Beetroot Halwa Recipe | How to make Beetroot Halwa

Learn how to make Beetroot Halwa ~ Sweet beetroot pudding flavoured with ghee and cardamoms

Year 2016 is coming to an end and what a year it has been! As the year draws to an end, I can’t help but introspect the days gone by. This year has been a year of surprises; some good and some not so good. It’s been a year where I have laughed a lot, cried my heart out, gracefully accepted the new laughter lines few more silver-grey hairs, lost few pounds only to gain them back, made few mistakes and learnt some valuable lessons, been more conscious of what I cook and serve for my family n friends, did a lot of travelling and road trips, spent more time in the arms of mother nature, did some creative work that I enjoyed a lot, walked minimum 10K steps a day, grew a lot of vegetables, spent more time with my family, and learnt to live in a moment by finding joys in little things in life from LD.

AND… Monsoon Spice completed 10 years of blogging in the end of September 2016 which ~gasp~ I completely forgot to mention, let alone celebrate! Well, that was a year 2016 in nutshell and I can go on with my unceasing rants. But I am running out of time as we are leaving to India to meet a brand new member of our family, celebrate Christmas and welcome a brand new year with our families. It's going to be a short holiday, but we are planning to make the most it and have a blast.

I just managed to squeeze sometime between packing, cleaning, wrapping Christmas presents to LD's teachers and special people at school, writing dozens of Christmas cards, taking care of my house plants to make sure they survive and hundred other things! With our house looking like a tornado has just passed through it at the moment, I am hoping against hope to finish a blog post with one of my favourite sweet recipe. You know it got to be pretty special recipe as most of regular readers of my blog know how rarely I cook and post sweet recipes. :) And trust me, this Beetroot Halwa that I am going to share today is quite pretty special recipe.

What I have today is a recipe of one of the most exotic looking Beetroot Halwa for all who have really sweet tooth and boy, my husband who can eat desserts all three times a day loves this Halwa. Beetroots are one of my most favourite root vegetables which have natural sweet taste and hence it doesn’t need a lot of sugar. So hubby is happy to satisfy his sweet tooth and I am happy as it needs very little sugar compared to other Indian sweets. The ghee, milk and almonds used in this halwa makes it really good sweet pud for LD who loves all these ingredients. So as they say, it’s a win-win situation. Even though, a lot of us think exotic Indian desserts means long hours in the kitchen, this recipe shows that it really not the case. Agreed it takes little preparation and stirring, but it really is a simple recipe and the end result is quite satisfying.

Beetroot Halwa is not as popular as Carrot Halwa. Unlike Carrot Halwa where the flavour of raw carrot is completely hidden within the layers of ghee, evaporated milk and cardamoms, the flavour of beetroot, although subtle after cooking, still retained. What makes it one of my favourite recipe is how beautiful it is to look at and how delicious it tastes with layered flavours of beetroots, evaporated milk, ghee and cardamoms harmoniously combined together. The vibrant fuchsia coloured halwa with glossy texture and studded with almond slivers can brighten even the dullest day when served.

As we move towards a brand new year, I want to leave all the negativity behind and take the positives with me. So let’s leave all the bitterness behind and (literally) take some sweet memories forward with this decadent Beetroot Halwa to welcome 2017! Wishing all my wonderful readers Merry Christmas and a very happy and prosperous New Year!

“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.

Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're Doing Something.

So that's my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before. Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worry that it isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.

Whatever it is you're scared of doing, do it.

Make your mistakes, next year and forever.”

~ Neil Gaiman

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Beetroot Halwa (An Indian sweet made of grated beetroots cooked in milk and flavoured with ghee and cardamom)
Prep Time: 10 mins
Cooking Time: 30 – 35 mins
Recipe Level: Easy/Beginner
Spice Level: N/A
Makes: About 2 cups
Recipe Source: My Amma
Shelf Life: Best served fresh but can be refrigerated for up to 1 week
Serving Suggestion: Serve warm or chilled as a dessert on its own or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream

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Ingredients:
3 packed cups grated Beetroot
2½ - 3 cups Milk (I used whole fat milk)
½ - 1 cup Sugar (Adjust as per taste)
3 - 4 tbsp. of melted Ghee
6-7 Green Cardamoms, crushed, peeled and powdered
15 – 18 Almonds or Cashew Nuts, roughly chopped or slivered

Method:
Preparation:

1. If using almonds, soak them in a hot water for 15-30 mins. Peel their skin and cut them into thin slivers. If using cashew nuts, roughly chop them and keep them aside.
2. Wash and peel the beetroots before grating them with a help of a grater or using a food processor with grater blade attachment.
3. Crush the green cardamoms in a pestle and mortar and remove their skin and discard. Crush the cardamom seeds into fine powder and keep it aside.

Proceed to cook:

1. There are three ways to cook the grated beetroots. One is on a stove top in a heavy bottomed pan. Second is in a microwave and third using pressure cooker. For this recipe I followed the first method.
2. Heat 2 tbsp of melted ghee in a heavy bottomed pan or in a pressure cooker pan. To this add grated beetroots and fry them on medium flame for about 4-5 mins until its aromatic. Make sure you stir them continuously. This step is optional, but I follow my mother’s recipe and this step helps in removing the raw beetroot taste that I am not very fond of.
3. Next add the milk to the pan and bring it to a boil on medium to high flame. Reduce the heat to low to medium and cook the beetroots until the milk thickens and reduces to 80%-85% and the beetroots are cooked though. It took me around 20 mins.
4. If using pressure cooker pan, once you add the milk increase the heat to high and bring it to boil. Turn the heat to medium and close the lid and put the weight on. Pressure cook on medium flame for 1 whistle, about 6-8 mins. Turn off the heat and wait until the pressure is completely released before opening the lid. Mix the beetroot and milk mixture and simmer it until the milk is thickened and reduced to 80%-85%.
5. Next add the sugar to the cooked beetroots and increase the heat to medium flame. Make sure that the beetroot is cooked thoroughly before adding the sugar. The sugar will melt and the mixture will become little watery and glossy. Keep stirring and mixing for another 4-5 minutes until the mixture thickens and most of the moisture is reduced.
6. Add remaining melted ghee, slivered almonds or chopped cashew nuts and cardamom powder and mix them well. Cook for another 3-4 minutes and turn off the heat.
7. Serve this delicious moist Beetroot Halwa warm or at room temperature or chilled on its own or with a scoop of vanilla ice and enjoy!

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Sia’s Notes:

• There are three ways to cook the grated beetroots. One is on a stove top in a heavy bottomed pan. Second is in a microwave and third using pressure cooker. For this recipe I followed the first method.
• Frying the grated beetroots for couple of minutes before adding milk is an optional step. I follow my mother’s recipe and this step helps in removing the raw beetroot taste that I am not very fond of.
• Make sure that the beetroot is cooked thoroughly before adding the sugar as once the sugar is added the beetroots will take longer time to cook.
• Compared to carrot halwa, beetroot halwa has really moist texture and also the taste of beetroot comes through in spite of frying it in a ghee and cooking for long time.
• I’ve used little over ½ cup of sugar as the beetroots were quite sweet. So adjust the amount of sugar depending on the sweetness of the beetroots.
• I have used whole milk in this recipe which gives this Beetroot Halwa a rich flavour. You can use semi-skimmed or skimmed (low fat) milk if you are counting the calories.
• To make it vegan friendly, replace ghee and cow's milk with vegan butter/oil and soya or almond milk.
• Skip the almonds or cashew nuts or replace them with sunflower or melon seeds if you have nut allergy.