Celebrating this year’s Diwali with this homemade easy dessert…
Diwali, “the festival of lights” is one of the famous Indian festivals. To me when I think of Diwali, two things come to my mind – firecrackers and sweets!
I cannot explain how nostalgic I feel right now. I have so many good memories associated with Diwali, especially when it comes to setting off firecrackers. I was so good at it. My neighborhood in India used to be highly energetic and enthusiastic during Diwali. We used to set off fire crackers till midnight and this was the only occasion when people never used to complain about the noise and the smoke from all the firecrackers. Not just children but also the elderly let loose and join the fun.
Another attraction of Diwali is the variety of sweets you could find in sweet stores. In most of the houses they make their own version of sweets.
For this Diwali, I made an easy Squash Halwa. You just need squash and very few ingredients to make this halwa, yet it would taste great.
Happy and safe Diwali to all my readers!
Squash Halwa Recipe
Ingredients:
- Acorn Squash- 1
- Milk- 1/4 cup
- Sweetened Condensed milk- 3/4th of 400 mL can
- Saffron, strands (optional)- 1/2 tsp strands soaked in 1 tbsp milk
- Ghee- 4 tbsp
- Roasted Almonds, whole or chopped- 1/4 cup (roasted in 1/2 tbsp ghee)
Instruction
- Peel the skin off the squash and dice it into medium size.
- In a non-stick cooking pan, cook the diced squash in water till it turns soft and well cooked.
- Drain the water from the cooked squash, add the squash back into the pan.
- Using a wooden spoon, mash the cooked squash without any lumps.
- Turn on the heat to medium and place the pan with the mashed squash.
- Add milk and combine well stirring constantly breaking any lumps.
- Add the condensed milk and combine well stirring constantly.
- Pour 2 tbsp of ghee at this point and keep stirring.
- If you are adding saffron, add the soaked saffron to the mixture.
- Let thicken and don’t forget to stir constantly.
- When the mixture is no longer watery and has thickened, add 2 tbsp more ghee.
- Keep stirring for a minute and remove the pan from the heat.
- In a small pan, roast whole or chopped almonds in 1/2 tbsp ghee till golden in color.
- Grease a platter with some ghee and spread the squash halwa onto the plate.
- Even out the halwa level using a flat spatula.
- Garnish the squash halwa with roasted almonds.
- Chill the halwa for an hour in the refrigerator
- Enjoy.
Tips:
- You could tweak this recipe according to your needs.
- You could adjust the sweetness, amount of ghee added accordingly.
- Also add pistachios, raisins, or other nuts for extra crunchiness.
- Acorn Squash- 1
- Milk- ¼ cup
- Sweetened Condensed milk- ¾th of 400 mL can
- Saffron, strands (optional)- ½ tsp strands soaked in 1 tbsp milk
- Ghee- 4 tbsp
- Roasted Almonds, whole or chopped- ¼ cup (roasted in ½ tbsp ghee)
- Peel the skin off the squash and dice into medium size.
- In a non-stick cooking pan, cook the diced squash in water till it turns soft and well cooked.
- Drain the water from the cooked squash and add the squash back into the pan.
- Using a wooden spoon, mash the cooked squash without any lumps.
- Turn on the heat to medium heat and place the pan with the mashed squash over it.
- Add milk and combine well stirring constantly breaking any lumps.
- Add the condensed milk and combine well stirring constantly.
- Pour 2 tbsp of ghee at this point and keep stirring.
- If you are adding saffron, add the soaked saffron to the mixture.
- Let thicken and don't forget to keep stirring.
- When the mixture is no longer watery and has thickened, add 2 tbsp more of ghee.
- Keep stirring for a minute and remove the pan from the heat.
- In a small pan, roast whole or chopped almonds in ½ tbsp ghee till golden in color.
- Grease a platter with 1 tsp ghee, spread the squash halwa onto the plate.
- Even out the halwa level using a silicone spatula.
- Garnish the squash halwa with roasted almonds.
- Chill the halwa for an hour in the refrigerator. Enjoy!
You could adjust the sweetness, amount of ghee added accordingly.
Also add pistachios, raisins or other nuts for extra crunchiness.
