Mung Bean/Moong Dal Halwa for ICC – Aspartame Free /Sugar Free & Low Cal

This blog is celebrating Pongar/Sankranti in two ways as there are two authors from different parts of India.
One is from Gujarat and another from a region where this festival is celebrated for three days
Bhogi, Pongal and Kanu, yeah from Tamil Nadu. Back home there are lot of festivities and
lot of  food. We try to celebrate the same way here in a slightly healthier style.

This year for past few weeks starting (from the last week of December) there are
too many parties and eating out. Too much of food, carb and sugar in the past few weeks,
another thing is  i have made Mung Dal Halwa earlier which i have  already posted during
Deepavali which is almost similar to this.  With the ICC challenge to be posted for the 15th, 
i thought of trying out this delicious Indian sweet with Xylitol for Bhogi.

 I had to combine both the recipes  from Srivalli as using xylitol will give a dry texture
 to the end product so added 1/4 cup milk. Xylitol is a natural sweetener manufactured
 from the Birch tree bark,  which is vegan looks like sugar and has only 1/3 calories
 as sugar and the best of all doesn’t cause cavities like refined sugar. Xylitol and Stevia
 another herb are the kind of natural sweetner available in the market, do more research
and check out for yourself . If you are going to use Natura, Equal etc which are
artificial sweeteners, the white sugar is way better than these dangerous chemicals.
 So don't use them. The artificial sweetener contain a dangerous chemical called
 aspartame about which i will post later.

Ingredients

Split Yellow Moong Dal(Mung Bean) – 1 cup
Ghee (clarified butter) – 1/2 cup + 1 tbsp
Khoa/Mawa(Thickened unsweetened milk ) – 1/2 cup
Xylitol – 3/4 cup
Milk – 1/4 cup
Saffron – few strands
Toasted nuts – 1 tbsp for garnishing

Method

1) Soak Moong Dal overnight in water.
2) Next day rinse the mung dal few times with enough water.
3) Drain the water completely from the mung bean and grind this into a fine paste
using as little water as possible.
4) Heat the milk add xylitol, saffron and once the xylitol dissolves, add the khoa and
keep this paste ready.
5) Heat 1/4 cup of the ghee(1/2 the quantity) once it is hot and melted, simmer the stove
into minimum and add the grind mung bean paste little by little stirring continuously with
a egg beater as this part is very tricky because the mung bean will stick to the bottom of
the vessel if not taken care. Add the remaining 1/4 cup of ghee and keep stirring till
the mung bean gets cooked and the color of the bean paste changes color to slight brown.
6) Now add the khoa paste to the bean mixture and stir till everything combines and well
cooked and the halwa starts leaving the side.
7) Switch off and a tsp of ghee, toasted nuts and serve warm.

Posted in: diwali sweets,green mung bean,how to make moong dal halwa,Indian Mithai,Lentils,Moong,sweet