During Navratri and especially on the last two days, I had to make sweets back to back. On the first day, I made my Vermicelli Payasam and was wondering what to do for the next day when I decided to make this carrot almond kheer. It’s a fairly easy recipe to make too.

Carrot Almond Kheer

Ingredients:

• 1 cup almonds
• 3 carrots
• 1-litre full cream milk plus some extra
• 1 cup sugar
• A few pinches saffron
• 1 tsp ghee

Method:

• In a small bowl, soak the almonds for around 15-20 minutes and when cool, remove the skin and keep aside. Reserve around 10-15 to garnish.
• Peel and cut the carrots into small pieces and cook them in a pan with the extra milk till they are completely cooked.
• In a small cup put the saffron strands and add a tsp of milk and warm it in a microwave for around 30 seconds. You may need to do this a couple of times till the saffron starts to disintegrate. Keep this aside and stir well to make sure the saffron mixes well with the milk.
• When the carrots are cooled, blend them well along with the almonds into a smooth paste.
• In a pan, take the carrot almond mixture and add 1 litre of milk to it and bring it to a boil. When the milk comes to a rolling boil, add the sugar and saffron mixture and let it boil well.
• Slice the remaining almonds finely into flakes
• In a smaller pan, heat the ghee and when warm, fry the almond flakes till they are golden brown.
• Use the browned almonds to garnish the kheer.
• The kheer can be eaten hot or cold. We prefer to eat it cold as I believe this brings out the full flavour and so we usually keep it in the fridge for a couple of hours before eating it.