Lauki ki kheer

Lauki ki kheer or bottle gourd pudding is an easy kheer recipe.Some people who cannot do very tough fasting during Navratri and sawan include bottlegourd in their diet. This festive vrat recipe is easy to cook.It also helps you balance your diet during long periods of fasting. Bottle gourd is also called as dudhi or ghiya and is easily available in most parts of the world.

Lauki benefits

1. It is very easy to digest. Hence it is highly recommended for those recovering from illness or injury.
2. One of those veggies which is great for diabetics.
3. Helps control weight.
4. It is a natural diuretic
5. A good source of vitamins and Iron.
6. Excellent way to control hypertension and UTI.
7. Great for recovery, post pregnancy.

How to make a kheer?

In order to make kheerni or payasam, we cook the veggies grain or non citrus fruits of our choice in boiling milk on a low flame. You can make many different types of kheer like apple kheer, sago or sabudana, makhane or lotus seeds, shakarkandi and rice. You can also make it from carrots, pumpkin,black rice,seviyan, dalia or broken wheat.

Equipment

• Saucepan
• Grater
• Frying pan

Ingredients

• full cream milk
• bottle gourd / lauki grated
• powdered sago/sabudana powder
• sugar
• pistachios chopped for garnish
• ghee

• Peel the bottle gourd and remove the seeds. Grate it using a grater. Heat ghee in a pan. Add grated lauki to it.

• Cook on low flame until it becomes soft and translucent.

• Heat milk in a sauce pan. Add powdered sabudana and sugar to it. Mix with a whisk, allow to boil and turn off the heat. Keep it aside to cool down.

Optionally strain it through a sieve so that any lumps are removed.

• Now add milk to the cooked bottle gourd and mix well. Let it come to a boil.

• Optionally, garnish with chopped pistachios. Serve cold or at room temperature as per choice.

Top tip

• Always cut a piece of bottle gourd on both the ends and in the middle, to see if it is bitter. Bitter vegetable can cause acute food poisoning.
• Always use full cream milk to make kheer. Light milk can also be used along with milk powder.
• Increase the sugar as per your taste. You may even add condensed milk if you like while making this recipe. However, it will not be easy to regulate sugar while using such high sugar ingredients.

Need more lauki recipes?

• Lauki chana dal or dudhi chana dal : Lentils and veggies in one curry, make a wholesome meal with rice or roti.
• Lauki ki sabji : Simplest of curry recipes for weeknights
• Dudhi Burfi : Bottle gourd burfi is a simple treat. Who says veggies cant make good desserts?
• Lauki thepla : Simple lauki ka paratha made with grated ghiya makes a great vegan or veg meal with some yogurt.
• Air fried Lauki kofta: Air fried or baked in oven to perfection, or traditional fried kofte, makes a great vegan meat ball recipe.
• Lauki ka Halwa: All kids love a lauki halwa, even if they didnt like dudhi. Upcoming recipe.
• Lauki ka raita : Easy grated bottle gourd added to yogurt.
• Chilla and muthia are other tasty recipes.

Storage

Store the kheer as in case of all dairy recipes, in refrigerator.

Variation

If bottle gourd is not easily available, you can also use grated zucchini instead of ghiya to make this recipe.

Click here to see more kheer recipes.

Click here to see our rice kheer recipe video.