Carrot Halwa
Sweet, juicy and toothsome sweet from India. This carrot halwa recipe is the best and the easiest recipe that you could have ever tried. It is only a 4-easily-available-ingredient-recipe. It does not require ‘mawa’ or ‘condensed milk’ yet the halwa turns out to be awesome !
Carrot Pudding
The name of Carrot Pudding in Hindi is 'Gajar Ka Halwa' where 'Gajar' means 'carrots' and 'Halwa' means 'pudding'. It is a very popular winter special sweet dish all over India, when fresh and tender carrots are easily available. Carrot Pudding / Gajar Ka Halwa is one of those versatile dishes that can be served hot or cold, with a meal or after a meal and has a lot of serving variations. We are going to discuss all that and much more in this recipe, so read it till the end!So let's see how to make Carrot Pudding / Gajar ka Halwa
Ingredients
- 650 ml milk
- 500 gr carrots use the one available in the season – fresh and tender
- 175-200 gr sugar (adjust quantity as per your taste)
- 100 ml ghee clarified butter
- 1/4 tsp cardemom powder optional
- 2 tbsp chopped nuts – almonds and pistachio
Instructions
- Choose fresh and tender looking good quality carrots.
- Peel and wash carrots. Cut it vertically to split apart. Remove the yellow part from the middle of the carrot. This yellow part may not be there if the carrots are very tender, fresh and harvested at the right time. In some carrots, it may only be visible at the top part. Remove whatever little it is visible.
- Make pieces of them as big as can be easily manageable while grating.
- Grate them all using a medium thin grater. Try to make long shredding.
- Heat milk in a wide thick pan on high flame. Bring it to a boil.
- Add shredded carrots in the milk. Stir occasionally. Stir more occasionally as it thickens.
- Cook till the mixture thickens (around 80% of milk burns out).
- Add sugar.
- Combine everything. The sugar will melt and release moisture.
- Let it cook till the water released from the sugar burns out. Stir more often during this process to avoid scorching. You may want to adjust the heat if it feels too high.
- Add ghee.
- Combine and cook for 5-7 minutes while stirring continuously.
- SERVING SUGGESTION 1: Dish out halwa, garnish with nuts and cardamom. Serve immediately.
- SERVING SUGGESTION 2: Grease a tray with ghee. Transfer halwa in it. Spread it evenly.
- Garnish it with nuts and cardemom powder. Let it set (cool down a bit)
- Cut desired size of pieces when it is cold enough to cut through neatly. Refrigerate till the time of serving. Serve cold along with a meal.
- SERVING SUGGESTION 3: If you prefer to eat it hot, you can always heat up the desired amount of halwa and enjoy it with a meal or after.
- SERVING SUGGESTION 4: Serve hot halwa with cold vanilla ice-cream..yummmmmm! This is my favorite combination for dessert time.
Notes
Roasting halwa well after adding ghee gives it a nice colour, texture and taste.
I personally prefer moderately thin shredding of carrots because it gets cooked easily and bind together well when ready. Thick shredding is takes long to cook and the end product does not get such beautiful finishing as with the thin shredding.