Carrot Kesari is a wonderful way to make a sweet without any artificial food colours. In fact the recipe is pretty much similar to regular kesari except we add carrot puree and cook along for a lovely hue.
It doesn't taste like carrot halwa, but more like kesari and lovely natural color from carrots.
With Tamil New Year coming up, why not try this lovely sweet for a change from the regular kesari or sweets.
Check out my classic recipe and carrot halwa recipe posted in this website.
Last month, I collaborated with Podi and Poriyal Restaurant in Singapore where I curated a south Indian lunch menu. I have shared my experience in my Instagram and Facebook. Do check it out if you are interested.
Carrot kesari is the sweet as part of it and wanted to post here as well. I was in dilemma whether to update in the kesari post itself or do a new post.
With Tamil New Year 2023 coming up, you might be looking for sweets, so thought of sharing as new post itself 😃 Now, let's begin!
Ingredients
Here are the ingredients needed for carrot kesari
- Rava - Semolina, use any variety available. Coarse, chiroti, roasted as well as unroasted.
- Carrot - I used orange carrots, you can use Delhi carrots that is red colour for more darker shade.
- Sugar - White sugar works best for the sweets like this where colour is emphasized.
- Ghee - Use good quality ghee, I always prefer homemade ghee as it is not too strong in flavor as well as tastes light.
- Cardamom - If you want to get a slight carrot flavour in the kesari, you can even skip this. But traditionally, cardamom is used for almost all sweets in South India.
- Cashews - It adds a great texture and balances the taste instead of flat sweetness.
See recipe card for quantities.
Instructions
Let's see how to make carrot kesari.
- Wash the carrots firstly and cut off the ends, peel, chop roughly.Then place it with ¾ cup water in a small pressure cooker.
2. After that, pressure cook for 3 whistles in medium flame.
3. Cool down and place in a mixie/ blender.
4. Then grind to a puree. Then, measure ½ cup to use in the recipe.
To make carrot kesari, start by heating a pan with 2 teaspoon of ghee and add cashews.
Roast furthermore in low flame or medium flame to get a crispy golden roasted cashews. Set aside.
5. Then, in the same pan, add suji, all the ghee and roast well in medium flame without changing the colour.
6. Takes 3-4 minutes, put the flame to low if it turns brown fast.
7. Measure the water firstly and boil side by side. Once the suji is roasted, add water to it slowly as you stir.
8. It will splatter, so do carefully as you mix.
9. Add carrot pure and mix.
10. Once mixed well, cook in high flame until the mixture turns like a thick porridge.
11. Level and cook covered in medium flame for 6 to 8 minutes, stirring once in between.
12. Cooking long time ensures soft kesari.
13. Once done, add sugar and stir to loosen it up and mix well.
14. Initially there will be lumps but keep mixing in a mashing way, it will be alright in a minute.
15. Continey cooking furthermore until the mixture thickens.
16. You will see it leaving the sides of the pan (Total 6-8 minutes).
17. Lastly add cardamom powder and the roasted nuts with ghee.
18. Mix well and switch off the flame.
Give carrot kesari, a 5 minutes standing time before serving. You will be able to scoop and transfer effortlessly to the serving bowl.
Substitutions
Carrot - Use any variety of carrot, Indian (Delhi)red carrots or regular orange ones. If you want, you can experiment with the purple carrots as well 😉
Sugar - Instead of white sugar, you can use unrefined sugar too. It is less sweet, so adjust quantity (2 tablespoon more) if you do not want to compromise on sweetness.
Storage
Carrot kesari can be good in fridge for 3-4 days comfortably. Just heat in low flame before serving.
Top tip
- Do not overcook or cook in high flame, after adding sugar. It will make the texture hard.
- Cook patiently for soft textured kesari.
FAQ
Use cooked carrot puree, the same amount of rava used in a recipe, along when you cook rava. This gives natural color to kesari without any artificial food colours, without any compromise in taste.
Related posts
Recipe card
Carrot Kesari
Ingredients
- ½ cup Rava Suji
- ½ cup Carrot Puree from 2 medium size carrots
- 1 cup Sugar
- 1 & ½ cup Water
- ¼ cup Ghee
- 1 Cardamom Powdered
- 1 Pinch Salt
Instructions
- Wash the carrots firstly and cut off the ends, peel, chop roughly.
- Then place it with ¾ cup water in a small pressure cooker.
- After that, pressure cook for 3 whistles in medium flame.
- Cool down and then grind to a puree. Then, measure ½ cup to use in the recipe.
- To make carrot kesari, start by heating a pan with 2 teaspoon of ghee and add cashews.
- Roast furthermore in low flame or medium flame to get a crispy golden roasted cashews. Set aside.
- Then, in the same pan, add suji, all the ghee and roast well in medium flame without changing the colour. Takes 3-4 minutes, put the flame to low if it turns brown fast.
- Measure the water firstly and boil side by side. Once the suji is roasted, add water to it slowly as you stir. It will splatter, so do carefully.
- Add carrot pure and mix. Once mixed well, cook in high flame until the mixture turns like a thick porridge.
- Level and cook covered in medium flame for 6 to 8 minutes, stirring once in between. Cooking long time ensures soft kesari.
- Once done, add sugar and stir to loosen it up and mix well. Initially there will be lumps but keep mixing in a mashing way, it will be alright in a minute.
- Stir for 2-3 minutes, the texture thickens, leaves the sides of pan.
- Lastly add cardamom powder and the roasted nuts with ghee. Mix well and switch off the flame.
- Give carrot kesari, a 5 minutes standing time before serving.
Video
Notes
- Do not overcook or cook in high flame, after adding sugar. It will make the texture hard.
- Cook patiently for soft textured kesari.
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