Gajar Halwa- Carrot Pudding

Hello HTS Community

Winter is here and so is my beloved Gajar Halwa. It is a must in every Indian household and the recipe is unique to everyone. Gajar halwa is red carrots cooked in milk, sugar and ghee cooked on slow heat for hours, with a hint of cardamom to make this extra delicious carrot pudding.

Gajar halwa, also known as Gajrela, gajar pak or carrot halwa, is a combination of nuts, milk, sugar, khoya and ghee along with grated carrots. This dessert is a winter delicacy in the Indian subcontinent and red or black carrots are available in this season. Another amazing winter dish that I always look forward to making is Sarso ka Saag. It is a curry made with variety of winter greens, and then cooked with onions and garlic.

The process is lengthy but the taste makes up for it.

Ingredients you will need

• Carrots- 1+1/2 kg, grated
• Full fat milk- 1+1/2 lites
• Sweetened Condensed Milk- 500g
• Green cardamom- 7, grounded in mortar and pestle
• Ghee- 150g
• Chopped almonds and cashew- 2 tablespoon, optional

Steps to make Gajar Halwa:

• In a thick bottomed utensil such as dutch oven or a kadhai, start with sweating grated carrots for 5-10 minutes.
• To this add full fat milk, and now let this mixture cook on low heat for about 1 hour. Stir occasionally to prevent anything from sticking at the bottom and burning.
• Milk will start to froth and slowly reduce. Scrape sides of the pot to remove milk solids and mix it with the carrot-milk mixture.
• After about an hour, milk should reduce by 75%, that is when we add condensed milk. Please note since condensed milk is sweetened, we are not adding any sugar separately.

• Mix condensed milk well and let cook for another 30 minutes, stir every 2-3 minutes. Pudding mixture will now thicken.
• It is time to add ghee gradually while stirring the mixture continuously, till ghee separates from the mixture. Add ground cardamom, almonds & cashew, mix well and your halwa is ready. You can refrigerate this for 10 days.