Chana Dal Halwa is a delicious Indian recipe served as a dessert. It comes from Mughal cuisine which makes it sinfully tasty. It is an aromatic sweet that is loaded with ghee, chana dal, milk, sugar and nuts. Milk soaked saffron lends a beautiful colour and aroma to this halwa. Try out this recipe for your family or small get togethers and I can assure you it will vanish in no time. Its a little lengthy process but worth trying it.
Preparation Time: 4-5 hours
Cooking Time: 1 hour
Servings: 10 – 12
Ingredients
- Chana Dal 250 g
- Ghee 1 1/2 cup
- Milk 250 ml
- Sugar 250 g
- Almonds 8 – 10
- Cashew 8 – 10
- Raisins 8 – 10
- Water 250 ml
- Saffron, milk soaked 1/2 tsp
- Silver leaf to garnish
- Dry Coconut, grated 2 tsp
Directions
- Soak chana dal for 4 – 5 hours.
- In a pressure cooker, take chana dal and 1 cup of water and cook till you hear first blow of whistle.
- Transfer in a blender and grind them coarsely without water.
- Heat one cup of ghee and add ground chana dal. Saute on medium flame till it turns golden in colour and nice fragrance is achieved. This takes around twenty minutes.
- In another pan, take milk, water and sugar and bring them to boil.
- Add this to roasted chana dal.
- Cook on medium flame till all the liquid is absorbed. Keep stirring in between to avoid charring. This will again take twenty five minutes.
- Add sugar. This will make it gooey. So cook again for some time till it dries up completely.
- Add saffron and stir well.
- Add half cup of ghee and nuts (save some for garnishing) and roast for 4-5 minutes. You can also add half cup of grated coconut (optional) to add some crunch.
- Transfer in a serving bowl and garnish with silver leaf, nuts and grated coconut.
