Halwa is an easy and popular Indian sweet delicacy. It is made frequently as a quick dessert, during festive days or during special Pooja and offered to lord as Prasadam. It can made with semolina, whole wheat flour, any grains or fruits. Addition of nuts and seeds make it even more rich and divine.
The key ingredient to attain a divine and delicious halwa is to use the right amount of ghee, which makes it melt in the mouth good. There are many variations of Halwa made in India, yet sooji(semolina) and aate ka halwa are the most popular ones.
Banana Halwa is one such popular dessert in Karnataka and Kerala regions of India. As it is made with lots of ghee, without any addition of sugar, subtle hint of cardamom, and roasted until nice caramel kind of consistency achieved, which makes it rich and heavenly. Traditionally it is made with only bananas, but I wanted to make it little bit healthier and added millet flour and it turned out really well.
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MILLET BANANA HALWA
Ingredients
- ½ cup Bajri flour / Pearl millet flour
- ½ cup Ragi flour / Finger millet flour
- 3 Ripe bananas
- ¼ cup Ghee
- 1 pod Cardamom crushed coarsely
- 1 pinch Nutmeg powder
- 10 Cashews optional
Instructions
- Peel the ripe bananas and mash them using a fork to a smooth consistency and open cardamom pod and crush the seeds coarsely using a rolling pin/mortar & pestle.
- Heat a thick bottomed pan/non stick pan add the ghee and once it hot, add in chopped cashews and roast them until golden brown and transfer them to a plate later.
- Now add the Millet flours in the same pan and roast on low-medium flame for 5-10 min until raw smell goes off and nice nutty aroma is achieved.
- Now add in the mashed banana puree and give it a nice stir and roast until it is caramelized and start oozing the ghee out.
- Finally add in crushed cardamom seeds, roasted cashews and very tiny pinch of grated nutmeg and give it a nice stir.
