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Carrot and Dates Kheer

by 29 Comments

It was our first Diwali after wedding. We are planning to celebrate full on, on Sunday-for now. Since I lost both my grandparents recently, Sanju and I are not in the zone. My mum, my mum-in-law, Sanju’s granny – all my fav ladies in this world-wanted me to make something sweet (You must have heard about the Indian traditions-I have a love/hate relationship with Indian traditions all the time). Sometimes, it’s so good. But can be a pain as well.

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Anyways, since we had friends coming over on Monday and Wednesday is usually a long day for me, I made a big batch of carrot and medjool dates kheer- a no-sugar healthy version. Nothing super fancy about this.

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You need:

  • Carrot roughly chopped-3 cups
  • Almond milk-1 litre / Almond and coconut milk-500 ml each
  • Medjool dates-around 500 gms
  • Saffron-a pinch
  • 2 pods cardamom pods
  • Sultanas-1/4 cup
  • Pistachios-1/4 cup
  • Cashews-2 Tbsp
  • Coconut oil-1 tsp
  • Salt-1/4 tsp
  • Agave Nectar/Stevia-optional

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Method:

  • Soak saffron & 1 Tbsp Pistachios in 1 Tbsp warm almond milk. Keep it aside. Massage once after 20 minutes. Let it soak for an hour. Make a smooth paste out of it.
  • To a medium sized stockpot, add carrots, dates, 1.5 cup almond milk (or-if using coconut milk, use 1 cup almond milk and 1/2 cup coconut milk), 2 whole green cardamom pods-boil until carrots are soft. [You can pressure cook this too]
  • Mine looked as if the almond milk was split-but ignore the way it looks. Discard just the cardamom pods
  • Strain the carrots and dates puree them. Don’t discard the milk that you used to cook the carrots and dates. Use it in pureeing process. Don’t add extra water-if it is a thick puree, let it be so. We will dilute it soon.
  • In the same stockpot, add coconut oil, add pistachios, cashews and sultanas, let it brown. Remove some for garnishing. Add the saffron pistachios paste, carrot puree in and keep the heat very low. Now, time to rest of the almond milk (I used 1 litre milk in total- inclusive of what I used for cooking carrots, yet it was a thick kheer), salt and do a taste check.[ Note: 500 gms dates should suffice. You never know-If you feel that it could be more sweeter -add some agave nectar/stevia]
  • Don’t let it boil-once it heats up and starts to bubble around the edges-take it off heat, refrigerate and serve cold 🙂

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Comments

  8. This sounds delicious, Charanya…and your pictures are drool inspiring! From the colors, to the flavors to the ingredient list…it a feast for the eyes and mouth! Yummy. 🙂 Thanks for sharing your fabulous kheer recipe with the group at Fiesta Friday this week!

    Reply

  11. Welcome to Fiesta Friday Charanya – what a beautiful addition to our table. I love the creativity of this kheer, I’m not sure I’ve ever tried dates and carrot in kheer. It is a great combination I’m sure. Your pictures sure do the entire post justice, well done! 🙂

    Reply

  13. This sounds super delicious! I like the idea of serving them in small dishes (like shot glasses) – it is very cute.
    Thank you for sharing this over at Healthy Vegan Fridays! I have pinned & shared your recipe.

    Reply

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