Recipe: Dudhi No Halvo within 30 minutes

Getting together to share pre-made Mitthai

With Divali and New Year coming up, I had an excuse to explore making vegan Mitthai!

'Indian' sweets are made and shared during this festivity, but they often contain non-vegan ingredients, such as, ghee, butter or condensed milk.

The thing is...I'm not used to being vegan and missing out!

With that in mind; I arranged for some like-minded folk to get together and share the results of their experimentation with making vegan Mitthai.

I'll tell you more about the event in another post.

Sandip used the recipe below to make Dudhi No Halvo.

Here's what he has to say about it. 

One of my personal favourites. 
This is a healthy vegan recipe with minimal effort. I was successful, because my mum added her magic touch and guided me as we made it together.
So special thanks to mum - Prafulla Jawahir Kothari.

This recipe makes approximately 20 pieces, which are about one inch in width and length. 

Ingredients for vegan Dudhi No Halvo 

• 2 handfuls of almonds
• 1 medium sized bottle gourd vegetable also known as Doodhi/Dudhi - a medium one would be about 30cm long and 6cm diameter (at the widest point of the vegetable) 
• Sugar - you need 3/4 of the amount of Dudhi you have - see below 
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 teaspoon of Cardamom
• 1 pinch of vegan green food colouring (optional)

How to make vegan Dudhi No Halvo 

1. Use a food chopper to slice the almonds
2. Pour the olive oil into a non stick pan
3. Wash and peel the Dudhi
4. Grate/shred the Dudhi 
5. Squeeze the shredded Dudhi, to remove as much of the juice as possible
6. Measure the volume of the shredded Dudhi and make a note of how much there is
7. Put the Dudhi into the pan
8. Using medium heat, stir the Dudhi for 5 minutes - this will help remove some of the excess juice and it will make it softer
9. Use the measurement you took (step 6) to work out how much 3/4 the amount of Dudhi would be because you need this measurement to work out how much sugar is needed
10. Put the sugar into the pan with the Dudhi and stir 
11. Increase the heat and keep stirring
12. After all the sugar has melted, reduce the heat and keep stirring
13. Add the green colouring, cardamom and almonds into the mixture and keep stirring - save a handful of almonds for step 17
14. Stop stirring when the mixture turns into a ball and is not stuck to the pan 
15. Remove the mixture and put it in a tray
16. Flatten it out and decorate with some chopped almonds
17. Put it in the refrigerator
18. Once it has cooled down, cut the block into pieces 

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Recipe for Date and Nut Slices
Recipe for Pista Barfi 
Recipe for Maava Na Penda
Recipe for Cherry Chocolate Slices

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