Sooji Halwa - Sweet Indian Semolina Pudding

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Cooking With Anadi

12K subscribers · semolina roasted in ghee with cashews and cardamom

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This is my first Indian dessert I’m sharing! Gee, after years of recipe blogging, I finally got around to sharing a dessert of my own culture! Phew! I really hope this was worth the wait!

To be honest with you I didn’t really start making Indian desserts till probably a year or so ago! Maybe I’ve said this before, but I don’t make desserts much. I put my heart and soul into dinners and main courses that I’m usually just too exhausted to be making a dessert!

But I certainly do have a sweet tooth! If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll see I love having some chocolate treats at the end of the day! See, however, those are just nibbles of chocolate or cake or a nice wafer. I am quite a chocoholic! When do I actually take the time to make myself a nice sweet treat though?

Well, there’s special occasions. Christmas, my birthday… Yes, I made myself a cake for my own birthday! I wanted to, okay! I made a mousse cake with whipped cream, where the mousse was inspired by Chef Ludo Lefebvre and the whipped cream was my whipped cream recipe. If you’re interested in making your own whipped cream, be sure to check out my Best Homemade Whipped Cream recipe! Get ready to whisk by hand, or just use a stand mixer to make life easier! You can also make whipped cream using a whipped cream dispenser.

I’ve also made some molten chocolate lava cakes. They’re a popular dessert at the restaurant I used to work at, and I was so inspired to make them myself! There was a time I literally made a half dozen, so I had them all prepped for a couple of days, just waiting for me in my fridge! Oh my are those good!

I’ve also made some chocolate mousse for my wife’s birthday (that Ludo Lefebvre recipe really is tremendous and I totally recommend you try it out!) and again I’ve made mousse out of spontaneity. I love chocolate mousse. Yes, you’re seeing a pattern here! I have a dear place in my heart for creamy desserts!

The discussion about being too exhausted to make desserts has come up with a lot of followers of mine. The solution (and perhaps you know this already): make the dessert BEFORE the dinner! No excuses then, right! Of course that’s not always possible, but usually it is! Every time I have at least prepared dessert first, I was always thankful I did!

What about desserts from my actual culture though, you may be wondering? Yeah, I never made anything till literally a couple of months ago with the exception of kheer, a rice pudding. Even making kheer was a very rare occurrence though! I didn’t make my first kheer till four or five years of living in Canada.

Let me tell you something about Indian desserts now that I’ve got some experience making some - from gulab jamun to barfi - they’re quite time-consuming! Not many ingredients are needed (contrary to some Indian main dishes, haha!), but oh my you really gotta put in some work, and they’re quite delicate! They can be tricky! I think I did all right for my first attempt making gulab jamun and barfi, but those could seriously be improved.

Because these are quite involved - but tasty! - treats, these were never made at home. My family and I enjoyed these delights at restaurants! However, kheer and halwa are among the simpler desserts, so these are classics among Indian households!

Whenever my sister and I did crave a homemade dessert, my mom resorted to halwa. There are only four key ingredients, and you can make this in about 20-25 minutes or so! Despite its simplicity, it totally felt special to us!

As much of a chocoholic I am, this dish certainly has a dear place in my heart, and I’m excited to be sharing this amazing dessert with you today! So let’s get to it!

Tips for the Best Sooji Halwa

• Take your time to roast the semolina until you get some color on it. This is important to add flavor and to make the final dish look appetizing.
• Don’t leave the pan/wok unattended for more than 10-15 seconds, or you will risk burning the semolina.
• Adding the warm milk-sugar mixture helps ensure the milk doesn’t splatter all at once and will keep you safe. Plus it helps mixing the milk with the semolina easier!
• I would recommend adding less sugar to start with and then add more towards the end. You can always add more but you can’t take it out.
• This dish is yummy served hot or cold so try both and you won’t be disappointed.

