Lauki Kheer – Bottle Gourd Milk Pudding

Deliciously decadent kheer laced with cardamom and saffron and the goodness of lauki / bottle gourd, that you can feel a little less guilty of indulging in more than one serving.

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There are so many of these recipes that I had even heard of, let alone tried and tasted them before I got into the world of food blogging. I come across something that is new to me and I go asking for a recipe, be it neighbors, friends or look up in my collection of cookbooks or even the internet.

This lauki kheer is one such recipe. Lauki or bottle gourd is not a vegetable that is quite commonly used in Southern India, which is where I grew up and spent most of my life. But I have started to love this vegetable and Lauki Chana Dal is a dal curry that I make quite often after having once tasted it and loved it at a friends house for dinner.

Lauki kheer is yet another story. I was quite intrigued when I heard that a dessert could be made with this vegetable. But knowing the taste and texture of this vegetable, I could see how this would work. Lauki Kheer is also called Doodhi Kheer or Ghiya Ki Kheer – those are just other names for bottle gourd.

I tried to read up about this recipe, and as always there are several versions to making this recipe. A popular one was cooking the grated lauki in water and then adding to the milk mix and another one I saw was to just add it. I didn’t what to go with the first method as it did not call out to me. The second one felt like I was taking too much of a chance just putting a raw vegetable into a dessert.

So I decided to fry the grated lauki in ghee till it became soft and I then proceeded to make the kheer out of it. Frying in ghee is something we do quite a bit in a lot of traditional Kerala style payasams like the kadala pradhaman or ethapazham payasam. So I thought that should work for this too. And it did!

I used evaporated milk for this recipe as a shortcut to get that gorgeous deep color that is slightly pink, that you get from reducing the milk down. It worked really well and I hope you will love it as well.

Lauki Kheer

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Indian

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

Servings: 4 people

Calories: 275 kcal

Author: Manju

Deliciously decadent kheer laced with cardamom and saffron and the goodness of lauki / bottle gourd, that you can feel a little less guilty of indulging in more than one serving.

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Ingredients

• 1/2 cup grated lauki / bottle gourd
• 1 can evaporated milk
• 2 tbsp ghee
• 1/3-1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp ground cardamom
• 1/2 tsp saffron
• 4-5 pistachios shelled and crushed
• 1 tbsp sliced almonds

Instructions

1. Heat the ghee in a heavy bottomed pan and add the grated lauki to it. Saute for about 5 minutes till the lauki starts to soften up a little.

2. Now add the evaporated milk and let it come to a boil. Simmer for a couple of minutes.

3. Add the sugar to this and mix well to let it dissolve. Add the cardamom and saffron and simmer for a few more minutes.

4. Remove from heat and garnish with the pistachios and sliced almonds. Serve warm or cold.

Nutrition Facts

Lauki Kheer

Amount Per Serving

Calories 275 Calories from Fat 135

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 15g 23%

Saturated Fat 8g 40%

Cholesterol 44mg 15%

Sodium 94mg 4%

Potassium 321mg 9%

Total Carbohydrates 27g 9%

Sugars 25g

Protein 6g 12%

Vitamin A 4.2%

Vitamin C 2%

Calcium 24.4%

Iron 2.6%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.