Gajar Halwa
Gajar halwa or carrot halwa is a delicious, rich, and creamy dessert. It is a traditional Indian sweet made with red carrots, mawa, milk, sugar, and cardamom powder.
Ingredients
For Mawa
- 1/2 cup Milk powder low fat
- 3 tbsp Milk low fat
For Halwa
- 500 grams Carrots 7-8 medium
- 1/2 cup Milk low fat
- 1/2 cup Sugar
- 1/2 tsp Cardamom powder
- 2 tsp Ghee
- 5-6 Pistachios
- 5-6 Cashew nuts
Instructions
For Mawa
- In a deep bowl, add milk powder and 3 tbsp milk. Mix well and cook the mixture in the microwave for 1 minute, stirring after 30 seconds. If you don’t have a microwave then cook it on the stovetop stirring continuously for about 2 minutes until it thickens.
For Halwa
- Wash and peel the carrots and grate them with a box grater/food processor. Set them aside.
- In a pan, melt some ghee and add grated carrots. Mix well and cook them covered on low-medium heat for about 5 minutes. Stir well and cook for 3-4 more minutes in a similar way.
- Add some milk in the mixture, mix well, and cover it with a lid. Cook for 3-4 minutes until the raw smell of carrots is gone.
- Add mawa to the carrots mixture. Cook for 2 minutes and add sugar, cardamom powder, and dry fruits. Cover it with the lid and cook for 3 minutes on low heat.
- Stir it well and cook for 2-3 minutes or until it thickens.
- Garnish with few chopped pistachios and serve.
Notes
- Instead of using milk powder, you can use store bought, 100 grams of mawa/khoya while making gajar halwa.
- You can use full fat milk powder along with whole milk in the recipe as well. It will be more rich and tasty.
- Adjust the sugar quantity according to your taste. You may add, 1-2 tbsp extra sugar in the recipe as well.
- Add some more ghee or 2 tbsp ghee in the recipe if you wish. You can fry dry fruits in the ghee and keep them aside before adding grated carrots in the ghee.
- Make sure carrots are cooked soft and raw smell is gone or else halwa will not taste good.