Tools Needed

• Saucepan
• Wooden spoon
• Wok
• Measuring cups
• Measuring spoons

Ingredients Needed

You’ll love how short and sweet this ingredient list is! Let’s go over what we’ll need:

• Semolina: The core ingredient of course! This is the base of our pudding.
• Milk & water: Some recipes use only water, but I like the creaminess of milk. I’m going to use 1% milk since that’s what I had, but you can certainly use 2% milk (to be honest I would have but I forgot I purchased it for this recipe and I didn’t!!) or whole milk for even more creaminess.
• Ghee: Used to toast the semolina.
• Sugar: Sugar makes this pudding sweet. Feel free to substitute sugar with your favorite sweetener, though! You could use maple syrup or honey for natural sweeteners, or even use stevia or Splenda! I just felt like using sugar to make this classic, and it is the most commonly used sweetener to make semolina halwa, but any type of sweetener will work!
• Ground green cardamom: This is the little touch I felt like adding here. A small amount of ground green cardamom will bring on a wonderful fragrant flavor to your halwa!
• Cashews: Roasted with the semolina. You can use any dried fruit or nuts of your choice, but my favorite choice is cashews.

Optionally, you could also add a few strands of saffron along with the milk to add more aromatics to your halwa.

How to Make Semolina Halwa

Note that the FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE is at the bottom of this post! Keep scrolling to save this for later!

1. Add milk, water and sugar to a pot/saucepan and bring up to a simmer. Stir occasionally to ensure mixture doesn't boil over or burn.
2. Once hot, set heat to low to keep warm and prepare to roast the semolina.
3. Add ghee to a pan/wok on medium heat. Add semolina, mix well and start to roast on medium to medium-high heat. At this point, add cashews or another of your favorite dried fruit/nut to the semolina, along with ground green cardamom.
4. Continue to toast until semolina becomes light brown while stirring constantly.
5. Turn the heat down to medium and add the warm milk-sugar mixture in 3-4 batches to the pan/wok with the roasted semolina and keep mixing.
6. Once most of the milk has been absorbed, taste and adjust for sweetness. You may serve right away if you desire a loose texture, or continue mixing until your desired consistency.
7. Serve hot right away, or refrigerate to serve cold later!

What Sooji Halwa Is, and the Other Names It Goes By

Sooji halwa, written sooji ka halwa or suji halwa depending on who is doing the transliterating, is one of the simplest sweets made anywhere in India: semolina roasted in ghee, then swelled with a hot sweetened liquid until it turns glossy and spoonable. In South India a close cousin goes by kesari, usually tinted a saffron orange. It is most familiar as prasad, the sweet handed round after a puja, which is exactly why so many people learn to make it before they learn anything else. It is mild, barely spiced beyond cardamom, and reliably kid-friendly.

The Ratio, and Why the Liquid Goes In Hot

The ratio is what makes or breaks it. This recipe uses 1/2 cup of semolina to 1 cup of milk and 1/2 cup of water, which is two parts liquid to one part semolina by volume, with sugar somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 cup depending on how sweet you like it. Plenty of versions use just water and no dairy at all; if you go that way, keep the total volume the same and use one and a half cups of water. Using milk for two thirds of the liquids gives a richer, softer halwa and adds a little protein along the way.

Both liquids go into a pot with the sugar and come up to a simmer first, then sit on low heat to stay warm while the semolina roasts. This is not an optional flourish. Cold liquid hitting hot roasted semolina seizes it on contact and gives you lumps that will never stir out. Add the warm milk mixture in 3 to 4 batches rather than all at once, mixing constantly between each addition, and it will drink it up smoothly every time.

Roasting the Semolina Is the Whole Job

Melt 2 tbsp of ghee, or clarified butter if that is what you have, in a pan or wok over medium heat, add the semolina and roast it on medium to medium-high while stirring constantly. You are waiting for it to turn light brown and smell nutty. Under-roasted semolina keeps a raw taste that no amount of sugar will cover up, and that one step is the difference between a good halwa and a pasty one. A pan with a long handle helps here, because this is several minutes of continuous stirring.

The cashews and the 1/2 tsp of ground cardamom go in during the roasting rather than after, so the nuts toast alongside the grain and the cardamom powder blooms in the hot ghee. Once the liquid has been absorbed, taste for sweetness and then decide on texture: serve straight away for a loose, spoonable halwa, or keep mixing until the mixture begins pulling away from the sides of the pan if you want something firm enough to hold its shape.

Nuts, Garnishes and Easy Variations

Cashew nuts are what the recipe calls for, 3 tbsp of them, and this is the most forgiving variation point in the whole dish. Almonds behave exactly the same way, slivered or roughly chopped. Raisins are the traditional partner to the cashews and plump up beautifully in the hot ghee, though they are best added a minute after the nuts so they do not scorch. Pistachios are better scattered over the top at the end than roasted in, since the color is most of the point.