Luxurious, rich, fudgy.
I bring to you, the crème de la crème of Pakistani desserts - Gajar ka Halwa.
Save this recipe for a day when you'll be at home ALL DAY LONG, because this baby requires time, patience and a whole lot of stirring!
(And preferably a food processor to grate the carrots)
But believe me when I say it is worth every minute. You will be left with a decadent, nutty and distinctly fragranced dessert that will impress everyone, including yourself!
Obligatory cliché food blogger background story incoming. Carrot Halwa with ice cream was served at my wedding, but by some sadistic twist of fate (read: crazy Desi wedding), I just didn't get any. And I didn't even realise I hadn't had dessert till much later. To this day, my friends tell me it was the best dessert they're ever had at a wedding. Anddddd, I don't mean to sound like a moany brat of a bride, but I love dessert, and you'd think you'd get treated to a pretty memorable complete dinner on your big day, no? Am I really asking for too much here?
But it's OK. We forgive and forget. And so, whenever the thought of bride-me, saddled in a 13kg bridal outfit, missing out on some epic dessert comes crawling into my mind, I have decided I'll be the bigger person and make some Gajar Ka Halwa for myself. I'll serve it with some ice cream and pretend like it tastes just like the one I missed out on at my wedding. It's the best I can do.
What is Gajar ka Halwa?
Gajar ka Halwa is a Pakistani/Indian dessert made using carrots, sugar, milk and ghee. It's usually garnished with nuts and raisins.
Let me tell you, this is one of my favourite Pakistani desserts - the sweet flavour and texture of the carrots once it has been cooked down is out of this world! It becomes almost fudgy, which makes it so so delicious when it is served warm on a cold winter day.
Gajar ka Halwa is a popular dessert to serve at weddings and parties. It's considered a winter dessert due to the abundance of carrots available in the winter season in South Asia, and also due to the warming properties of carrots - some households make a point of cooking Gajar ka Halwa at least once a year in winter.
Strangely, you may have seen it garnished with boiled eggs at some point if you've been served Gajar ka Halwa in Pakistan or in a Pakistani household. Why? I have absolutely no idea, but it's a thing! I think it could be because Gajar ka Halwa is viewed as a 'winter' dessert and eggs are also 'warming' - just a hunch! Let me know in the comments if you know the answer to this!
How do you make Gajar ka Halwa?
My method of Gajar ka Halwa uses a very simple recipe using just carrots, sugar, milk, ghee, cardamom seeds and nuts. I don't use anything fancy like khoya or condensed milk and that's intentional - I wanted to make this recipe more approachable and accessible to those who may just have to hand basic ingredients.
The recipe starts off by heating the raw, grated carrots and cardamom seeds in ghee.
We'll let this fry for about 15 minutes before adding in the milk. We'll leave this to cook on a low heat for between 2-3 hours. The milk will reduce significantly, and this is how we get the decedent, creamy texture we're after!
Eventually, the milk will condense and what will be left in the pot will be a thick mixture of the carrots and milk. You may notice white 'specks' in your mixture, and these are the milk solids left from condensing all that milk down.
At this stage, we add some more ghee and sugar.
This is where the ✨magic✨ will happen - where all the flavour, depth and caramelised nuttiness is cooked to life! We'll give the carrot mixture a lovingly thorough fry off - the colour will deepen, it will begin to look glossy and the flavours of the ghee, carrots, milk and sugar will all marry together and become the Gajar ka Halwa we all love and want.
We finish by stirring in some nuts and ideally serving this hot!
A few tips on achieving Gajar ka Halwa greatness:
- Make sure you're using fresh, high quality carrots. In the UK, it is rare to find Pakistani or Indian carrots that are red/pink in colour, but if you can, those are the best variety to use.
- Don't make the mistake of stepping away for more than a few minutes from the cooking carrots and milk. Gajar ka Halwa needs very regular stirring and scraping of the bottom of the pot, otherwise it can burn.
- If you have a grater in your food processor, using that will save you LOADS of time and energy. If you don't have the grater option, then I really do not recommend you grind your carrots in the food processor. The texture just does not work, it needs to be grated.
How to achieve a beautiful, bronze/orange shade
Over the years, a common question I've received is 'how do you achieve the shade of orange shown in pictures?'
The more you fry the Gajar Ka Halwa mixture in the ghee, the darker the colour will be. This is a tip that can be generalised for other Halwas too, including Sooja Ka Halwa. More frying + more ghee = darker shade.
Want a creamier, luxurious Gajar ka Halwa? Read on
- You can really make this dessert a much more luxurious affair by adding condensed or evaporated milk alongside the milk. Your cook time will change depending on how much moisture you will need to dry off, and you may also need to adjust the sugar. I didn't use condensed milk in this recipe to make sure this was a simple, easily approachable recipe, but it really does kick things up a notch!
- Similarly, to add more luxury, you can also add khoya. Add this in when you add the sugar.
