I’m sharing a healthier version of one of my favorite desserts! This is a honey-sweetened recipe for gajar halwa.
I’m giving you two options with this dessert – you can either make this recipe into a halwa (pudding) or into a fudge (mithai).
Gajar Halwa is typically made with grated carrots, ghee, milk, nuts, and sugar. You can find my Punjabi father approved version of gajrela here – but for those interested in a tasty, but healthier, paleo-friendly version, this recipe is for you. I have included directions for my non-paleo readers who might want to make this dish as well (see notes below).
This carrot fudge is made with five simple ingredients: grated carrots, ghee (or coconut oil if you are vegan), coconut milk, cardamom, and honey. You can also garnish this dessert with chopped nuts or raisins. I love the look of green pistachios with orange halwa, but cashews or almonds work too.
If it’s cold outside, I prefer to eat warm halwa, carrot pudding, instead of the fudge. Here’s what that looks like:
When all the milk has evaporated, you’ll notice that the mixture looks pretty oily. Don’t worry — it’ll congeal. Not sure if that makes you feel any better but it’ll be delicious. If you’re making pudding you can remove some of this oil but if you’re making fudge, you’ll need it to hold your bars together.
Love the flavor of gajar halwa? Try my gajar halwa carrot cake recipe next!
Oh and if you love this dessert (which you will) then be sure to check out my Paleo Indian eCookbook: South Asian Persuasion! It has 100+ Paleo Indian Recipes.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons ghee
- 1 tablespoon pistachios for garnish or use ¼ cup pistachios if making halwa
- 2 ½ cups grated carrots
- 1 13.5 ounce can full-fat unsweetened coconut milk
- ½ - 1 teaspoon cardamom powder freshly ground is best
- 2 tablespoons honey
- Golden raisins optional for garnish
- Pistachios or sliced almonds optional for garnish
Instructions
- Melt ghee in a pan over low-medium heat, then add pistachios and stir until all of the nuts are coated with ghee.
- If you are making mithai (carrot fudge), remove the pistachios from the pan and set aside. If you are making halwa (carrot pudding) remove only a few of the pistachios to save for garnish.
- Add grated carrots and sauté in ghee for about 10 minutes, then add coconut milk.
- Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Stir often to avoid burning.
- After about 20 minutes, add cardamom powder. Mix well and then stir in the honey. Continue stirring until all of the milk has evaporated.
- Eat as a pudding or if you are making carrot fudge, spread the pudding mixture onto a greased plate, garnish and let it cool in the fridge. After a couple of hours, cut into squares.
Notes
- For my non-paleo readers, just replace the coconut milk with 2 cups of whole milk and instead of honey, add ¾ cup of sugar (or however much you want), or find my instant pot recipe here.
Frank P says
I used Light Coconut Milk instead of Full Fat and it turned out Awesome!
My Heart Beets says
Frank, that’s great to hear! Thanks for letting me know how it turned out for you 🙂
K Spritzer says
Good but needs more honey or sugar. I doubled it (but don’t double the ghee because it will be too oily. I made it as fudge in an 8“ x 8“ pan. Doubled, it served 8. It was the dessert to an Indian themed dinner, and goes well with a glass of Port.
Mary Lou says
Hi Ashley, I know little about Indian food, so am glad to have found your site. I volunteer at a community garden here in Oregon and we have something every year called “Carrot Harvest Day.” We make a celebration out of harvesting our carrots. We also eat carrot soup, salads, cakes, etc. Great day for the kids as well as adults. The food we raise throughout our growing season goes to food banks, and volunteers can take home fresh, delicious veggies and fruits too. It is organic and we teach gardening as well as food prep. You can even eat lunch if you are working here as a volunteer. I do a lot of baking and doing interesting, unusual, and tasty stuff with our vegetables and fruits. I wanted to do something different than my carrot bars or pie. I have been comparing recipes for Carrot Fudge and yours sounds easier, so I plan on trying it. I thought I would do a test batch, hopefully this coming weekend, and a completely vegan version as well for our vegan eaters. Thanks and I will make a note to come back to your site and let you know how people reacted.
My Heart Beets says
Hi Mary, I’m so glad you found my site too! And oh my gosh I love that you guys have a carrot harvest day at your community garden – that sounds like such a blast and so helpful and educational too! I’d love to hear how this goes!
Karen M. Chapman says
Hi,
I’m always on the lookout for vegan versions of Indian sweets as I have a lactose intolerant boss. Would you know what I could substitute for almond milk? I doubt we get that here.
maria says
I made this but didn’t add pistachios or honey. It still tasted delicious!
My Heart Beets says
Maria, I’m so glad you liked it!
Sam H says
Have you ever used coconut powder (not flour) instead of coconut milk?
My Heart Beets says
nope, not sure what that is? like coconut milk powder?
kala says
Hello Ashley,
Your site is excellent. You have put in a lot of hard work and it shows. I would like to share the knowledge that according to ayurved the Indian medical system, honey should not be heated. It forms a coating on the food pipe and will not come off, kind of like plastic. I read somewhere that the max temp for honey should be 100 F.
Thanks a lot,
Kala.
Uma says
hi ,Please don’t cook the Honey. Adding honey to hot food will also cooks the honey. Cooked honey is poisonous in Ayurveda.
Deepa says
Hi,
Can I substitute butter for the ghee? Will it still set to make the ‘fudge’?
thanks
My Heart Beets says
Hi Deepa, yes you can use butter! Let me know how this turns out for you 🙂
Janaki says
Thank you so much for your wonderful blog. I am very new to Paleo, and your blog is now my faborite. I absolutely adore this recipe. I didn’t have pistachio so I added half a bar of very dark chocolate with orange flavour, some vanille and a splash of rosewater. Really good.
