Beetroot halwa in microwave

This is a healthy sweet dish which comprises of mainly beetroot. Beetroot is full of phytonutrients called betalains which acts as an antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and detoxification agent. It is also a rich source of iron. This recipe provides an excellent way to feed beetroots to kids which is not generally liked by them. Like any “Halwa”, this dish also needs a long time to monitor and stir the grated beetroots on the flame with milk. That is why I generally microwave it. Microwave has various advantage over traditional cooking, one of them being it quickly dehydrates the food which is very important in this case because we need to evaporate the milk quickly and the taste comes from the evaporated milk and the beetroots being cooked slowly in clarified butter added. Another problem is continuous monitoring. if you do not monitor it continuously, there is a chance the milk may get burnt or the beetroots may stick to the bottom of the wok. You can do this parallelly with other activities. But this process takes pretty long time even in microwave around 45 minutes with 1 liter of milk. if you want it faster, you can cook in microwave high and add only 1 cup of milk and 1 cup “Mawa”[dried thickened milk].The time wil get reduced to 15 minutes or so.

Ingredients

1.Grated beetroots (4)
2.Milk (1 litre)
3.Clarified butter or ghee) (1/4 th cup or 1/2 cup)
4.Sugar (as per taste) beetroot is inherently sweet, you can add 1/4th cup of sugar or less, just taste it after adding once. Too much sweet does not taste good.
5.Vanilla (2 tsp)
6.Cardamom (1 tsp powdered)

After 30 minutes

Process

1.Add beetroots and milk in a borosil glass container. The container should be big enough and should not be filled to the brim. There should be space for the milk to expand.
2.Micro it for 30 minutes at highest power.
3.Take out the container and stir,allow it to cool for 5 minutes .
4.Add sugar[never add sugar immediately after taking out the bowl,the mixture may overflow]5.Micro it for more  15 to 20 minutes.
6.Take out ,add vanilla ,cardamom powder and stir.
7.Add clarified butter[ghee] and micro for 5 minutes.
8.Your warm and delicious beetroot halwa is ready for serving.
9.Garnish with dry fruits or roasted melon seeds and serve immediately.

Note :
1.Do not try this process in plastic or microwave proof Tupperware containers, only heat proof glass bowls.
2.All microwaves are different, better to check after 20 minutes and set the timer again as needed