Moong Dal Halwa Recipe

Moong Dal Halwa is a classic Indian Sweet Dish made with moong lentils, sugar, ghee and cardamom powder. Moong Dal Halwa tastes not only delicious but is also aromatic and makes for a great celebration dessert. The mouth melting texture, unique aroma and taste is what makes this so special.

Halwa is made very often in most Indian homes. Suji halwa or sheera, rava kesari & carrot halwa are some of them which appear most commonly.

Moong Dal Halwa is one that is not made often but sure is a festive & celebration dessert.

About Moong Dal Halwa

Moong Dal Halwa is a traditional Indian dessert where ground lentils are fried in ghee until aromatic and golden. It is then cooked with milk and sweetened with sugar. Moong dal halwa is flavored with cardamoms & saffron. Lastly garnished with chopped nuts.

The resulting halwa is simply delicious, aromatic with a melt-in-the-mouth texture and tastes divine.

I had shared this recipe on the blog in 2013. My kids keep asking me for this halwa as they love it so much. I made this sometime ago for a festive meal & thought of resharing it with a video.

Making some kinds of Indian desserts need lot of patience but the end results are worth it. This moong dal halwa is no exception, you need to fry the moong dal until golden and aromatic just like the way we fry the besan for the Besan ladoo.

I have made this halwa so many times and learnt the simpler way to make it without compromising on the taste. The trick is to not soak the lentils so it saves a lot of time.

Though you can make this moong dal halwa with flour (ground lentils) where you roast and powder the lentils. I follow this method of rinsing and grinding because I prefer to wash my lentils well before using.

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Photo Guide

How To Make Moong Dal Halwa (Stepwise Photos)

Preparation

1. Rinse half cup moong dal thrice.

2. Drain the water completely and add it to a blender jar. Blend it to a not so smooth but very slightly coarse texture. If you blend it too coarse, you will feel the texture in the halwa. So it must be very slightly coarse. If needed you may sprinkle little water if your grinder gets jammed.

Make Halwa

3. Heat 6 tbsps ghee in a wide pan. When the ghee turns hot, add semolina and fry until it turns aromatic.

4. Add the ground moong dal and regulate the flame to medium. Keep stirring and incorporate the ghee into the moong dal mixture.

5. Constantly keep stirring and fry till the moisture evaporates. Then reduce the flame to low and keep breaking the lumps and fry until the dal turns deep golden and aromatic.

6. When the moong dal is done, it resembles a sand like texture. Be patient at this stage and do not hasten to go to the next step.

7. Pour the liquid stirring the dal mixture. Note I use milk and water at room temperature. I also added the saffron at this stage.

8. Keep stirring continuously and cook on a medium flame.

9. When the entire liquid is absorbed, add sugar.

10. The moong dal halwa will become runny at this stage and then turns thick within few minutes. Since I used a cast iron pan and not a non-stick, mine was super hard to stir and fry at this stage. So I added 2 tbsps more ghee here. You can also skip it if using a non stick. Add cardamom powder.

11. Saute the mixture until the halwa leaves the pan. An addition of even little ghee helps a lot in easy sauteing.

Here are my tips to make the best moong dal halwa.

Pro Tips

Soaking: Do not soak the dal. With soaked dal it is harder to fry the dal mixture until golden. This also doubles the cook time.

Frying: The ground moong dal has to be fried or roasted in ghee until deep golden. This has to be done on a low to medium heat stirring constantly for even cooking. This is the key step to make the best moong dal halwa.

Ghee: Using good quality ghee is very important. The ratio of dal:ghee is the key factor. The minimum dal: ghee ratio is 1: ¾. Moong dal halwa can be made even with lesser ghee but frying the dal becomes much difficult with lesser ghee. You can reduce the ghee if using a nonstick pan.

Water or Milk?: You can use either. I make this most often with water as we don’t prefer milk with lentils. To make it rich this time I have used half milk & half water.

Mawa or khoya: I haven’t used it here just to reduce the cook time. Mawa makes the halwa more rich and delicious. You can add about 3 tbsps mawa towards the end.

Flavoring: Cardamom powder is good enough to flavor the dish. A few strands of saffron will enhance the color. But does not add much flavor.

Sugar: You can adjust the amount of sugar in this recipe to suit your taste.

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