Pineapple kesari is a popular sweet made in South India, especially in marriages and functions. With just rava/ semolina/ sooji and pineapple, sugar and ghee as main ingredients, this sweet is ready in minutes. Very easy to prepare but the taste and flavour is mind blowing.
Perfect for special occasions or when pineapples are in season. It makes a great part of a special menu too as a dessert.
Check out my pineapple rasam and pineapple pachadi recipe in this website.
I am a great fan of pineapple kesari. Actually speaking, I am big fan of fruits that are flavorful like this, pineapple, guava, raspberry, strawberry. But, I have made pineapple kesari only very few times. However, first few times I did the mistake of adding artificial flavour. I love pineapple essence but still I made this once with just pineapple without essence. Pleasant with just pineapples flavor, as well as it is very natural.
Hope you all had a great start this year 2017. Let me start this year's post with a sweet note. Many of you search for this recipe in my blog, so I am posting it at least now. I followed similar way as fruit kesari recipe.
Ingredients
Here are the simple ingredients needed for pineapple kesari
- Pineapple - Ripe, juicy, sweet ones works best.
- Sugar - You can use white sugar, above picture is with unrefined sugar.
- Semolina - Rava - Any variety works, roasted, unroasted, ceroti rava, coarse rava.
- Food colour - Use natural food colour as much as possible.
- Ghee - You have the control over adding ghee, it's for non sticky texture and flavour.
- Cashews - For nice texture and balanced taste.
Please check my recipe card below for full list and quantities.
Step by step images
1. Firstly, slice off the skin of pineapple with a mighty chef knife. Then cut it diagonally to remove the eyes of the pineapple. After that, cut into four in the center and get rid of the hard part.
2. Then finely chop the pineapple. Sprinkle 3 tablespoon of sugar and keep aside for 30 mins.
3. In a pan, add a tablespoon of ghee, roast cashew nuts until golden in medium flame. Add rava.
4. Add 1 more tablespoon or 2 tablespoon of ghee and roast rava well in medium flame. Adding ghee in this stage helps in avoiding lumps when you add water.
5. Boil water side by side (measure and boil) and add it carefully to the roasted rava in low flame. It will splutter, so please be safe. Add a pinch of salt. Mix and cook in high flame until water is absorbed and the rava gets thick.
6. Level with back of ladle. Cook covered in low to medium flame for 4-5 minutes or until done.
7. Mix once cooked and add sugar. Mix briskly in a mashing way to avoid lumps. Few small lumps are ok and it will get okay as you cook. But avoid large lumps by mashing and stirring briskly.
8. Then, add pineapple cubes without the water content. No need to squeeze, just drain the water and add. Mix well.
9. Add ghee in regular intervals and keep stirring.
10. Once the kesari is thick, switch off the flame. Lastly, add little ghee on top.
Always serve hot or warm for a soft kesari. Smells great and taste superb!
Click here to read the recipe in Tamil and you can also refer to my latest recipe reel about making pineapple kesari.
Recipe card
Pineapple Kesari Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup Semolina/ Rava
- 1 & ½ cups Pineapple
- 2 cups Sugar
- 2 & ½ cups Water
- ½ cup Ghee
- 1 pinch Salt
- 10 Cashew nuts
- 2 drops Yellow food colour
Instructions
- Peel, cut, remove the center hard part and finely chop the pineapple. Sprinkle 3 tablespoon of sugar and keep aside for 30 mins.
- In a pan, add a tablespoon of ghee, roast cashew nuts until golden in medium flame. Add rava.
- Add 1 or 2 tablespoon of ghee and roast rava well in medium flame. Adding ghee in this stage helps in avoiding lumps when you add water.
- Boil water side by side (measure and boil) and add it carefully to the roasted rava in low flame. It will splutter, so please be safe.
- Add a pinch of salt. Mix and cook in high flame until water is absorbed and the rava gets thick.
- Level with back of ladle. Cook covered in low to medium flame for 4-5 minutes or until done.
- Mix once cooked and add sugar.
- Briskly stir, in a mashing way to avoid lumps. Few small lumps are ok as it will get okay as you cook. But avoid large lumps by mashing and stirring briskly.
- Add pineapple cubes without the water content. No need to squeeze, just drain the water and add. Mix well.
- Add ghee in regular intervals and keep stirring.
- Once the kesari is thick, switch off the flame. Add little ghee on top.
Video
Notes
- Choose sweet ripe pineapples, not sour ones.
- I have used natural food colour, to avoid artificial food colours. You can skip the colour too. Or add a pinch of saffron if you like the flavour and colour.
- The sugar I used for sprinkling over pineapple for 30 mins is inclusive of the sugar quantity I mentioned.
- Ghee can be added as per your wish. Recommend to add at least ¼ cup.
- I did not add cardamom as I wanted to get the full pineapple flavour.
- Salt is added to give a balanced taste. Otherwise I find the kesari so plain and flat.
Deepa says
Mouthwatering!!!
Vijayalakshmi Prakash says
Nice presentation. Looks yummy. Will surely try once.
Raks anand says
thank you
Anusha Madhavan says
Raji, Tried the Pineapple Kesari for Bhogi and liked it!
Thanks for sharing one more Kesari recipe 🙂
Happy Pongal & Happy New Year to you and your family !
Raks anand says
Thank you so much for your feedback 🙂 Happy pongal to you too!
leena shyam says
love it all time fav
Rajee says
Tried this and it was too good. Thank you.
vandhana thiruvengadam says
Can we use the food coloring gel that's used for cakes in kesari ?
Raks anand says
Sure yes.
Sowmya says
Hi,
can i add jaggery instead of sugar to the kesari ??
Raks anand says
Taste will be different, but sure you can use.
Kausik says
excellent..mass
Ramya Devanesan says
My first attempt with your help.it became a super duper success. Thank you for the step by step explanation. Family simply loved it.
Raks Anand says
Thank you for your feedback 🙂
Nandhini says
Hi,
Can you please post diwali legiyam recipe?
Thanks in advance.
Raks Anand says
Sure, will find a recipe to try and post 🙂
Archana says
Hi! What do you mean by natural food colouring? Is it just the natural yellow from the pineapples? If nothing is added except saffron, will it look very dull?
Thanks!! Would love to try this during navarathri now :))
Archana
Raks Anand says
Saffron, turmeric comes under natural food colour... 🙂 I also use a brand called Hopper which is plant based. Yes all these natural colours are dull when compared to the artificial ones.
Priya says
Hi I have tried your recipes for past five years and each time it comes out well but had no time for review.
So got a chance to say thanks with first tried pineapple kesari. I have tried many times and today too it came out well.
Thanks lot raks.
Raks Anand says
So happy to ready your feedback. Thanks a lot 🙂
Gabi says
I always follow your fruit kesari recipe and it turns out great every single time. I tried pineapple kesari recipe twice, but it turned out sticky. I roasted the rava really well and am not sure what I should fix in my procedure. Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thank you..
Raks Anand says
Could it be the rava is not cooked properly? Double ensure that it gets really soft cooked. Do try this and let me know. Because if the sugar is added before rava gets cooked, it turns sticky. Also you can try adding 1 more tbsp of ghee once you switch off the stove.
Aparna S says
This came out amazing! Thank you so much for sharing!
Raks Anand says
Thank you for your valuable feedback 🙂