Skip to main content

Toor dal halwa

So its weekend and time for some food experimenting. Today I had experimented 2 other side dishes, so wanted the sweet dish to be simple and humble :)

Again my alignment to North Indian sweets has kicked in my mind and of course halwa cannot be forgotten. I have made many varieties of halwa in the past, but today wanted something different but easy. Something which not even needs separate boiling of water and sugar even. 
Apparently Moong dal halwa is what came to my mind, and I haven't tried it till now, but it doesn't have any research element behind it, right? So opened my grocery rack and peeped into the dals shelf to see what is there. After the last amazon pantry order, I have every dal and pulses in the world I guess there. But most of them require overnight soaking and all. Now what can I choose from here which saves me from that. Oh yeah! Toor dal, my favorite he was smiling at me from the rack, "What if I can help you"
So moong dal halwa idea has inspired for this version, and of course there is nothing to regret for. It is as yum as its Moong dal counter part or better. As always the health freak side of my brain knocks me whenever I make something. He said, pure cow ghee and jaggery ok? No sugar or any other stuffs. 

Ok chalo, I have to obey him, also a guiltless way to savor my Halwa :) You will find this halwa ingredients and method very simple, that whenever you want to make a sweet dish in half an hour, yup, Go for it!

Ingredients:

Toor dal - 1 cup
Ghee - 1/4 cup
Jaggery powder - 1/2 cup
Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp
Raisins and almonds for garnish


Method:
Wash Toor dal and soak it in 1 cup of water for 15 mins. Now cook the dal in open pot for 10 mins, don't over cook, just half done or less is enough.
Allow it to cool. Now grind coarsely the toor dal with no water in mixer. Here again, don't over grind to a paste, even a few dals whole is fine.  
Now add ghee in a ton stick pan (take 1 tbsp out from 1/4 cup for later use). Add the dal paste and cook for 5 mins in medium-low heat. Add jaggery powder and 1/4 cup of water for jaggery to melt. Now cook the dal in jaggery until jaggery completely melts and moisture is completely absorbed. Add remaining ghee and cardamom powder and mix well.
Garnish with raisins and chopped almonds and serve!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Grilled Chicken in Quinoa Tortilla wrap

Healthy meal preparation is so satisfying, as we know we are feeding our loved ones with clean food. When I say clean food it does mean, non processed, with balanced nutrients, and not in expense of the taste. These healthy tortilla wraps are so yummy that you will not even imagine it has so many hidden good stuffs in it. I am like my mom, she is too smart to hide the good stuffs in whatever she prepares and we will not even know what we just ate had something which we hate if given in its form. Now I have acquired that smartness too and just few days back I prepared an Avocado Mango smoothie for one of my colleague and she told, "I hate Avocados! My mom would be surprised if she comes to know that I had Avocado. But how yummy your smoothie is ! " I was glad that I could make someone eat a healthy thing which they hated ever, and my hiding skills worked out.  The same lady was fooled by my papaya halwa, she is a papaya hater too :P Fooling people is good som...

Ayala Pollichathu - Mackerel roast in plantain leaves

This is yet another traditional Kerala recipe, in which fish is roasted in plantain leaves. There is a two step process in cooking fish, first by shallow frying and then roasted inside a plantain leaf covered with masalas. So my experience with pollichathu was with Karimeen alone until this time, my favorite fish, which is called Pearl spot in English. All these while I haven't tried any other fish for this recipe. So let me tell you the story of how Ayala came into picture :D This happened on one fine day, my mom in law was telling me that the women who brings fish has brought lots of Mackerel and many other fishes and convinced her to buy a lot of them. So she was in a confusion on what will we do with all these, as weekend was almost going to finish and everyone of us moving to different places. And the same curry or fry would be boring and won't be appreciated by the men's league at home :D Then I went for helping her with the fish dilemma, she was having and...

Bionico - Mexican Fruit Dessert

I was looking for a dessert which is simple and healthy for today and what came to my mind was Parfait. But the day was Mexican themed and I didn't want to deviate for the dessert part and spoil my theme plan ;) I was looking for similar desserts of Mexican origin, coz I wanted an easy healthy option and has base ingredients which I already have at home.  My search for the recipe ended in this great dessert from Mexico, The Fruit Bionico, which resembles parfait in many ingredients, just some difference in some of them. And I found an interesting factor in it and that strengthened my decision to go on with this. Yes, that is nothing but, our own freshly grated coconut :P Bionico is on sweeter side when compared to Parfait because of its sweetner condensed milk. I had my jars saved from Frozen bottle ice cream cakes, and that helped me to give my Bionico that ramp ready look. After the layers were set up, I was going crazy with the photos, as the beauty was looking so pr...