Dudhi No Halwo (Bottle Gourd Halwa)

I’m currently in Jersey visiting my family and along with my food goals of stuffing my face with as many jersey bagels as I can, I also wanted to take advantage of my family’s garden. As long as I can remember, my family has grown hoards vegetables. Eggplants, long beans, okra,tomatoes, various herbs, you name it we grew it. One of my favorite veggies we grow is  bottle gourd. They grow to be super long and my sister and I would pretend they were baseball bats and try to beat each other. We had a violent way of showing we loved each other when we were little 🙂 .

Anywho, luckily this year we had a surplus of bottle gourd! In past years, my mom would shove bottle gourd in everything. Bread, dumplings, curries,juices (yes, my sister and I don’t like to talk about this torture juice) and sweets. Dudhi no halwo is actually a sweet. Halwa or halwo is a dense, oatmeal-like dessert that can be made with carrots, bottle gourd and various nuts and flours. It’s a dessert that is pretty typical all across the middle east and there are SO many versions of halwa. This recipe is a Gujarati version. It’s super easy to make and delicious with carmel-y flavor to it. If you don’t have bottle gourd near you, try this with carrots and add some walnuts and cinnamon to it and you have guilt free carrot cake halwa! Enjoy!

Cook time: 30 minutes                                             Serves: 4-6 people

1 tbsp ghee (clarified butter)
2 cups shredded bottle gourd
3  tbsp of sugar
1 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp crushed pistachio
1 tsp ground cardamom

1. Melt the ghee in a thick bottomed saucepan. Add the shredded gourd and let it cook for roughly ten minutes on medium heat until the gourd is translucent and soft.

2. Once the gourd is cooked stir in the sugar and let it cook until the water from the gourd has evaporated. Now pour in your heavy cream and continuously stir. Make sure to keep stirring or else it will burn.  Keep mixing until the majority of the heavy cream has evaporated and the ghee separates from the gourd.

3. Remove from heat and sprinkle the halwo with crushed pistachios and cardamom. Enjoy while warm or cold. This will keep in the fridge for up to four days.