Moong Dal Halwa Recipe comes specifically from Rajasthan. Though Moong Dal Halwa comes from Rajasthan but it is very popular and commonly prepared in homes in North Indian states Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. Generally halwa is prepared with flours like whole wheat flour, semolina, gram flour and other different flours. Moong Dal Halwa is special in a way that it is not prepared using flour, instead it is prepared with Moong Dal (Yellow Lentil).
Moong Dal Halwa is prepared with a rich quantity of ghee. Ghee is the main ingredient to prepare halwa. Halwa is generally rich in ghee but Moong Dal Halwa is extra rich in ghee. Traditionally the recipe says that ghee should be as much as the quantity of Moong Dal but that sounds like a lot of ghee. This Moong Dal Halwa Recipe is modified a bit. Quantity of ghee is halved as compared to the traditional recipe of Moong Dal Halwa and also amount of sweeteners is reduced.
Traditionally jaggery is used to make moong dal halwa but now sugar has replaced jaggery. In this recipe of Moong Dal Halwa, I have used a mix of jaggery and sugar. Why Jaggery and Sugar, because jaggery adds a bit of earthiness / specific aroma in the prepared dish.
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It is a choice if you wish to prepare Moong Dal Halwa with sugar or jaggery or a mix of both. Here is the complete recipe of Moong Dal Halwa with complete recipe details and the list of required ingredients.
Details : Moong Dal Halwa Recipe
Ingredients for Moong Dal Halwa Recipe
- Moong Dal ( Yellod Dal ) : 1 cup
- Ghee : 1/2 cup
- Green Cardamom : 5 – 6 crushed
- Full Fat Milk : 2 + 1/2 cups
- Jaggery : 1/4 cup (optional)
- Sugar : 2/3 cup
- Crushed / Grated Almonds : 15 – 20
How to make Moong Dal Halwa
 | Moong Dal Halwa is prepared with yellow split moong dal. First of all, wash moong dal and soak it in water for 5 hours. Soaking Moong Dal is important step for making halwa. Moong Dal should be soaked in water for at least 5 hours. It is better to soak moong dal overnight and next morning it can be used to make halwa. |
 | Drain the water from soaked Moong Dal and grind it to make a fine moong dal paste. Do not add water while grinding dal. As dal is already soaked for long enough, no water is required in grinding dal. |
 | Now heat ghee in a heavy bottomed pan, whether it is a pressure cooker or kadahi but the pan should be heavy and thick as roasting moong dal in ghee is a long process. We should just heat the ghee to warm temperature. |
 | Once ghee is warm, add moong dal paste in it. Mix it continuously else the dal will start sticking to the pan. While stirring / mixing, keep the flames low. We need to cook moong dal halwa on low flames only. |
 | Keep mixing and stirring dal in ghee. Slowly in the process, moong dal soaks whole ghee and starts coming together. We should still keep stirring till moong dal consistency is grainy. This process takes almost 25 minutes on low flames. |
 | After cooking moong dal in ghee for almost 25 minutes, moong dal achieves the grainy consistency. At this point, ghee is completely soaked in and dal looks like as it is shown in the picture at left. |
It really takes a lot of efforts in stirring , mixing and standing that long near the cooking stove to achieve grainy consistency.
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 | Now add milk in the cooked moong dal. Add little quantity of milk at a time and keep stirring again continuously but keep the flames low. Some people also use water instead of milk. |
 | Now add jaggery and sugar in it. Keep stirring. Once we add jaggery and sugar, halwa becomes a bit thin consistency but after cooking for a while it reaches thick consistency again. Color of moong dal halwa also changes after adding sugar. |
 | Keep stirring. Add cardamom powder in it and mix well. Keep cooking further till all the ingredients come together. After adding sugar, cook for almost 5 minutes or till the halwa reaches thick consistency. |
 | Now moong dal halwa is ready. You can see the color change in halwa when it is ready. Initially the color of halwa is yellow but once sugar is added and cooked completely, color changes to golden brown. |
Moong Dal Halwa is ready now. Though the recipe of preparing Moong Dal Halwa is simple and easy but it is a long process. Dal takes a lot of time in cooking and that is why cooking takes so much time. There are other variations of this Dal Halwa where we can use moong dal powder or we can first roast moong dal and than make grind it to make powder to be used in halwa.
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Also there are variations with less quantity of ghee and using alternate sweeteners instead of sugar. You can always make changes in a recipe in order to make it suitable for personal taste and health requirements.
 | Once Halwa is ready, garnish with crushed almonds. |
 | Moong dal halwa is ready to serve. |
Moong Dal Halwa is a perfect Indian sweet for festivals.
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