I had a packet of oats lying around and was on the lookout to use it in different ways. Fortunately, I found some good beets at the market – and then I was tempted into combining the beets and oats into dessert! The dish I chose was ‘halwa’ (Indian term for a sweet dish). I was very pleased with the result as it turned out to have great taste and a perfect blend of textures – a soft base due to the cooked beets and chewiness from the oats.
Recipe for Beetroot and Oats Halwa / Beet and Oats Halwa

Serves : 2-3
Ingredients :

• 2 cups grated beetroot (1 large or 2 small beetroots)
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup rolled oats
• 5-6 pieces each of almonds, cashews and pistachios
• 1/4 tsp cardamom powder
• 3 tbsp milk
• 1 tbsp ghee

• Peel the beetroot and grate it with a thick grater.
• Steam the beetroot in the microwave for 3 mins. This step is totally optional. I steamed it to speed up the cooking process.
• On a medium flame, add ghee in a pan and fry the almonds, cashews and pistachios. Keep stirring them continuously at this stage.
• When the nuts turn golden brown, add the steamed beets to the pan and cook for 5 mins. If you have not microwaved the beets, then cook them slightly longer.
• The water from the beet should cook out. When the base of the pan is almost dry, start adding milk. The milk should be added in stages. I added 1 tbsp of milk every 2 mins until done.
• Now add the oats and sugar and stir well. Cook the entire halwa till all the liquid in the pan evaporates. This should take around 2 mins. Check the sweetness of halwa at this stage. I used brown sugar and the measurement specified is according to that sugar variety.
• Switch off the flame, add cardamom powder at the end and serve hot.

Tips :

• Keep continuously stirring the nuts in the initial stage otherwise they will burn.
• Any variety of oats can be used in this preparation, so the only difference would be in the cooking time.
• Continuous monitoring of dish on the flame is required in the whole preparation.
• For those staying in Singapore, I used 100% organic rolled oats available in NTUC.