Next in my quest to veganize Indian sweets, especially the ones I miss the most, is the gorgeous, almost healthy carrot halwa or gajar halwa.
The period roughly between August and November is festival season in India. Mind you, there are many many Hindu festivals scattered through the year, but some of the biggest ones happen during this period, including Ganesh Chaturthi, Dassera, and Diwali, the mother of all Hindu celebrations.
This is the time to cook and eat all sorts of delicious sweets, and each region has their own favorites for each festival. Growing up, my family always took care to match the sweets with the festival. Me, I cannot be bothered to remember, so I just cook whatever sweet I have a mind to if I feel like it, if I have the time, and if Desi lobbies me hard enough.
Last Friday, after reading about the wonderful Dassera celebrations on the Indian food blogs, I just had to make a sweet dish. I had a bag of carrots in the refrigerator, so carrot halwa it was.
Carrot halwa is a popular sweet in Indian kitchens, and it’s easy to see why. The carrots are boiled in milk until they are melt-in-your-mouth tender and sweet, and then they are fried in ghee. Of course, all that milk and ghee adds a bazillion calories, but who cares when the end result is as mindblowing as it is?
Well, I do, and besides, I don’t cook with milk nor ghee. For my vegan carrot halwa, I used almond milk which, at 40 calories a cup, has almost a third of the calories of whole milk and less than half those in skim milk. And trust me, you would never taste the difference. I adapted this recipe from Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian Cooking, and it called for three cups of milk. So right there I lopped off nearly 200 calories.
Next I used 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil to fry the halwa instead of the 5 tablespoons of ghee in the original recipe.
I used turbinado sugar, which gave the halwa a really rich red color, but you can always use regular sugar. Feel free to use less: the carrots themselves are very sweet and you really only need a little to your taste.
So here it is, my vegan carrot halwa. Easy, delicious and, heck, even good for you. Believe me, you won’t feel a tug in your waistline after eating this, but you might feel a tad beatific.
Vegan Carrot Halwa
Ingredients
- 1 pound carrots , finely grated
- 3 cups almond milk
- 8 cardamom pods
- 3-5 tbsp sugar
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- A handful of cashews and raisins
Instructions
- Put the carrots, cardamom pods and almond milk into a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Bring to a boil and cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally, until all the liquid has evaporated. This took me about 45-50 minutes.
- In another saucepan, heat the vegetable oil. Add the carrots and fry, stirring, until the carrots turn a rich red. This will take around 15-20 minutes.
- Now add the sugar and stir until it's well mixed. Add the cashews and raisins and cook, stirring for a couple of minutes.
- Take off the heat. The halwa can be eaten warm or at room temperature or even cold. Any which way, it's quite delicious.
- Enjoy!
My carrot halwa goes to Sweet Vegan!, the event I’m hosting through Oct. 31
I also want to send this treat on to the lovely Pallavi of All Thingz Yummy for her Yummy Festival Feast: Diwali event.
RAKS KITCHEN says
October 13, 2008 atcarrot halwa looks delish! Nice idea to add aalmond milk for richness, substitute for milk.
You have a kewl blog!
Cham says
October 13, 2008 atThis vegan sweet looks delectable Vaishu! I guess it is more tasty & rich with almonds milk 🙂
magpie says
October 13, 2008 atI love your recipes! Almond milk is the best – I use it all the time. I will definitely be trying this.
Sunshinemom says
October 13, 2008 atLooks so tempting! I too made some vegan almond burfis for the festive season but they are to be posted yet – will try to do it before 31st:)
Kitchen Flavours says
October 13, 2008 atWow carrots in almond milk, sounds simply gr8. You rock dear.
Raaga says
October 13, 2008 atHi,
I’m always on the lookout for vegan versions of Indian sweets as I have a lactose intolerant boss. Would you know what I could substitute for almond milk? I doubt we get that here.
The halwa looks very nice. The colour the sugar has given it is indeed lovely 🙂
Happy cook says
October 13, 2008 atI have never seen such a delicious carrot halwa.
They look awesome.
Yummy
Sireesha says
October 13, 2008 atCarrot halwa looks soooooo tempting and mouthwatering.Love the colour.
Alka says
October 13, 2008 atWow..such a guilty free recipe..though i am still wondering whether it tasted same or not,but going with your verdict,i can take a plunge,considering winter season is round the corner,markets are bound to be flooded with juicy red carrots,an apt season to eat halwa
Thanks for sharing!
anudivya says
October 13, 2008 atNeat idea subtituting almond milk for regular milk. I got to try this.
ANJALI J. says
October 13, 2008 atHalwa looks amazing.. such a tempting picture.. lovely color too.
Vegan Eating Out says
October 13, 2008 atMy mouth is watering. Inspiring!
Uma says
October 13, 2008 atHey, stop tempting us like this! Just kidding. What a vibrant color for a halwa! Looks so delicious and guilt-free! BTW, reg. almond milk can you tell me how much calcium is there in it and is it good for coffees, and for kids too? I’ve been searching ways to cut down calories!:)
Divya Vikram says
October 13, 2008 atHey that looks divine Vaishali..Cant beleive that is made in a vegan way..
Ramya Vijaykumar says
October 13, 2008 atYour look very different not flakes of carrot great one…
seitanismymotor says
October 13, 2008 atYou are a genius!