My Heart Beets says
Hi Janaki, I’m so glad you consider my blog a favorite! I love your additions – they sound delicious!
Maria Sireci-Najmi says
Instead of grated carrots can I use carrot pulp from my jiucer?
Gopika says
I’ve just found your Web site and am enjoying it very much. Really delicious looking and so simple.
I would appreciate it so much if you would list your ingredients in the order they are used. It would help to be sure to use them all.
Stephanie says
I’m really excited to try this recipe. Thanks for giving me a way to make my favorite dessert without milk!
Pam says
I made this tonight as pudding and loved it! My kids loved it too. In fact, every recipe I’ve made from your site has been a hit with them (same goes for me and my husband). My son (he’s 7) requests your butter chicken regularly, which we enjoy with your naan.
We’ll definitely be making more carrot pudding (and fudge if I can be patient enough) in the near future. I know my kids will not only look forward to eating it, but also with helping with the cardamom pods again. Maybe I should get each of them their own mortar and pestle and have them in charge of the spice grinding from now on…
Thank you so much for sharing such wonderful recipes!
My Heart Beets says
Hi Pam, I’m so happy to hear that you and your family are enjoying the recipes! I think it’s wonderful that your kids help you cook – I LOVE the the mortar pestle idea 🙂 Thanks for the sweet comment and please keep me posted on any other recipes you try!
Mrs G says
I made this yesterday and it was delicious!!!
The best part are the roasted pistachios on top of the fudge. Next time I’ll make it as a pudding.
Thanks for this recipe.
My Heart Beets says
So happy to hear that you liked the recipe, thank you for letting me know!
Brittany says
Wonderful! I made as instructed (but failed to boil it down long enough and ate as pudding). Was delicious and I immediately saw the potential for future adaptations.
Making a batch now with a balance of cinnamon and nutmeg in place of cardemom, and omitted the honey because it is sweet enough as-is.
I follow paleo because it takes into consideration my gluten, dairy, and bean allergies, but with an additional issue with eggs, there’s not many breakfast options for me. I prefer veggies over fruit when I can, so this carrot-based pudding will definitely be a part of my regular breakfast rotation!
Thank you! Your recipes are so refreshing!
Annie | Worthy Pause says
I made this on Friday for a dinner party and it was a huge hit!
My Heart Beets says
Annie, so happy to hear that! thanks so much for letting me know how it turned out 🙂
Allison says
I’m definitely making this!! 🙂
My Heart Beets says
Allison, awesome! Let me know how it turns out for you 🙂
Allison says
I finally made it today, and I loved it! I’ll be doubling the recipe next time, as it’s almost all gone already! 🙂
Nicole says
Hi there
This looks wonderful. Do you happen to know what the yield is on this recipe?
Thanks!
Nicole
Z says
Oh, this is so happening today. Dang.
My Heart Beets says
Awesome! Let me know what you think of the recipe 🙂
Edwina says
Just divine. Thanks so much for this recipe. I’d even add a bit less honey as we found it pretty sweet.
Hp says
How much is 1 can of coconut milk? = 2 cups?
I can’t wait to try making this!
Thanks!
My Heart Beets says
Hi HP – it’s 1.5 cups. Hope you like this!
Adrienne @ Whole New Mom says
Very cool! Pinning!
Vivica Menegaz CTWFN says
Oh these look so good. I LOVE Indian food, but Indian sweets are usually way too sweet for me.
This seems like a perfect recipe though!!
Aruna Advaney says
Hi. Thank you for sharing my favorite Indian dessert recipe.
Will this work with almond milk instead of coconut milk? And if I use almond milk, would I use the same amount? Or more?
My Heart Beets says
Hi Aruna. For almond milk, use the same amount (about 2 cups). It will likely take a little longer for the carrots to soak up all the almond milk because it is thinner than coconut, so you’ll need to be a little patient 🙂 Let me know how this turns out for you.
Aruna says
Thank you. 🙂
LuAnne says
I am so proud of you for doing this, Ashley!! I have REALLY enjoyed reading these recipes and am ready to dive in and try them. Question: I’m not sure what ghee actually is and am wondering if I can use coconut oil instead. And 2, is cardamom found easily (keeping in mind where I live) or do I need to get that at a higher end grocery or specialty store? Miss you!! Lu
My Heart Beets says
Thank you, Lu! I miss you too! I’m so glad you like these recipes. So, ghee is a type of clarified butter – it’s butter that is simmered with its milk solids until it caramelizes and is then strained into “ghee.” It has a nutty flavor and is delicious. I plan on adding a how to make ghee post in the very near future so stay tuned 🙂 While I love coconut oil, it won’t give you the same flavor – but you can use it. I’m not sure if using coconut oil will hold up as “fudge” as well as ghee but you can always eat this dish as carrot pudding. If you try this recipe with coconut oil, please let me know how it turns out! As for cardamom, I’m not sure if you’d be able to find it at a grocery store in Dville. You may need to wait until you can get to a Whole Foods or you could always order some from Amazon. I hope all is well!
Angela says
Holy cow…after reading the Peacha Pie recipe I am now going through your whole blog and all I can say is wow. Thank you so much for writing recipes that are unique and different instead of the “usual suspects” for paleo food. This looks delicious!
My Heart Beets says
I’m so happy to hear that you appreciate these recipes! I try to keep paleo interesting 🙂