Carrot Halwa: A Decadent Way to Use the Fall Bounty

by Meenal Shrivastava

(And a Look Back at This Past Growing Season)

Fall is harvesting season in the Pacific Northwest. We are very fortunate in North Saanich to have a long growing season. Most properties have at least some space to grow food. 

Food binds families and communities in wonderful ways. In these times of a rapidly changing environment, it is especially important to learn to grow and preserve food.  In this short Facebook video, Jared Qwustenuxun Williams talks about creating his jam-shed and the story of an Elder’s childhood that inspired him to build it. 

Back in our garden in North Saanich, despite some erratic growing conditions, this summer was a great year for growing fruits and veggies. We were particularly happy with the bumper crop of plum peaches, basil, cucumbers, purple beans (they do turn green when cooked!), and different types of chilies. 

Due to our upcoming travels in early September, we canned all we could and left the rest in the raised beds.

Unfortunately, we returned home to completely destroyed fall veggies – beets, squashes, eggplants, radishes, and more. We had rats!

Thankfully we live in a community surrounded by farmstands and stalls, so we defiantly bought a bag of carrots from our nearest farmstand and made carrot halwa.

This recipe for carrot halwa is simple, gluten-free, and can be made dairy-free. It can also be adapted to use other fall veggies such as squashes, beets, sweet potatoes, or anything that can be mushed into a pulp.

Ingredients

1 kg shredded/grated carrots

1 can condensed milk

1 L whole milk (or cashew milk)

100 g butter/ghee (or vegan butter)

100 g cashews

12 green cardamoms (ground finely)

A generous pinch of saffron

Method

• In a heavy-bottomed pan, heat half of the butter/ghee, fry the cashews and remove. 
• Add grated carrots to the hot butter/ghee, stir for a few mins on high heat without burning. 
• Add the milk and condensed milk to cook on medium/low heat, stirring regularly. 
• Cook until all the liquid has evaporated and the colour of the carrots has darkened. Depending on how high you keep the heat, the cooking time will vary from 30 mins to an hour. Do not cook to the point of caramelizing the carrots.

• Taste to check for sweetness. Add a couple of tablespoons of sugar if the carrots are not very sweet and you like your dessert sweet. 
• Mix the cardamom powder, saffron strands, and cashews after removing from the heat. 
• Store in an airtight container after cooling. 
• It can stay for a couple of weeks in the fridge and also freezes well. 
• Enjoy it slightly warmed or at room temperature.