Lauki halwa, made with Bottle gourd vegetable, sugar, ghee and all the goodness of milk. Prepare this delicious bottlegourd halwa for this Diwali and decorate your dining table.
Lauki halwa alias bottle gourd halwa is very popular in North India and fondly called Dudhi halwa, cooked in reduced milk and simmered with the wonderful flavor of ghee.
During this festival season, it is not all wrong if we keep aside health concerns and tasting this delicious lauki halwa. A spoonful of it brings you happiness and that’s enough of a soulful dessert after a happy occasion feast.
Usually, when I make sweets which I rarely do, I don’t like to compromise on the much-needed sweet or flavor ingredients. For the same reason, I always follow the proper recipe which suits me to yield the best and richest sweet.
Of late I developed a liking towards Halwas which I don’t do usually. I searched for different halwa recipes in our vast Indian cuisine and many of them have the same procedure with slightly different ingredients.
For complete Diwali recipes, check out these Sweets and snacks from my blog if you are interested.
Check out the quick video uploaded in the recipe card and please subscribe if you like to see more recipe videos from my channel 🙂
Lauki Halwa | How to make Bottle gourd halwa
Ingredients
Ingredients:
- 2 cups shredded Bottlegourd
- 2 tbsp ghee
- 2 tbsp cashews
- 4 cups whole milk
- 1 cup sugar as per taste
- ½ tsp cardamom powder
- Few saffron strands optional
Instructions
Preparation:
- Wash and peel the of Bottle gourd.
- Grate the vegetable without seeds and keep aside. If your Bottle gourd is very young and soft with more water content, you may have to squeeze out excess water.
Recipe:
- Boil milk in a pot and simmer the heat source to let the milk reduce and thickens.
- Keep stirring the milk to avoid burning the bottom. In around 15 minutes of simmering, milk gets condensed. The more the milk is condensed, the tastier the halwa will be.
- In a pan preferably a non-stick, heat some ghee and roast cashews. You can also use raisins if you wish.
- Fry the cashews to golden color, collect and keep it aside.
- Add grated bottle gourd to the same pan with leftover ghee and saute.
- Saute the vegetable in ghee for few minutes in medium heat until it turns aromatic.
- Now add boiled and reduced milk to cook the vegetable. Alternately you can use the store-bought condensed milk and in that case reduce the sugar quantity from the mentioned in the recipe.
- Let the vegetable cook completely in the milk.
- In 15 to 20 mins the bottle gourd absorbs all the milk and gathers up.
- Now add sugar and mix well. Sugar melts and halwa becomes thin again.
- Stir and heat further until the sugar becomes a syrup and sticks with the vegetable.
- In some time halwa firms, add fried cashews with ghee and cardamom powder.
- Mix and switch off. I like it to serve this Lauki halwa warm.
Video
Notes
1) Since milk gives the richness to any kind of halwa, I prefer using milk. But you can just avoid milk and cook this halwa with minimum water.
2) Moreover, feel free to use the choice of nuts as you want. Best choices and cashews, almond flakes, pistachio and roast pumpkin seeds.
3) In addition, as a healthy choice use brown sugar or unrefined sugar with a slight change in the color of the lauki halwa.
Nutrition
Preparation:
- Wash and peel the Bottle gourd.
- Grate the vegetable without seeds and keep it aside. If your Bottle gourd is very young and soft with more water content, you may have to squeeze out excess water.
Recipe:
- Boil milk in a pot and simmer the heat source to let the milk reduce and thickens.
- Keep stirring the milk to avoid burning the bottom. In around 15 minutes of simmering, milk gets condensed. The more the milk is condensed, the tastier the halwa will be.
- In a pan preferably a non-stick, heat some ghee and roast cashews. You can also use raisins if you wish.
- Fry the cashews to golden color, collect and keep them aside.
- Add grated bottle gourd to the same pan with leftover ghee and saute.
- Saute the vegetable in ghee for few minutes in medium heat until it turns aromatic.
- Now add boiled and reduced milk to cook the vegetable. Alternately you can use the store-bought condensed milk and in that case reduce the sugar quantity mentioned in the recipe.
- Let the bottlegourd cook completely in the milk.
- In 15 to 20 mins the bottle gourd absorbs all the milk and gathers up.
- Now add sugar and mix well. Sugar melts and halwa becomes thin again.
- Stir and heat further until the sugar becomes a syrup and sticks with the vegetable.
- In some time halwa firms, add fried cashews with ghee and cardamom powder.
- As an optional item, add a few saffron strands, mix and switch off. I like it to serve this Lauki halwa warm.
Tips:
1) Since milk gives richness to any kind of halwa, I prefer using milk. But you can just avoid milk and cook this halwa with minimum water.
2) Moreover, feel free to use the choice of nuts as you want. Best choices and cashews, almond flakes, pistachio and roast pumpkin seeds.
3) In addition, as a healthy choice use brown sugar or unrefined sugar with a slight change in the color of the lauki halwa.
