Carrot Halwa or Gajar Halwa is traditional Indian dessert ,is made up with grated carrots and milk, dry fruits and nuts. This dessert is very rich having lots of ghee and dry fruits , always served in marriage or Indian festivals.
Diwali - the festival of lights , is very known festival of India, when lots of varieties of desserts are made at every home. It is also perfect time for fresh carrots in market as it falls in winter. There could be nothing more perfect than a bowl of warm carrot Halwa on a cold day during Winter.
The freshly grated carrots cooked in lots of ghee, its nice aroma spread in whole house ....ummmm....my memories with Carrot Halwa. My mother used to make it many times in winter season, we were always grabbing the fresh Gajar Halwa and I still remember that rich sweetness with lots of roasted cashews. Gajar Halwa is not only kids friendly, even I have seen many adults or diet freak people loose the weight loss ambitions when they see Carrot Halwa.
6-7 big Carrots
1 1/2 cup Sugar
2 cups Whole Milk
6-7 tbsp Ghee / unsalted butter
10-12 Cashew nuts
1/2 tsp. Cardamom powder
1.First we need to roast cashew nuts in 1/2 tsp. ghee and keep it aside.(You can do this task in microwave for 2 min , because I did the same.)
2.Boil the milk in separate pan and Keep aside.
3.Take deep kadhai or deep pan ,add butter and melt it on medium heat.
4.Put shredded carrot into kadhai and cook these carrots 7-8 min until they change little color.(Make sure flame is on medium or carrots may get brown ;-)
5.Add milk in these carrots and cook till the milk gets absorbed in carrots. It will take 20-25 min again.(I generally put milk such that all grated carrots are immersed in milk.)
6.Add sugar and cardamom powder and mix them well. It may again take 10 min to soak all sugar inside Halwa. Once Halwa is done, it will start to leave ghee on sides of pan.
7.Garnish with cashew nuts.
You can serve hot Gajar Halwa or cold , both way it taste delicious. If you are on dieting, you can use 0% milk.