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Instant Pot Gajar Halwa – Vegan Carrot Halwa Recipe. Carrot Halwa is an Indian dessert, a flourless Carrot Cake Crumble/pudding that is spiced with cardamom and served during festivals. Vegan Gluten-free Soy-free Recipe. Jump to Recipe
Gajar Halwa is a popular Winter-Spring dessert in Northern India. My Dad’s fave version has grated carrots that get slow roasted in a skillet over hours to become almost candied and the mix is more like a soft crumble. See my Stove top carrot halwa version here. This Instant pot version cooks within minutes and works amazingly.
The Carrots get roasted with sugar for a bit then pressure cooked, then roasted again to dry them up. This Instant Pot Halwa will cook to a softer more pudding like state, and gets close to the stove roasted one after sitting for a bit to cool. I use purple and red carrots for the gorgeous color that would normally show up only on long roasting. To make this nut-free, use sunflower seed meal and omit the cashews. Make this delicious dessert for Holi (the festival of colors coming in March) or valentines day (use more purple carrots!) 🥕🥕. See video above the Recipe.
More Instant Pot Indian Recipes
- Instant Pot Vegan Butter Chickin(soycurls). GF
- Lentil Veggie Dhansak – Lentil Veggie Stew in IP. GF
- Kohlapuri Veggies – Veggies in sesame coconut sauce GF
- Lentil Sweet Potato Soup GF
- Aloo Palak Dal- Potato Spinach Lentils in IP. GF
- Chana Saag – Chickpea Spinach Curry GF
- Instant Pot Chickin Saag with soy curls.GF
I know what you are thinking, that the Serving size should be 1 ;). Well, the 4 serves are dessert portions. Serve after a good meal! If you make this, do let me know how it turned out! Subscribe to My Youtube Channel for more videos.
Video:
Instant Pot Gajar Halwa - Indian Carrot Halwa Vegan Dairyfree Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp vegan butter or oil
- 3 tbsp cashews
- 3 tbsp chopped dates, or raisins, or currants
- 2.5 cups of shredded carrots, rainbow carrots or red or a combination of purple and red
- 4 tbsp sugar
- 1/8 to 1/4 tsp salt, use 1/4 tsp if using oil instead of vegan butter
- 1/4 cup almond flour/meal
- 1/4 cup non dairy milk such as almond or soy, , use 1/2 cup if your carrots are not very moist
- 1/4 tsp ground cardamom
- pistachios or cashews for garnish
Instructions
- Put the Instant pot on Saute (Stove top pressure cooker over medium heat). Add vegan butter or oil.
- Add cashews and cook until golden. Stir occasionally. About 2 minutes. Add dates/raisins and cook for a few seconds.
- Add carrots, sugar, salt and almond flour/ meal and mix well. Cook for 2-3 minute. Add non dairy milk and mix in.
- Close the lid. Pressure cook for 6 to 7 minutes pressure cook/manual button, hi in Instant pot. (3 mins over medium heat in stove top pressure cooker). Let the pressure release naturally. Open the lid, Mix in the cardamom. Taste and adjust sweet if needed.
- Put the pot on Saute and cook the mixture for 4 to 7 mins to roast it well and to dry out the liquid. Stir well frequently to avoid sticking. At this point you can add another 2 tsp vegan butter (This helps with the texture)and mix in. Once the mixture starts to stick and is dry-ish, press cancel and let it sit. The pot will be hot for a while, let the carrot mixture slow cook in the heat for 15 mins or so. Stir once in between. When the mixture is warm-cool, serve, or store refrigerated. Garnish with chopped cashews or pistachios to serve chilled or warmed . Stove top version here.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I notice that the instant pot version calls for just 1/4 cup of almond milk but the stovetop version calls for 1 1/4 cups — is the difference by design or possibly a typo? Sounds delicious so wanted to check before trying it!
The moisture from the carrots doesn’t evaporate in instant pot. So there’s plenty moisture. We want the carrots to caramelize a bit and with extra milk they won’t do that. Hence we add less. In the stove top method, we roast the carrots a bit and then add the milk and continue to cook the carrots in the milk until almost all is gone. On stove top the carrots take longer to cook. And there’s lots of moisture evaporation
I have tried this recipe 3 times and have been pleased with the results. The only suggestion I have is to use at least 3/4 cup milk (I used soy milk). Otherwise, the Instant Pot goes into “burn mode”. (I have used orange carrots).
thanks Praveen
I tried following the recipe and the instapot kept telling me food burn. I had to add 4X the oatmilk, pressure cook it for a min and then rest i had to cook for over an hour to let the liquid dry out.
OVERALL: came out way too yu mmy!
Interesting … I’m glad that it came out yummy!!!!
The amount of milk (1/4 cup) is not enough for the amount of carrots in this recipe. The Instant Pot will go into “BURN” mode after a couple of minutes and the whole mixture will stick and burn to the bottom of the pot.
Carrots leak a ton of moisture as soon as they are heated. I’ve made it several times. You can add 2 tbsp more milk if you want.
This looks delicious and I am so excited to make it on saturday for Diwali. One question – can I use almond flour instead of almond meal?
Yes! I use either, should update that
Would it taste the same with coconut milk instead of almond?
it would be scrumptious surely, but have a little coconut taste – not almond
This is an absolute winner! I accidentally bought 80oz bag of carrots and didn’t know what to do with it. I came across this while looking up carrot recipes and I am so glad I did. I grew up eating this as my mom would make it very frequently but did not have it in years. Reminded of my childhood and I think this vegan version tasted even better. I used oat milk and oat butter and it came out amazing. Thanks for such an amazing recipe!!
how nostalgic – with a modern twist