Kheer – Indian Milk and Rice Pudding

Hello HTS Community

Kheer is a common household dessert in India, literally everyone makes it, yet tastes different. The slight variations, occasional use of spices like cardamom, cinnamon, saffron, rose water, or infact a minute of roasting rice, elevates the dish. All you need are 3 simple ingredients, milk, rice and sugar simmered over low heat for an hour to make kheer. You can choose to add spices and dry fruits to boost the flavor, but that’s up to you. Tastes amazing when warm, but even better when chilled.

Kheer as been my favorite dessert since childhood, always brings a smile on my face. I remember savoring a bowl with hot puri during festivals and later another bowl of chilled kheer at night 😉

It is by far the easiest dessert to make, that too all in 1 pot. In North India it is known as Kheer, in east it goes by the name Payesh, and Payasam in South India. Milk is often substituted with coconut milk, and sugar with jaggery, and this makes a perfect vegan and gluten free dessert. There are a lot of versions that you can try with tapioca pearls, vermicelli, broken wheat, so start with this one and get hooked forever.

If you like this recipe, you may also want to try some of my other Indian dishes like, Korma Curry, Rajma (Red beans curry) and Spicy Garlic Chutney.

Ingredients you will need:

• Rice- 1/2 cup
• Milk- 1 litre
• Sugar- 1/3 cup
• Ghee- 1 teaspoon, optional
• Water- 1+1/2 cup
• Cardamom- 2
• Cinnamon stick- 1 inch

Steps:

• Start by washing and soaking rice in water for 20 minutes. Always use soaked rice to make kheer.
• Heat a thick bottomed pot and put ghee, as it melts add crushed cardamom and cinnamon stick to it. Remove water from rice completely, and dry roast for a minute or two. This step will help rice soak up the flavor from ghee and the spices.
• Add 1+1/2 cup of water to the rice and let it cook on medium flame for about 10 minutes, or until the water is almost absorbed. Keep stirring the pot to avoid anything sticking at the bottom.
• Reduce the heat to low and add milk to the pot, and let it cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally to avoid spilling of milk.
• The mixture would start to thicken now and rice would be cooked completely. Add in the sugar and cook for another 10 minutes on low heat. If you want to add saffron/rose water/ dry fruits, now would be the time to do it.
• Switch off the flame, garnish with chopped almonds and pistachio.