Bottle gourd or Lauki Halwa is a vegetable dessert. It is a simple and delicious dessert recipe prepared from grated lauki, milk, sugar and fresh malai (cream). Roasted fennel seeds and cardamom give a refreshing flavor to the Halwa.
Bottle gourd contains less in calories with no fat. It also contains essential vitamins and minerals like Vitamin C Vitamin B, Vitamin K, Vitamin A, Vitamin E, Iron, Folate, Potassium, and Manganese. It is one of the best things about summer. Have it as juice, in a sabzi or in soup, you will reap benefits galore from this water-rich vegetable.
Lauki halwa is a sweet Indian dessert made with bottle gourd, milk, ghee, sugar and flavored with cardamom and nuts. This is a well known variant of halwa made with a vegetable – here in this case with Bottle Gourd which is also called as Lauki or Ghiya in Hindi and Dudhi in Marathi languages.
Ingredients :
Grated Lauki – 1 medium size
Milk – 3/4 cup
Fresh thick cream – 1/4 cup
Sugar – 1/2 cup
Ghee – 3 tbsp
Roasted Fennel Powder – 1/2 tsp
Cardamom powder – 1/2 tsp
Chopped dry fruits – 1/4 cup
A pinch of salt
Soaked & sliced pistachios – 8
Method :
- Soak pistachios in 1/2 cup of water for 20 minutes. Then peel and slice them. Keep it aside.
- Heat ghee in a nonstick deep kadhai and add grated lauki. Cook till all the water dries up on a low flame for 5-8 minutes.
- Then add milk and fresh milk cream bring the whole mixture to a boil and then lower the flame.
- Cook the mixture on a low flame and keep on stirring in between. When the milk reduced to 75% then add sugar and mix it well.
- Stir continuously and cook until almost moisture is evaporated until mixture turns thick. It takes 5-6 minutes.
- Then finally add cardamom powder, roasted fennel powder, salt, and mix well.
- Garnish with sliced pistachios and its ready to serve.
Mad About Cooking 