Navarathri – Day 5 – Beetroot Halwa

The fifth day has arrived and only 4 more days to go. For the fifth day of Navrathri I made beetroot halwa, Lemon rice for morning neivedhyam and White channa sundal with sesame spice paste for the evening. Yesterday as I visited my sister, I came home very tired and couldn’t make any sweet for the evening neivedhyam. So made only the sundal. Today fortunately there was no power shut down and I was happy as I could do pooja with the lights on. 

Lemon Rice (click on link for recipe)

White Channa Sundal

Beetroot Halwa

The halwa was based on carrot halwa recipe. I have made one earlier but it in that recipe cooked beet would be ground to a fine paste and so halwa is very smooth. But this halwa has a nice texture as the grated beetroot is left as it is. I used to love this form childhood, but my daughter runs away from this. I don’t know why. May be she will come to like it when she grows up.

Ingredients:

Beetroot-2 medium sized

Hot Milk-2 cups

Sugar-1/3 cup

Cardamom Powder-1/4 tsp

Ghee-3 tbs

Cashew Nuts-3 tbs

Procedure:

1. Peel and grate beetroot.

2. In a pan add 2 tbs ghee and  add the grated beetroot.

3. Saute for 2 minutes on medium flame.

4. Add 1/4 cup of water and when it blends with the beetroot, add 1 cup of milk.  I added water because if I add milk directly to the hot beetroot, it will curdle. It would spoil the entire dish. So after adding water, the beet will cool down a bit and when you add hot milk, it will not curdle.

5. Cook untilt he milk is completely absorbed. Add the other cup to the beetroot.

6. Cook until the mixture becomes thick.

7. Add sugar. Sugar will start melting and the mixture will start bubbling.

8. Let it boil for 2 minutes.

9. Remove from flame.

10. Roast cashew in the remaining ghee and add it to the halwa.

11. When the halwa cools down, serve it. You can also serve it chilled.

This is a very easy yet delicious halwa…