Sheetal Kiran says
October 13, 2008 atWhat a co-incidence! I have a post for carrot halwa languishing in my draft folder too 😀 Made it for Dussera too! Love the sound of almond milk in halwa … the photo looks fabulous, Vaishali!!
TBC says
October 13, 2008 atI’ve never cooked with almond milk.
It’s been a loooooong time since I had gajar ka halwa. Yours looks absolutely delicious!
Priyanka says
October 14, 2008 atGajar halwa is one of my favs…..and i am kind of partial to the whole milk, ghee sauteed halwa that my mom makes:) the use of almond milk is pretty cool…may be i will give it a try with one of the other halwas that i make
G.Pavani says
October 14, 2008 atit looks colourful with cashews and yummy
Pallavi says
October 16, 2008 atLike everything else you have, this looks really awesome too…
Thanks for answers to my questions 🙂
G3 says
October 27, 2008 atTried this over the weekend .. and yum yum yum! Loved it!
Chic Chef says
January 9, 2011 atI adore Indian food, and gajar ka halwa has always been one of my favorites, though it is nearly impossible to find in vegan form!
I just made this recipe using light soy milk, 2 Tbs brown sugar and 1 Tbs maple syrup for sweetener. I put in 5 whole cardamom pods and 1/4 tsp ground cardamom. I also added a pinch of safron threads, which made the color lovely, and I added a few drops of rose water to make up for the taste lost by switching from almond to soy milk.
Your proportions were ideal; it turned out perfect!
Emu says
December 3, 2011 atJust made. Gorgeous.
I used sultanas, pistachio and a few cashews as the trimming at the end. It took me ages, I will experiment turning the heat up a bit next time!
yehadut says
September 13, 2012 atI made this and it was quite good. However, note that it only makes enough for one person!
The carrots did not turn a rich red on frying. I used 4 Tbsp sugar and it was very sweet, I’d recommend using less.
Tammy Palmer says
March 3, 2013 atTurned out yummy… wish I had doubled the recipe though. Thanks.
ankita says
March 9, 2014 atWe made it just now and it’s yum 🙂
Vaishali says
March 10, 2014 atAnkita, now I’m craving some carrot halwa. 🙂 Glad you liked it and thanks for letting me know.
Chessie says
July 31, 2014 atI made this yesterday–good stuff. Halwa at restaurants is always overpoweringly over-sweetened, but this was great. I used a scant 1/4 cup of sugar, and a little Earth Balance to give it a buttery flavor. I must make this again. Can a person overdose on carrots?
Bless you for the vegan Indian sweets. I found a vegan dessert made with chickpeas, I think, ONCE in an Indian grocery, but I never saw it again after that.
Next on my list: Kaju Katli. I don’t have a nonstick pan, so it may get messy!
Vaishali Honawar says
July 31, 2014 atHi Catherine, so glad you tried it! Carrot halwa is truly a near-guilt-free snack. There are lots of Indian desserts with chickpeas, but I am guessing you’re thinking of Soan Papdi– they come in squares and are rather brittle and very sweet?
Hope you try the Kaju Katli. You can also use a cast-iron pan, if you have one of those and if it’s well-seasoned. I use cast-iron pans for nearly all of my “non-stick” cooking.
Dizzzle says
November 5, 2014 atVaishali, my husbands doctor recently made him switch to an all vegan diet for his health so I made this today and it turned out wonderful! I used coconut oil instead of vegetable however I will try the Earth Balance butter substitute spread as someone mentioned above for a little more of the buttery flavor. Thanks for posting, looking forward to trying your other recipes!
Vaishali Honawar says
November 10, 2014 atHi Dizzle, so glad you tried the halwa– one of my favorites. You can definitely try the vegan butter. Thanks for letting me know!
Ambica says
February 18, 2015 atVaishali,
I finally made this last weekend. I was a little skeptical about this ever tasting like the real thing.. but I have to say this version tastes better than the original. The carrots are wonderfully caramelized and you can’t really tell that this has not been made with oodles of ghee and milk. Thank you.
Amber says
December 4, 2015 atI tried the recipe. This is very tasty, but unfortunately for me the carrots never turned red. Also I felt sad for the carrots as they had to be cooked so much that they turned a dull almost brownish orange and stayed that way. I switched the oil for vegan butter and turbinade/coconut sugar instead; was tasty but going to make slight variations to attempt to retain nutrients and get a red color.
Kenny says
February 26, 2018 atI just made this to satisfy a craving I was having, and it did the trick. I only had a 1/2 lb of carrots on hand, so I cut the whole recipe in half which was the right amount for me to have a big heaping bowl all to myself. I didn’t have almond milk, but I had cashew milk. I also used Earth Balance instead of oil, which gave it a nice buttery taste. I used agave for the sugar.
Believe it or not, this actually came out way creamier and richer than the real thing! The only thing I would change next time is I would probably put the cashews in with the carrots and milk in the first step. They were still very crunchy, but maybe because I halved my recipe and it only took about 30 mins total to cook. I will definitely be saving this recipe to make again!
Karen M. Chapman says
August 25, 2018 atVery beautifuly worded about facts of animal slaughter and how to find it in alternTe vegan foods.