Gajar Halwa...a diabetic friendly dessert !

Halwa made using sugar...not so friendly.

 It’s a continuous challenge for people like me with diabetes to eat healthy diet. The daily diet that we eat at home consists of mainly wheat, veggies and lentils. But there are times when I loose control or possibly just rebel with my food choices. This happens mostly on long weekends or when hubby craves for carb heavy foods and I end up cooking for him…and eating as well.

I was seriously considering not posting this recipe because the Gajar halwa is something that is high on calories and my mom thinks that I eat what I post here and apart from that I don’t cook. I decided to bite the bullet and post it because this recipe can be a low calorie dessert, easy to make…provided you have a food processor and I didn’t have any other post to blog.

The halwa was made in two batches. One with using sugar and the other with sucrose.  Also, I used 1 % low fat milk and deleted mawa/ khoya from the recipe.

This was the first time I used sucrose for making an Indian dessert and it tasted pretty decent. I couldn’t tell the difference. And I enjoyed my carrot halwa without much of guilt.

Halwa made using sucrose

Note: Many of you might confuse sucrose with aspartame (artificial sweetener) but both have different components. Unlike aspartame, Sucrose is a natural sugar that is found in vegetables and fruits. Having said this, I wouldn’t recommend using any kind of sweeteners for diabetics on a regular basis.

Just eat healthy, exercise on a regular basis and have cheat days for yourself…it will take you a long way.

Ingredients

Carrots 10 -11 medium

Pure ghee 2 tablespoons

Milk 2 cups

Green cardamom powder ½ teaspoon

Sugar 3 tablespoons/ Sucrose 5 teaspoons

Roasted cashew nuts

Raisins

Method

Grate carrots using a food processor or a hand grater.

 Heat pure ghee in a thick-bottomed pan; add grated carrots and sauté for five minutes.

Add milk, green cardamom powder and sugar/sucrose. Cook on low heat until the milk evaporates and the carrots are soft and gooey.

Garnish it with cashew nuts and raisins.  Serve hot or at room temperature.

Note: If you are using sucrose instead of sugar, then add 5 teaspoons of sucrose.