- This definitely is not a recipe to try and be low calorie for. Don't use skim milk, you will miss out on the decadence of this. Save the skim milk for something else
PS: Want to try this with beetroot? Go ahead! You can substitute beetroot kg for kg in this recipe to end up with a luxurious, purple-hued Chikander ka Halwa which is also great to serve as a winter dessert!
Enjoy, with love x
This recipe was featured in L'academie De Cuisine.
📋 Recipe
Gajar Ka Halwa - Carrot Halwa
Ingredients
- 4 ½ lb (2 kg) carrots
- 3 cups (¾ l) whole milk
- ¼ cup (65 ml) ghee, for initial sauteing
- 1 cup (250 ml) ghee, for the sauteing at the end.
- 1 ½ cup (300 g) sugar
- 1 handful nuts optional but highly recommended
- 6 cardamom seeds elaichi
Instructions
- Trim the ends of the carrots and grate them. If you have a food processor, you can use the grater settings to grate the carrots (this is what I did).
- In a large pot, heat ¼ cup of ghee on medium heat.
- When heated, add the cardamom seeds and grated carrots and mix in.
- Allow the carrots and cardamom to fry in the ghee for a short while, about 10 minutes.
- Add the milk. Bring to an almost-boil then reduce the heat to medium.
- Continue to cook, uncovered, until the milk evaporates. This may take between 2-3 hours, depending on how much moisture is in your carrots and on your heat. It took me 2.5 hours. You will need to stir occasionally, especially during the last 30 minutes, when the mixture becomes drier and may start to stick to the bottom of the pot. If you pull the carrots to one side of the pot and see some milk release from the sides within a few seconds, this means the halwa is still too moist and needs more drying out.
- Once most of the moisture has evaporated, add in the ghee and sugar.
- Continue to cook on medium heat, stirring often, for about 25 minutes. You may begin to see the carrots change colour to a deep autumn shade of orange and the ghee may begin to separate at the sides from the carrots - this is normal and what we want!
- You'll be done when the mixture looks very glossy, deep orange and comes together in a fudgy mass. Turn off the heat and chop in half of your nuts.
- Garnish with the remaining nuts before serving. Serve warm.
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Misbah
Thank you so much for this easy recipe, the Pakistani carrots released so little water that it didn’t take too long to make. Taste was divine!
Amna
Excellent recipe!
May
Hi
How many people does this recipe serve. I’d like to make a 100 mini desert cups and I’m trying to do that math.
Thanks
Ayesha
This might be a silly question but, Do you peel the carrots?
Fatima
Not silly at all! You don't need to. But if you have a preference, you can.
Sumera
After nearly being married 30 years, afraid to cook this and finally thanks to Fatima I cooked this halwa today. Absolute joy and it’s turned out lush and so easy to follow! Thank you Fatima!
Hena
This looks amazing, and so well-explained that a novice cook like me may try it! It's my husband's favorite meetha so that adds a bit of pressure hehe.
Wondering if I can substitute white sugar for jaggery (gur) or brown sugar?
Fatima
Hi Hena! Thank you so much.
I haven't tried jaggery myself so I can't comment on whether it would work. If you do try, do please let us know how it goes!
Rosie
Soooo good
Awais
I used 1kg carrots and the cooking times massively reduced. Everything went well until I put ghee in at the end. The halwa became very oily.
In hindsight I should have added 2 tbsp ghee because 1/3 was wasted when I removed the halwa from the pan and I can see the ghee having oozed out & solidified in the bowl.
The halwa tastes really nice but is very heavy and can only be eaten in small quantities.
Misbah Ramzan
I want to try making this but when you say to use ghee do you mean vegetable ghee or ghee from butter?
Fatima
To be honest you can use either, but ghee from butter is tastier and more nutritious! 🙂
Naseem
Thank you for sharing your experience and recipe. Delicious 😋
Fatima
Thanks!
Punam Paul
Prepared this recipe at home it was tasty every one of my family liked it. Very good recipe shared by you. Thanks.
Laurie
This is so good! We had it with some plain full-fat yogurt and cashews. Delish!!!!
Aisha
i love this recipe. it was so easy to follow and turned out beautifully. Just like my mum makes it!
Candi
Jazak'Allah khair. I made this for my grandsons school bake sale and it was the first item to sell out. One sister said that her husband preferred mine to hers. Our little secret, it was actually yours.
Zahida Jamaloodeen
Perfect Sister Fatima...love halwa
fasmina kasim
Barakallahufeeki sister.the color of the halwa looks Very attractive.
Fatima
Jazakillah Khayr 🙂
Amir
Thanks for this extremely easy recipe, Fatima!
Have made it several times over the last 8 yrs or so. Definitely a crowd pleaser.
I usually make a large amount 4-5kg of carrots, so time's the only issue.
Time saving hack: Instead of milk, I use double cream - cuts the time in half!
Manidipa
Sorry to hear about the loss of your Gajar Ka Halwa on your very big day dear. But looking after your presentation, I can say it might not be very different from the one you missed out. Truly it looks perfect in color, presentation and I definitely I know in taste too ... 🙂
Fatima
Thank you, Manidipa 🙂