Carrot Halwa | Gajar ka Halwa | Halwa Recipes

'Carrot Halwa' aka 'Gajar ka Halwa' needs no introduction.It is a famous Indian dessert which is so commonly prepared during festivals,occasions and functions.Carrot Halwa can be served hot,warm or at room temperature,it tastes yumm!! Usually it is served with Vanilla Ice cream in functions to make it rich dessert,I just love the combo.

The Preparation process of this halwa is bit time consuming, I find the process of grating the carrots is quite tedious and also one needs to give constant attention while preparing the halwa.I prepare these kind of halwas in two different ways.Sometimes I use a pressure cooker method and use Condensed milk which is bit quick and sometimes I follow the conventional method of preparing the halwa using a thick kadai and also use mawa in it.Both the processes yields good tasty halwa but it all depends on how much time and energy you have to prepare it.I have earlier posted Lauki ka Halwa and Beet-Carrot Halwa which I prepared using the pressure cooker method,you can check out those recipes too if you are interested.

During winters the markets are loaded with those bright red color Delhi carrots, I do not miss to prepare this delicious and yummilicious Gajar ka halwa using those red carrots during the season. But one can prepare this halwa using the regular orange colored ones too.The taste and texture of the carrot halwa slightly differs when using these red and orange carrots,but it tastes delicious neverthless.

Check out few other desserts recipes using fruits and vegetables here:

• Carrot-Beetroot Halwa using Condensed milk
• Carrot Kheer
• Carrot Phirni
• Lauki(Bottlegourd) Halwa
• Mango Fudge | Mango Burfi
• Mango Phirni | Layered Mango Phirni
• Mango Sheera | Mango Sooji Halwa 

Carrot Halwa | Gajar ka Halwa Recipe:

yields 5-6 cups

Prep time: 20 mins | Cooking time: 1 hr | Total time: 1 hr 20 mins

Cuisine: Indian | Category:  Sweets/Desserts

Ingredients:

1/2 kg Red or Orange Carrots, peeled and grated(4 heaped cups roughly)

2 cups Full cream Milk

1 cup Unsweetened khoya(mawa)

1/4 tsp Cardamom Powder
1 3/4 cup Sugar(add it accordingly)
12-15 Saffron strands
2 tbsp chopped Cashew nuts
2 tbsp chopped Almonds
2 tbsp chopped Pistachios
3 tbsp Raisins

1/3 cup Ghee

Method: 

• Soak saffron strands in  2tbsp of warm milk and keep it aside.Slightly press the saffron strands in between your fingers before you add to the milk,this gives good color.

• Peel the carrots and grate them using a grater and keep it aside.

• Heat 1/4 cup ghee in a large thick kadai and add chopped nuts and fry them separately and keep aside.

• Add grated carrots  to the remaining ghee and fry for 3-4 mins and then add the milk.Let it cook for 15-20 mins until all the milk is evaporated and the carrot is cooked.You need to stir it constantly with a steel spatula and always scrape the milk deposits accumulated at the edges in kadai.It may take a couple of minutes more.

• Add khoya and sugar to it and stir it nicely and now the mixture becomes bit thin and hence cook it again for 15-20 mins until the mixture is all dried up.

• Add soaked saffron milk to it and give a nice stir.
• Add the remaining ghee (2-3 tbsp approx) and cook until the ghee separates from the mixture(this takes approx 10 mins),stirring constantly.

• Add all the fried nuts and raisins and cardamom powder and mix everything.

Serve the halwa hot/cold garnished with flaked almonds and pistachios.You can even serve it warm with vanilla ice cream.

Notes:

1. You can even use the pressure cooker for cooking the carrots instead of heavy kadai.In that case,after you fry the carrots in the ghee and add milk bring it to full pressure in the cooker(no need to wait for a whistle) and switch off and wait until the pressure drops and follow the remaining process.This saves some time as to cook the carrots in a kadai takes lot of time.
2. You can even reduce the quantity of sugar to 1 cup and add 1/2 cup of condensed milk which makes the halwa still richer.
3. During winters you can use red carrots to prepare this halwa.The red carrots adds a nice taste to halwa.
4. You can even mix carrots and beetroots to make this halwa.You can find the recipe here for Beets and Carrot Halwa.
5. Replace carrots with beetroot,ash gourd or bottle gourd and follow the same process to make Beetroot halwa,Ash gourd Halwa(Kasi Halwa) and Bottle Gourd Halwa respectively.
6. The amount of khoya can be reduced to 1/2 or 3/4 th cup but the more the khoya,the richer the halwa.

Check out various Diwali Sweets Recipes here.
If you are looking for more Savoury Recipes,Check out Diwali Savoury Recipes here.

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