When it comes to the healthiest vegetables available in winter, carrot always tops the chart. This bright colored nutritious item is not only used in our day-to-day cooking, but it can also be used for preparing delicious desserts like carrot pudding or gajar ka halwa. If you have a sweet tooth, you will definitely love this rich-in-taste yet easy-to-make delicacy.
Tips:
- Try to pick carrots that are red in color. The darker the color, the better your pudding will look and taste.
- Do not use water while grinding the carrots. Or else, the end product will not be tight enough.
- I’ve used fresh homemade kheer to make the taste, flavor and texture of the pudding amazing. But it will make your preparation time a bit longer. You can also replace it with dry kheer or khowa kheer (mewa), which is readily available in the market.
- The quantity of sugar may vary depending upon your taste.
- You can garnish it with a few strands of saffron soaked in 2 teaspoons of warm milk. It will give the pudding a mesmerizing color.
This delectable carrot pudding can be garnished with roasted cashew nuts and served hot. But being a dessert, it is best enjoyed when chilled. So, store it in the refrigerator and relish whenever you wish. It will remain intact for anywhere between 15 and 20 days inside the refrigerator.
Ingredients
- Carrot – 250 grams
- Sugar – 5 tablespoons
- Ghee – 2 tablespoons
- Cashew nuts – 1 tablespoon
- Raisin – 1 teaspoon
- Milk – 350 ml.
- Green Cardamom – 5 small
- Unsweetened condensed milk ( Kheer ) – 6 tablespoons (prepared from around 300 ml. milk – instructions below)
Instructions
For the Preparation of Unsweetened condensed milk or Kheer:
- Take a sauce pan with thick bottom and pour 300 ml. milk into it.
- Place the pan over medium-high flame and bring it to a boil. Make sure that you stir it with a large spoon from time to time so that the milk does not spill over.
- Once it starts boiling, lower the heat and allow the milk to thicken.
- Keep stirring it frequently so that the bottom layer of the milk does not get burnt.
- After 20 to 25 minutes, the entire thing will turn into thick, creamy-yellowish kheer. Turn the heat off and transfer it to a bowl.
For the Preparation of Pudding:
- Clean and wash the carrots properly and peel off their outermost skin.
- Cut them into small pieces. Also, put them in a food processor or mixer grinder and process until you get smoothly ground carrot. If wish, you can use manual grater and grate the carrots finely. However, it is a time-consuming process.
- Discard the skin of the green cardamoms and grind them into fine powder.
- Pour the raw milk into a vessel and place it over medium-high flame. Keep stirring it occasionally.
- As soon as it starts to boil, reduce the flame and let it thicken. Do not forget to stir it every now and the in order to avoid burning.
- After 10 minutes or so, the milk will become almost half in volume and turn a little yellowish. Take it out of the heat and keep aside.
- Place the thick-bottomed saucepan over medium-high heat once again and put 1 tablespoon of ghee in it. Once it becomes hot, add cashew nuts and raisins to it and roast them for a couple of minutes.
- Remove the roasted cashew nuts and raisins and keep aside that will be used later for garnishing. Now, pour rest of the ghee into the same pan.
- Add ground carrot to it and keep stirring with the spoon for at least 5 minutes. It will prevent the carrot from sticking to the bottom of the pan.
- Once the carrot gets partially cooked and turns a little darker, pour the thickened milk into it. Stir for 5 more minutes so that it gets absorbed by the carrot completely.
- Then, add sugar to the carrot-milk mixture. Also, add the freshly prepared condensed milk or kheer that was prepared earlier and stir for 2-3 minutes.
- Now, garnish the pudding with the roasted cashew nuts, raisins and sprinkle cardamom powder over it.
- Combine everything well. Cover the pan with a lid and let the pudding sit for a few minutes.
- Your yummy carrot pudding is absolutely ready to serve.