- Heat ¼ cup water with the powdered jaggery.
- Continue heating until the jaggery dissolves. Powder jaggery well to make this easy.
- Filter it to remove any impurities. Add cardamom powder, sukku powder, coconut bits, sesame seeds at this stage if adding. I didn't add anything as Vj doesn’t like anything in nel pori.
- Continue heating until you reach the right consistency.
- Do not keep stirring too much. Just keep checking the padham.
- That is if you pour little syrup in water and gather with hands, you should be able to form a non sticky ball (uruttu padham). It should hold it's shape and should not be loose. Switch off the flame.
- Add the puffed rice little by little as you keep stirring well. I added as such together, but its always better to add little by little with stirring and stop when you cant see any syrup at the bottom of the pan. Act quickly.
- Grease hands well with ghee or sesame oil. Make balls out of this, press strongly so that nel pori holds its shape.
Limit within 1 or two per day, wishing you all an advanced Happy Karthigai Deepam! Celebrate with appam and karthigai nel pori.
Shama Nagarajan
yummy dear
AparnaRajeshkumar
we are making this today ! Good one raks
jeyashri suresh
Lovely post, nicely explained with beautiful clicks
Mano
Do we get nel pori in Singapore?
Raks anand
I got in Mustafa where they keep poha/ ordinary puffed rice. But a month back I got, not sure if its still there.
Chitra Ganapathy
I have tried & posted with aval pori . Must search for nel pori here. Pretty pics as usual 🙂
Swathi Gudla
Good one ans yummy
Shabitha Karthikeyan
Never tried with nel pori looks good !!
Nandita SS
This is a favorite!!! Loved the step by step instructions 🙂
Sowmya Dinavahi
My all time fav raks... thanks a lot for the recipe !!
Kalpana Sareesh
wow such a quick n easy one.. wld def try it for karthigai..
Sowmya Madhavan
Nice post..lovely presentation..nelpori is also called malar pori..isn't it? Karthigai pori is something more different I think, but am not too sure..
Shobana Vijay
Got to try once..Lovely presented
Shobas Delight
Suchithra Ramanathan
Hi Raks...ve tried ur recipes couple of tyms...bt nvr left a comment....this tym wanted to do t rite away....jus done wit storing the urundais in a containet....felt shud post immed...they came out very well...excited as this was always my amama s weak point though she s an expert in all other complex ones ..thank u so much
Priya Anand
Tried this today with some remaining kartigai pori. Came out really well. Thank you so much....
Raks Anand
Thanks a lot for your feedback 🙂