Beetroot Halwa

A delicious Indian dessert with a pleasing color, Beetroot Halwa is a wonderful and tasty treat, be it for a party or for a simple Sunday meal.

Beetroot is one of the veggies I hate to eat but still try to include in the meals only because of it's innumerable health benefits. To be honest, I also hate the way it ruins the nice creamy color of my cutting board while cutting/grating and the way it sprays it's color on the pure white coating of my kitchen stove top. My mum makes an aromatic and very tasty sambar with beets but it never tasted the same even when I follow her recipe. So I had to make this Halwa to consume Beets once a while since it contains a lot of nutrients like potassium, magnesium, iron, vitamins A, B6 and C, folic acid, carbohydrates, protein, antioxidants and soluble fibre.

When you are on a weight management diet, you tend to concentrate on the "Low calorie" foods but unintentionally you start to swing towards Low-fat and Low-sugar foods. It is good for your health if you manage to get all the nutrients with Low fat and low sugar diet by including different kinds of veggies and fruits. If not, it may work for a short time diet plan, but for a long time plan, your body will be deprived of so many nutrients. You will definitely lose a lot of weight, but not in a healthy way. For that moment, you may feel light, lean and weight-less but that will affect your health in the long run. So, you need to be very careful about what you choose to eat or cook. It will take a lot of effort and a lot more time to lose weight.

Beets are one of those veggies which can provide your body with a lot of nutrients you need everyday and Halwa is the recipe I chose to include it in my diet. As usual, I have not loaded the halwa with sugar or Ghee but a little amount once a week would not hurt your diet. If you are not on a weight loss regime, feel free to increase the quantity of sugar and ghee as you please.

Nutritional Information  (Approx) (per serving)
Energy	180		Calories
Fat	5		%
Carbohydrates	4		%
Dietary Fiber	11		%
Sodium	3.5		%
Vitamin A	2		%
Vitamin C	4		%
Calcium	16		%
Iron	2		%
Protein	4		Grams
Sugar	13		Grams

Ingredients
Beetroots	2 large
Milk	2 cups
Sugar	2 tablespoons
Ghee	1 teaspoon + 1 teaspoon
Cardamom powder	1/2 teaspoon
Nuts of your choice and raisins	a handful

• Grate Beetroot. Heat a pan, add grated Beet and milk. Cook under simmer for 10 minutes.
• Add sugar and give it a mix. Cook under medium flame till most of the milk is evaporated.
• Also add Ghee and Cardamom powder and mix well. Cook for 5 more minutes till the aroma starts to fill up.

• Heat ghee in a pan and add nuts and raisins. Fry till the cashew nuts turn slightly brown.
• Add them to the halwa and give a stir. Serve hot or chilled or with some vanilla Ice cream.

• There are many variations to this recipe and one of them being adding Khova. You can also add more nuts.
• If you are lactose intolerant, you can cook the beets in water.
• You can also add slightly roasted Poppy seeds if you dont like the soft halwa.