Kheer – Indian Rice Pudding
Kheer is a traditional classic Indian rice pudding which is made with rice, milk, sugar and has flavored with cardamom and saffron. Nuts are used to garnish the overall dish.
Kheer is a very known Indian sweet prepared for many auspicious occasions. It’s creamy, thanks to cooking down the milk until it reduces to this thick and creamy consistency. Unlike, rice pudding that I have tried elsewhere, which is often thickened using condensed milk, or eggs or other replacements. Kheer gets it creaminess by cooking down the milk. We always use whole milk to make Kheer. It makes it creamy.
If you been to Indian restaurants, you probably have tried kheer. It’s a very common dessert. It’s simple and made with literally few ingredients. In my family Kheer is often made during occasions like ‘shraddh’ or Navratri.
Kheer can be easily made into vegan by using coconut milk or almond milk in place of regular milk and just do not use ghee.
The best thing about Kheer is, it can be served either ways cold or warm. In winters, warm bowl of kheer taste so good. In summers, slightly cold kheer taste much better in my opinion.
Puri with kheer is a classic combo. If you can add some kala chana to the meal, then it tastes awesome. There are few different ways people make it. There are also different varieties of Kheer, the most common one with rice. There is kheer that’s made with vegetables like carrots, lauki etc. Kheer can be made with sago as well.
The basic three ingredients of kheer are rice, milk and sugar. For flavoring we use cardamom and little bit of nutmeg, other spices that can be used are cinnamon often used in other cultures. Sometimes we also use saffron.
We often add nuts ton kheer. Everything is optional but it adds nice texture. I have also shared a recipe for rice pudding.
Kheer – Indian Rice Pudding
Ingredients
- 2 cups milk
- 1 can evaporated milk
- 4 tbsp sugar
- 1/4 cup rice
- 1/2 tsp cardamom
- 1 tsp ghee
- 2 tbsp nuts, raisins
- 7-8 strands Saffron
- rose petals optional
Instructions
- Wash rice under running water and soak rice in clean water for 10 mins.
- In a heavy bottomed pan, add 2 cups of whole milk. Keep cooking the milk for 20 minutes stirring once a while in between. Do not leave it unattended. Milk will boil over.
- After 20 mins, add rice and sugar to the milk. Keep stirring and cooking until it reduces in half quantity and rice is properly cooked, over all it has thickened in consistency. At this stage, add evaporated milk and cook another few minutes until you get the consistency you like. Remember, it will thicken a bit as it cools down.
- Add cardamom powder, ghee roasted nuts and raisins. If you like you can dilute some saffron in warm milk to bloom it and add that to the kheer.
- Serve warm or cold.