Millet Carrot Coconut Kesari- vegan, gluten free, no oil.
Indian festivals are deeply tied to rich desserts, usually made with lots of ghee, dairy products and sugar. Kesari is a popular South Indian dish, made with semolina (ravva) roasted with ghee, and then sweetened with sugar, enjoyed with nuts and raisins. It is a traditional festive dish, made as an offering to God and then eaten with thankfulness.
This recipe is inspired by the traditional ravva kesari, but is designed to avoid/ limit dairy products, highly processed ingredients, while consciously including more robust nutritional ingredients. Because, celebrating your body and health doesn’t need to take a break during festive occasions.
Instead of semolina, I used millets that I ground into a coarse ravva. Using millets , adds more fiber and tremendously lowers glycemic index. It was almost natural flow to include coconut, because no auspicious moment in India goes by without a coconut. Fresh raw coconut is delicious and the best form to enjoy it, compared to coconut milk, dry coconut or coconut oil. It comes with a combination of fats with protein and fiber. On the other hand, coconut oil is mostly concentrated saturated fat and hence should be avoided. I wanted to add carrots for the color and texture, along with the bonus of having a veggie included in the dessert.
To sweeten the dish, I used a mix of dates and jaggery powder. (Feel free to use the sweetener of your choice). A few nuts, and the aroma of cardamom, the brightness of saffron round up the flavors of the dish nicely.
Make it for Ugadi, the new year celebrated in South India, or any other special occasion, where you just want to blissfully engage in the food, in the moment or both.
Millet Carrot Coconut Kesari
Equipment
- Blender
Ingredients
- 1 cup Little millet- can use any millet to be dry roasted
- 15 almonds- dry roasted
- 2 cups coarsely grated carrot
- 1 cup chopped coconut pieces – fresh
- 3 dates
- 3-4 Tbsp jaggery powder sweetener of choice
- 4 cups water- warmed
- 5 whole cardamom – ground into powder
- 5-6 strands saffron mixed in 2 tbsp warm plant based milk
- pinch of salt
- finely chopped nuts to mix in optional
Garnish
- chopped nuts of choice
- fresh coconut pieces
- fresh carrot grated
- rose petals
Instructions
- Dry roast millet in a pan on low- medium heat over a period of 8-10 min. In the same pan dry roast whole almonds. Take both millets and almonds into a blender jar. Let them cool for 15-20 min. Then grind into a coarse powder to keep aside.
- In the mean time, coarsely grate carrots. Chop the coconut. Get the cardamom powder ready by grinding in a mortar pestle. Warm 2 tbsp water in microwave, let dates soak in it for 5-10 min.
- Now add the carrots, coconut, dates to the same blender used to grind millets, and grind into a thick paste. If needed, add 2-3 tbsp water from soaking dates.
- Warm about 4 cups water in a separate bowl.
- Now in heavy bottom pan, on medium heat add the millet ravva. Stir in one cup water at a time, making sure there are no lumps. Continue till all the water is added and no lumps seen in the pan.
- Give 3-4 min to cook the ravva, then add the carrot coconut mixture. Keep mixing.
- Once you see nice carrot colored homogenous mixture, add in the sweetener. You can add jaggery or coconut sugar or date sugar or brown sugar, or even maple syrup.
- Keep mixing the ingredients till all the sweetener is incorporated. Add the cardamom powder, salt and the saffron soaked in milk. At this stage, you can add any finely chopped nuts to mix in per choice.
- Give it a good 10 min on low – medium heat, while the mixture becomes slightly more thicker. Then turn off the stove
- Let it cool down for 20 min, before serving. Garnish with nuts, fresh coconut, grated carrot, etc.