Carrot Kalakand Low Fat (Microwave cooking)

Fresh carrots are the best vegetable source of vitamin A and a great delight to eyes. Best way to eat carrot is to consume in its raw form. It is observed scientifically that taking 200 ml of carrot juice a day not only relieves our cold and virus but also helps to build our natural resistance to gems and infections. Since, not all of us relish carrot in raw form, there are alternative ways to consume them like carrot pulao (carrot with rice), carrot soup, carrot and vegetable stew, carrot juice. For the dessert lovers, list is never ending.....carrot halwa, carrot kheer (to post recipe soon), carrot cake and carrot kalakand.

Mom's Health Tip: Include carrot as much as you can in your daily food items. You can use like a filling stuff or to garnish tiffins like dosa, upma, idly and bread sandwitches.

Best thing about carrot kalakand recipe is the way its cooked in a microwave, time saving, very healthy and consumes less ghee too.

Tip: For easy cooking use grated carrot.
Ingredients

Shredded carrot - 1 1/2 cups

Condensed milk - 2 1/2 cups

Ghee/butter stick - amount equivalent to 1 stick

Elaichi/Cardamom powder - 1/2 Tspoon

Saffron strands - 3 (optional)

Dry roasted nuts for Garnishing

Almond thin slices

Cashews

Procedure:

• Quickly wash the shredded carrot and strain them. Now chop them small and place them in a wide microwave safe bowl.
• Sprinkle little water and cook them for about 5 minutes.
• Now take butter/ghee in a bowl and slightly heat in a microwave until warm for about 40 seconds. You can substitute ghee with full fat ricotta cheese for more taste.
• Add warm butter/ghee, condensed milk to the bowl with shredded carrot and stir the mixture properly for about 1 minute.
• Cook them again in microwave for about 10-12 minutes. Stir after 5 minutes to make sure the mixture doesn't spill. Keep an eye for the cooking mixture, when condensed milk turns slightly brown and sticks to the surface of the bowl, switch off the microwave. At this point, mixture must become thick and slightly crunchy.
  Note: For kalakand its good to have crunchy texture so, make sure you wont make it too soft.
• Now add cardamom powder, saffron strands and stir well. When the mixture cools down, make small balls or spread it on a plate and cut them in to desired shapes.
• Garnish them on top with dry roasted nuts and extra ghee (optional) and serve!!!.