A no-sugar healthy kheer, made with dry fruits and nuts…
The end of the month means the post for the Shh Cooking Secretly Challenge. This month, I suggested the theme of “No Sugar Healthy Desserts”. It is something that everyone is looking into these days – reducing sugar as much as they can for health reasons. Even though sugar isn’t a villain, just like everything, if you overuse it, it becomes poison. Hehe… Anyway, my partner for this month was Kalyani, with whom I have already worked a few times in this challenge. She is always fun to work with. I gave her the ingredients of cardamom and almonds, and with it she made this amazing looking banana bread. I love anything with banana and considering that it has no added sugar, I would have loved a couple of slices of it for my cup of coffee. But for now, I will drool on it… She gave me fig and cardamom and they were just perfect to make this kheer.
I have been wanting to make a kheer that is loaded with a lot of dry fruits and nuts. This dessert is exactly that. It doesn’t have even a speck of additional sugar added because the dates and the figs did what it has to do. The nuts made it thick enough to drink it in when it is hot or scoop it up with a spoon when cold. The whole kheer comes together very easily without cooking for too long. I totally loved how it came out and I am surely going to make this again, maybe with little variation here and there. Off to the recipe…
Dry Fruits and Nuts Kheer | No-Sugar Payasam
Ingredients
- 5 Medjool dates
- 5 dried figs
- 1/3 cup mixed nuts I used cashews, almonds and pistachios
- 1 tbsp ghee
- 1 litre milk
- A pinch of cardamom
- A pinch of salt
- Almond slices for garnish
Instructions
- Pit the dates and figs and soak them in water for half an hour.
- Meanwhile, roast the nuts till toasted and allow it to cool completely.
- Drain the dates and figs from the water. Grind along with the nuts, by adding little water to make a smooth paste.
- In a thick bottomed saucepan, heat the ghee. Fry the almonds for garnishing. Drain and set aside.
- Add the ground paste and saute for a couple of minutes.
- Add a cup of water and whisk together till it becomes smooth. Add the remaining milk and whisk well.
- Add the cardamom and salt and keep on low flame. Allow the kheer to cook for 10-15 minutes till it thickens and tastes cooked.
- Add upto 2 cups of water to adjust to desired thickness and heat.
- Switch off, add the almonds and enjoy warm.
Post Diwali, we have a bit of dry fruits left… Now I know this yummy kheer with a sugarfree option will satisfy all of us at home..