Sweet potato halwa is a quick and easy sweet you can make by cooking mashed sweet potato with ghee and sugar as main ingredients, under 30 minutes. It is popularly known as shakarkandi halwa in other parts of India. Let's see how to make this simple sweet with step by step pictures.
Was thinking to try this halwa for a long time and thought I will share for this year's Diwali recipes.
Do check out my bread halwa recipe and browse my Diwali recipe index for more choices.
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As a south Indian, I make curry or just steam and have it as an evening snack. I simply love the flavour of steamed sweet potato known sakkaravalli kizhangu in Tamil. I have few times roasted in fire and had too, it will be best. But when I saw few recipes using sweet potato, I thought I should first try halwa.
Halwa itself comes from North Indian and Middle Eastern cooking like sooji ka halwa, carrot halwa, bottle gourd halwa, even bread halwa. The method always follows the same skeleton: cook down the base ingredient, sweeten it and enrich it with ghee and nuts. Reduce it until it turns flossy and holds together. My mom says this always, that how one can make anything into halwa and it tastes good (though in a funny way ;))
Why this recipe works
- Quick & Easy
- Almond & cashew paste for extra richness
- Use simple steps, nothing complicated
Sweet potato Halwa Ingredients
Here are the ingredients you need to make shakkarnadi halwa.
- Sweet potato - I used orange variety that I get here in Singapore, but you can use any variety.
- Sugar - for sweetening the dish
- Ghee - Main ingredient for halwa, use good quality ghee as it can affect the entire flavor. I prefer to use my own. If you get a2 cow ghee then its best.
- Almonds & Cashews - It's optional, but I thought it can make the dish elevated.
- Cardamom - Brings the signature festive aroma
Please see my recipe card below for quantities.
Step by step pictures
1. Pressure cook sweet potato firstly with very little water for 3 whistles and peel the skin off when its cooled.
Using a potato masher, mash the sweet potato well. Add 2 tablespoon of ghee to this mashed sweet potato and fry until fragrant (8 mins).
2. Add sugar and stir until it melts.
3. Soak and peel the skin off badam and grind it with cashew nuts, very little water, to a smooth paste.
4. Add it to the sweet potato and cook for just 2 minutes.
5. Add remaining ghee and cook until gets thick, leaves the sides of the pan.
6. Cook until ghee oozes out. It will take around 6 mins approx, in medium flame. Add powdered green cardamoms and mix. Garnish with ghee fried cashew nuts.
Serve shakarkandi ka halwa, warm the best.
Top tips
- Once halwa turns shiny and non-sticky, pull it off the heat immediately. Cooking past this point dries out the halwa and makes crumbly instead of soft and glossy.
- Mashing sweet potato while it is still warm makes it easy, gives smooth texture.
- adjust sweetness according to the sweetness in the sweetpotato.
- Adding a pinch of salt will enhance the taste instead of tasting flat and bland.
My notes
In India, we get purple skin and yellow inside sweet potato which I like the best. Here I saw these bright orangish sweet potato and thought it would be nice to make sweet dish with it.
It turned out so delicious as well as attractive. So if you get this, you can use, otherwise do try it with the sweet potato you could get you lay your hands on.
Note on sugar: I have used ½ cup in this sweet potato halwa recipe, but you can adjust this according to how sweet your sweet potato's taste. Some can be really bland, so taste after you steam, then measure the mashed sweet potato, you can add up to equal quantities of that measure. Say if you have 1 cup mashed sweet potato, use upto 1 cup sugar if bland. Otherwise do not add too much as it can harden the texture if you overcook.
Substitutions & Variations
Carrot-sweet potato halwa - You can combine both and make a lovely halwa with cooked grated carrots. Use both in equal proportion.
Jaggery - Use jaggery instead of sugar.
Instead of almond & cashews, you can skip it and stir in ½ cup milk or coconut milk before adding sugar.
Storage
Stays good for 3-4 days in the refrigerator. Reheat gently in pan on low flame with a splash of milk or ghee to loosen it back up. You can also microwave in short 20 seconds bursts.
FAQs
Mash while it is warm to start with. Do not cook it past the shiny stage once you see that glossy sheen and halwa stops sticking to the pan.
No, you can keep it simple and skip it. I suggest to add ½ cup milk and cook before adding sugar.
Sweet potato does bring more fiber, beta-carotene to the table, but it is very high in calories with ghee, sugar and nuts. So portion control is the key.
Ask AI how to make this recipe in an Instant pot:
Recipe card
Sweet Potato Halwa | Shakarkandi Halwa
Ingredients
- 2 Sweet potato
- ½ cup Sugar
- ¼ cup Ghee
- 5 Almonds
- 8 Cashew
- 2 Cardamom
Instructions
- Pressure cook sweet potato firstly with very little water for 3 whistles and peel the skin off when its cooled.
- Using a potato masher, mash the sweet potato well.
- Add 2 tablespoon of ghee to this mashed sweet potato and fry until fragrant (8 mins).
- Add sugar and stir until it melts.
- Soak and peel the skin off badam and grind it with cashew nuts, very little water, to a smooth paste.
- Add it to the sweet potato and cook for just 2 minutes.
- Add remaining ghee and cook until gets thick, leaves the sides of the pan.
- Cook until ghee oozes out. It will take around 6 mins approx, in medium flame.
- Add powdered cardamom and mix. Garnish with ghee fried cashew nuts.
Notes
- I used the orange variety of sweet potato so got beautiful colour as such. If using our Indian sweet potato, you can use saffron or any natural food colour.
- Do not add more ghee than required, do not over cook halwa after it starts oozing ghee (Becomes shiny and non sticky).
Rajee says
Interesting recipe. Can I try jaggery instead of sugar.
Raks Anand says
Yes sure. It will taste like paruppu pooranam we use for kozhukattai
Rajee says
He he thanks. I think you have tried it too.