Bhavna
Gajar Ka Halwa needs no introduction. It’s a very popular dessert in Northern India, Pakistan and appreciated worldwide due to its divine taste and luscious color. Gajar Ka Halwa is a traditional Indian sweet dessert made with fresh carrots, milk, Ghee, and sugar.
The ingredients itself explain the scrumptiousness of the dessert. The juicy flavor of fresh seasonal carrots, the smell of ghee and cardamom that spreads out while preparing this ‘Saffron Delight’ turn your kitchen into an ‘Aromatic Heaven’ for that complete day!
Gajar Halwa happens to be my favorite and I have prepared it for countless occasions. Anytime, I feel like having halwa, I make instantly in my pressure cooker under 10 minutes! This time, I happen to have lot of carrots sitting in my fridge so I thought of making big batch of Halwa. By the way, this halwa can be turned into Carrot Truffles easily. Indian would say Gajar Laddu. Now, here in the USA, I can’t find red carrots, not even at Indian grocery but I can find orange carrot through out the year. So I don’t have to wait till winter to prepare this delicious dessert.
Now, with this huge quantity, I can not imagine myself shredding, and that even with baby carrots..so instead of grating or shredding, food processing works great. I put my Ninja Mega System to work for this.
This recipe is also well known as Gajrela. Ever wonder why your Salivary glands release a flood of saliva at the sight of Gajar ka Halwa or Gajrela(commonly called with love). It’s hard to resist its rich sensuous Saffron color.
As I mentioned earlier in many of my post, electric pressure cooker is my favorite in my kitchen due to it’s many features and safety compared to stove top pressure cooker. I love electric pressure cooker so much that I just recently released the cookbook dedicated to vegan vegetarian recipes using electric pressure cooker : Cooking Smart with Bhavna
Below is the video instructions for making Gajar Halwa into the Cosori electric pressure cooker.
Gajar Halwa - Carrot Pudding
Ingredients
- 2.5 pounds carrots grated (approx. 10 cups)
- 1.5 cups whole milk or less for juicy carrots or full-fat canned coconut milk if dairy-free/vegan
- 1.5 cup sugar or adjust to your preference
- ¾ cup ghee or coconut oil if dairy-free/vegan
- ½ cup Golden Raisins optional
- ½ teaspoon ground cardamom
- 3-4 Drops Rose essence if available
- Few strands of Saffron Kesar-optional
- Chopped pistachios or other nut garnish
Instructions
- Add the carrots, raisins if adding, and milk to the inner pot of electric cooker.
- Secure the lid, close the pressure valve and cook for 2 minutes manually cook time setting at high pressure.
- Open the valve to quick release any remaining pressure.
- Press sauté mode/function on your electric cooker and add the sugar and saffron. Wait to add sugar if there is lot of liquid in carrots. Once the liquid evaporates, add sugar.
- Once sugar is added, halwa release liquid again or I should say sugar starts becoming syrup.
- Stir for 6-7 minutes, or until most of the liquid has reduced. Then, add the ghee and stir-fry the carrots for another 6-7 minutes, or until the carrots become dry and the ghee separates from the mixture. The carrots should look dark orange/reddish in color. Halwa shines as well.
- Add the cardamom, rose essence, mix well, then garnish with chopped nuts.
