Preparation time: 10 minute(s)

As part of ‘From Chefling to Chef series’ we interviewed the very talented Sumayya from Pukka Pakistani.Read her interview here.

Beetroot as known as chuqandar in Urdu, has an earthly flavor. As kids, we used to hate the taste but loved playing with it by rubbing the beetroot slices on the lips and treating it as a lipstick. It left a nice purplish-red ting to lips!

Sumayya here used beetroot to make a traditional Pakistani Dessert – a Halwa. A very different combination but it tastes divine. Try it out and tell us what you think? 

 

• 500 g beetroot, peeled and grated
• 400 ml double cream
• 100 ml fresh milk
• 100 g caster sugar
• 1 tsp cardamom seeds
• 1 tsp cloves

Method:
1. Boil the milk and cream together, add the grated beetroot, cloves and cardamom seeds. Cook on low heat and keep stirring occasionally and keep an eye on the pan. Cook this until the milk/cream gets absorbed into the beetroot mixture (takes about 25-30 minutes on medium low heat). Now add the sugar and keep stirring until it is all mixed in well

2. Once the halva is thick, deep red and all the cream/milk and sugar is absorbed, pour into a serving dish, decorate and either serve warm with ice cream or whipped cream or serve cold with some delicious hot masala chai!

Decorate: with some chopped pistachios, freshly ground cardamom and silver leaf