Love moong dal halwa but don’t want to spend the time in washing, soaking, grinding and roasting the moong dal. This quick recipe uses besan/gramflour instead of moong dal eliminating the need to soak and grind. Taste-just like traditional moong dal halwa. Look- just like traditional moong dal halwa. Texture-just like traditional moong dal halwa!
I made this recently for a puja at my home. Everyone loved the ‘moong dal halwa’ and raved about how good and yummy it was! When I told them it wasnt moong dal, but to guess what it was-none could guess it was besan. I got responses like, chana dal, jowar, dalia, bajra,ragi and even rice!
This recipe was shared a few years back in a facebook group by Neelu Singhal. I had written down the recipe and gave my own spin to the recipe. I tried it atleast 3 times with different amount of sugar and butter and finally settled on the recipe shared below. When everyone showed so much love towards this halwa, at the puja, I knew I had finally nailed the recipe.
I had shared the traditional moong dal halwa recipe, some time back. Do check it out if you want to make it the way our mothers and grand moms made. This recipe was shared by my husbands bua and has been made many times by me at parties. The post does give measurements for 60 people, in case you want to make for a large crowd. The main difference between traditional and besan one is that moong dal halwa has no milk and therefore lasts a really long time. The moong dal halwa made with besan requires the besan to be steam cooked in milk to make the besan, soft, light and fluffy. Because of the milk, it has to be refrigerated and consumed within a week to ten days. Trust me it wont last that long!
Some other recipes made of besan/ gramflour are-
Besan Ke Laddoo-Moms Traditional Recipe
Besan Chilla with Sprouted Methi
Air Fried Lauki Ke Kofte/Healthy Lauki Kofta
Gatte ki Sabzi-No Onion Garlic-Instant Pot Recipe
Here is the written recipe followed by the step by step pictorial one-
Moong Dal Halwa from Besan/No Moong Dal no Soaking No Grinding
Equipment
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1 saucepan
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1 nonstick pan/kadhai/wok
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1 spatula
Ingredients
- 2 cups laddoo/jada/mota besan /granular gramflour
- 2 cup sugar
- 2 cup water
- 1.5 cup ghee/3 stick unsalted butter
- 2 cup milk i used 2%
- 1/2 tsp Green cardamom powder/elaichi powder
- 1 pinch saffron
Instructions
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Heat water, add sugar and cardamom powder Bring to a boil. Turn off heat and keep sugared water aside.
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Heat a pan, add butter/ghee and milk, bring to boil
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Turn of the stove and add the besan/gramflour
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Mix well and break up lumps
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Turn on the stove to medium low, cover the pan to steam cook besan/gramflour in its own moisture for 20 min. Stir every 3 to 4 minutes. This is a very important step, to cover and cook the besan. On induction, the temperature is 600 F
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Remove cover from pan, increase temperature to medium and roast the besan for 15 minutes. On induction, temperature is 800 F
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Add sugared water slowly to the pan, little at a time and stir continuously to avoid lumps, keep med to high heat. I put the sugared water 1/3 at a time. when hot gramflour meets water, it can splatter, so be careful
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Besan absorbs all the water/moisture in about 10 minutes and leaves sides of pan. You will see the fat separate from the besan.
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Turn off heat, sprinkle chopped nuts and keep covered for 5 minutes. Can add additional saffron at this time
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Mix well and serve hot
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Store in fridge and heat before serving. Tastes best when its hot. Can be microwaved.
Notes
I have tried with unsalted butter and ghee, both taste good. Butter is more readily available and I didn’t find any major difference in taste, so my preference is to use unsalted butter. I made first with 2 sticks per cup of besan, felt it had too much fat. tried the same recipe with 1 stick of butter, taste was good. It was little difficult to stir and no fat separates towards the end. But its possible to make it lower in fat by using one stick of butter. The ideal midway point was to use 1.5 sticks or 3/4 cup ghee per 1 cup besan. This way there was enough butter/ghee to cook the besan, fat separates in the end, giving us the hint that the halwa is ready.
Just bring water and sugar to one boil, no string chashni is needed
Boil ghee and milk. Turn off heat before adding besan to the pan to avoid lumps
Milk works to steam cook besan so it becomes soft, light and fluffy
Butter/ghee helps to roast the soft besan, which gives us the texture ,taste and color of dal halwa
Here is the step by step pictorial recipe-
Bring water, sugar and crushed cardamoms to a boil
Add saffron and set aside
In pan, bring the butter/ghee and milk to a boil
Turn off stove and add the besan/gramflour
Mix the besan/gramflour into the milk ghee mixture, making sure there are no lumps
Turn on the stove to medium low, cover and let the besan cook in its steam
Cook for 20 minutes, removing the cover and stirring every 3-4 minutes and covering it back
(pictures below are taken every 5 minutes)
Remove cover, increase temperature to medium and
continue to cook the besan/gramflour for 15 minutes,
stirring every couple of minutes
(pictures below taken every 3-4 minutes)
By now the besan has turned darker and is well roasted
Add the sugared water, little at a time, mixing well each time
Turn up the temperature to medium high and stir continuously
The besan/gramfour will absorb all the water and halwa will thicken
In about 10 minutes, it should leave sides of pan and fat should separate
Turn off the heat, sprinkle nuts and additional saffron and cover and leave for 5 minutes
Enjoy this easy hack where you get all the taste and flavor
of moong dal halwa, without washing, soaking or grinding the dal
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Madhu
What an awesome hack. Taste is just like moong dal halwa and half the time. Thank you for this recipe. Taste was too good.
Aanchal Gupta
So glad to hear you liked the taste. It really is easy. No soaking grinding of dal. Same taste at half the time.
Sabita
This was such an easy recipe and so tasty. No one can tell that it’s not Moong Dal.
Aanchal Gupta
Thanks. For all moong Dal Halwa lovers, this is an amazing hack. Such a time saver and no difference in taste or texture