For this month’s Secret Recipe Club assignment, I was partnered with Jayasri of Samayalarai – Cooking is Divine. Jayasri’s Indian and lives in the UK, and likes to cook up traditional dishes as well as try out Western ones. I had a tough time choosing a recipe because I wanted to cook up an Indian dish but didn’t want to use ingredients that would be hard for my readers to find. I also wanted to make something that was healthy and her recipe for Mango – Quinoa Halwa in Microwave seemed to be a good choice on both counts.
Halwa is a sweet Indian dish. It’s usually made with lots of ghee (clarified butter) and can be made with carrots, banana, or semolina boiled with milk, almonds, sugar, and cardamom. Jayasri’s recipe used quinoa, which is full of healthy, vegetarian protein and is naturally gluten free.
However, I was puzzled by her microwave directions. Obviously, UK and US microwaves are very different! I decided to make my version on the stove top. I also wanted to health things up by using coconut oil for ghee and coconut milk for cow’s milk, which turned the recipe into a vegan dish. I eliminated calories by using stevia instead of sugar, and didn’t include almonds because of my daughter, Lucie’s nut allergies.
When I was researching halwa dishes, I noticed that Mythreyee of Paajaka Recipes used saffron in her Microwave Mango Halwa. Since I had a little bottle in the cupboard, I decided to use that, too.
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Ingredients
- 1 cup mango pulp (2 mangoes), pureed
- 1 cup quinoa, cooked
- 4 tablespoons light coconut milk
- 3/4 cup Stevia in the Raw
- 1/4 teaspoon cardamom
- 3-4 saffron threads (optional)
- 1/4 cup coconut oil
- 1/4 cup raisins
Directions
- Cook quinoa according to package directions.
- Cut and peel the mangos and remove the pulp. Puree in a small food processor or blender.
- Place pureed mango, cooked quinoa, coconut milk, stevia, cardamom and saffron (if using) in a medium sized sauce pan over medium heat. Stir to blend.
- Cook over medium heat, occasionally stirring, until mixture starts to bubble.
- Add the coconut oil. Stir to combine.
- Continue to cook over medium heat until mixture starts to thicken. This should take 10 to 12 minutes. The halwa should be thick like oatmeal and glossy from the coconut oil.
- Add raisins and stir until evenly distributed and heated through.
- Dish warm halwa into small bowls and serve immediately.
- Calories: 354
- Calories from Fat: 178
- Total Fat: 19.8g
- Saturated fat: 15.3g
- Unsaturated fat: 0g
- Sodium: 6mg
- Total Carbohydrates: 40.8g
- Sugar: 12.0g
- Fiber: 4.2g
- Protein: 6.5g
- Cholesterol: 0mg
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{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
Yum! And what an awesome collection of other recipes too!
Hey Katja! Always good to see you here!!
Hi Anne, It’s so wonderful to know you tried something Indian, I understand your problems with MW, I never do any MW cooking, I love stove top cooking, good you made it that way, my MW is a very basic one, I did not understand it myself, so I took it out every few minutes as I have mentioned until they got well cooked, I do love to try healthy cooking as much as possible, Ghee is not very bad for healthy as it is being clarified., In India people use Ghee everyday in their normal food as well.., adding coconut oil, sounds very interesting.., I do use coconut oil in some of my dishes, adding coconut milk must be very delicious, I should try out your version
, lovely entry for SRC, thanks you liked it… and made it healthy too…
oh! I forgot to write that you have a lovely blog, and I was amazed how you have done all those calculating the calories and everything else counting!, absolutely intrigued, do please visit my blog again!, for my SRC choice…
Jayasri, I had a lot of fun making your dish. It was also good cold for breakfast the next day. Ghee would be very unusual for many people here in the US outside the big metro areas to find. While I know of several good Asian markets that carry ghee in the Denver/Boulder, Colorado area, for most people finding a healthy oil like coconut – which is very popular and trendy now – would be a more accessible product to use as they could buy it at the supermarket. Plus, vegans don’t use butter, so coconut oil was a good choice for my vegan readers, too. And thanks for the nice compliments!
I’ve never had quinoa as part of a dessert – looks good.
Dan, I use quinoa like rice in much of my cooking. Since this dish reminded me of rice pudding, it seemed very natural to have quinoa as an ingredient in a dessert. I especially like it because it’s gluten free, vegan and has lots of protein.
That looks delicious. I wonder if it would get me over my mango aversion. I love your substitutions of coconut milk and Stevia. I’m thanking blogger comment club right now for leading me to your site.
Mara, thanks for stopping by from the Blogger Comment Club. I’m not a huge fan of mangoes either, but this was really tasty.
I love all things quinoa. Sweet, savory, breakfast, dinner…you name it! I’m stopping by from SRC but I’d love if you check out my new site seasonalpotluck.com February is oranges month so if you have any orange recipes, we’d love if you’d link up! http://bit.ly/zDoNfx
Wow I’ve not come across a recipe like this before, it looks great. I’m quite keen to give it a go; I love mango.
look delicious and I love this recipe, you have a nice blog!!! Im come from SRC !
This sounds so good! I love quinoa and mango!
Oh man, what a great photo! If you haven’t had a chance, please stop by and visit my SRC post for Giant Chocolate Toffee Cookies
http://butteryum.blogspot.com/2012/02/giant-chocolate-toffee-cookies.html
ButterYum
Love how you “veganized” this dish for SRC- will have to give this a try.
Mango and quinoa…never had this combination of flavors. Sounds really interesting. I guess I’ll to try it out really soon!
Love&Light
Margherita
This sounds positively delicious! I just moved in with a new roommate who is vegan, so we’ve had a hard time finding common meals to prepare together. As an athlete, I need lots of protein and find that most vegetarian and vegan options are not enough to get me through a tough workout. I can’t wait to try this recipe. What meal of the day is this usually served with? It almost looks like oatmeal judging from your pictures, but perhaps it is not intended for breakfast food.
Ruth, so glad that I can help you and your roommate find dishes to prepare together! I’ve had it as a snack, for breakfast and especially for dessert, since it’s sweet.