Carrot halwa is a carrot-based sweet dessert pudding from India. It is made by placing grated carrots in a pot with milk, sugar, ghee, cardamom, cashews and cooking into a pudding. It’s basically caramelized carrots for dessert. The traditional recipe uses dairy milk, condensed milk and ghee (clarified butter) and sometimes an Indian cheese, but it was very easy to “veganize” this recipe and make it a little less rich than the original, but just as tasty!
Ingredients:
3 cups shredded carrots
1/2 cup unsweetened almond or cashew milk (rice or soy milk should also work)
1/2 tsp fresh ground cardamom
1-2 TBSP vegan butter
1/4-3/4 cup sugar, to taste (the original recipe has 3/4 cup sugar and it’s a LOT. I found it too sweet by far)
1 TBSP chopped cashews *optional
1 TBSP chopped almonds *optional
1 TBSP chopped pistachios *optional
Directions:
In a small saucepan, heat the vegan butter until it begins to bubble, continue to cook for about 5 mins and then remove from heat. This will serve as the vegan ghee.
In a large skillet or pan, heat the shredded carrots on medium heat until they begin to soften and “throw water”. Cook and stir frequently until the water is almost cooked off. Add the sugar beginning with 1/4 cup and stir frequently. Add the butter and cardamom and stir well as the carrots begin to caramelize. Add the milk and stir well, making sure carrots are not sticking to the pan. Reduce heat to low.
Taste the Halwa to see if you’d like to add more sugar. If you would like it sweeter, add more sugar, turn the heat back up tp medium and stir well to caramelize.
Turn off the heat and add the nuts, stirring them into the mixture.
Serve hot and enjoy! This is also delicious chilled.
the vegan delicious 