Quick and Easy Diwali Sweet Recipes | Deepavali Sweet Recipes

15 minutes Doodh Peda/Milk Peda

There is always something warm and bright about this time of the year, when everything has a special glow! There is always something special about this time of the year when all our hearts are full of cheer!

Yes, the festival of lights is here… Diwali or Deepavali is the occasion which brings lots of love and laughter to fill our days with cheer and hope for something best to come! 

The Monsoon Spice household is gearing up for this special occasion. The house is dusted, the vessels are scrubbed, the Diyas are glowing, and the kitchen is a hub of activities! We are hosting a Diwali party for our close friends and that can only mean one thing; fun, laughter and good food!

For the next couple of weeks, I will be posting the recipes of the delicious and exquisite food I am cooking for our friends. But for now here are some of the sweet/desserts that you can cook for your loved ones!  While you are at it, don't forget to check the list of Simple and Easy Snack Recipes for Diwali to delight your taste buds!

 

Wishing you all a very Happy and Sparkling Deepavali!

Warm Regards

Sia

Belgaum Kunda	Besan Laddu
Mysore Pak	Semiya/Vermicelli Kheer
Carrot Kheer	Pineapple Kesari Bhaat
Saffron Nankhatai	Kesari Bhaat
Vegan Avalakki Payasa	15 mins Microwave Doodh/Milk Peda
Sago/Sabudana Kheer	Peanut Chikki
Mango Panna Cotta	Rava Laddu
Easy Gulab Jamun (with milk powder)	Ela Ada

Payasa/Kheer (Indian Pudding)

• Banana Rasayana -Vegan pudding of bananas in jaggary sweetened coconut milk
• Carrot Kheer/Payasam - Thick and creamy Indian pudding of carrots cooked in milk, flavoured with cardamoms and topped with crunchy cashew nuts
• Dates Payasa -Vegen pudding of dates in coconut milk flavoured with cardamoms
• Sabudana(Sagoo) Kheer/Payasa -Creamy pudding of sagu pearls in cardamom flavoured milk topped with cashews roasted in Desi ghee
• Semige Payasa/Semiya Kheer - Quick and easy vermicelli pudding flavoured with cardamom
• Vegan Avalakki (Flat Rice) Payasa -Vegan pudding of creamy flat/beaten rice in coconut milk flavoured with jaggary and cardamoms

Belgaum Kunda Recipe | How to Make Belgavi Kunda

Learn how to make Belgaum Kunda or Belgavi Kunda ~ Sweet caramalised milk fudge from Belgaum, North Karanata

The festival of colours and love, Holi is just around the corner marking the arrival of spring and new beginning. This Hindu festival also signifies not only the end of winter, but for many it’s a day to meet friends and families, play and laugh, drench one another in rainbow colours, forget and forgive, and repair broken relationships. Holi is also celebrated as a thanksgiving in most part of North India for a good harvest. For me no festival is complete without some sweet dishes to not only sweeten our mouth, but also our life. I have this wonderful sweet dish called Belgaum Kunda or Belgavi Kunda from North Karnataka today which is made by reducing and curdling the milk and cooking with caramalised sugar syrup.

Belgaum, located in the state of Karnataka is a cultural city known for its rich multi-cultural heritage, architectural splendour, remnants of a rich and colourful historical background and for its natural beauty. A swathe of mesmerising emerald green landscapes with breath taking waterfalls and misty hills, Belgaum is a home for many religious monuments and architectural wonders oozing old world charm that is sure to satiate your spiritual and aesthetic loving soul. Just an hour’s drive from Dharward, my home for 4 years of engineering studies, this city of Belgaum had left its mark on my life with a sense of pure bliss. Although my limited student budget didn’t stretch very far, it didn’t stop my wanderlust soul from making several trips to this beautiful city that enticed me with its historical charm, rich culture and cuisine.

Beetroot Halwa Recipe | How to make Beetroot Halwa

Learn how to make Beetroot Halwa ~ Sweet beetroot pudding flavoured with ghee and cardamoms

Year 2016 is coming to an end and what a year it has been! As the year draws to an end, I can’t help but introspect the days gone by. This year has been a year of surprises; some good and some not so good. It’s been a year where I have laughed a lot, cried my heart out, gracefully accepted the new laughter lines few more silver-grey hairs, lost few pounds only to gain them back, made few mistakes and learnt some valuable lessons, been more conscious of what I cook and serve for my family n friends, did a lot of travelling and road trips, spent more time in the arms of mother nature, did some creative work that I enjoyed a lot, walked minimum 10K steps a day, grew a lot of vegetables, spent more time with my family, and learnt to live in a moment by finding joys in little things in life from LD.

AND… Monsoon Spice completed 10 years of blogging in the end of September 2016 which ~gasp~ I completely forgot to mention, let alone celebrate! Well, that was a year 2016 in nutshell and I can go on with my unceasing rants. But I am running out of time as we are leaving to India to meet a brand new member of our family, celebrate Christmas and welcome a brand new year with our families. It's going to be a short holiday, but we are planning to make the most it and have a blast.

Besan Ke Laddu Recipe | How to Make Besan Ke Ladoo

Learn how to make Besan Ke Laddu ~ Sweet chickpea/gram flour balls flavoured with cardamom and ghee

The festival of lights is here… Diwali or Deepavali is the occasion which brings lot of joy and laughter to fill our days with cheer and hope for something best to come! We are having a quiet Diwali at home as the man of the house is away in Scotland attending a conference and will only be back on Friday night! Which means the young man of the house is seen following me everywhere chattering and asking me non-stop questions as why we have lit dozens of the candles and diyas, what am I cooking, why the house is decked as a bride, what is Diwali, why are we celebrating it, why are we Hindus, who made us Hindus, does it mean we can’t celebrate Christmas, will he still get Christmas presents from Santa and many more until I pretend to faint! I don’t miss the fire crackers back in India as my little fire cracker is here to bombard me with his never ending questions and chatter. :)

On the Diwali eve, our home came alive with flickering of diyas and candles lit in every nook and corner with the soulful evening raga playing in the background. The fragrant smoke of incense, camphor and dhoop waltzed with the fragrance of roses and jasmine. The clang of pots and pans, the heady aroma of saffron, rose water and cardamoms and the joyous laughter in the background was everything that any festivals are about. Unlike last year’s extravagant and loud Diwali which was the first for LD with his grandparents, this year’s celebration is quiet and mellow with just three of us. As it was the case with any festival, we were missing our loved ones on this joyous occasion. The beautiful memories of Diwali of my childhood are something I treasure the most. The light, laughter, joy, great food and a lovely company is something that makes this festival so special. So I feel the real need to create wonderful memories for my young man by carrying out century old traditions passed from one generation to the next. And what better way than the stories of the festival accompanied with a delicious food which is heart and soul of any Indian festivals?!

Easy Gulab Jamun Recipe (With Milk Powder) | Simple Diwali Sweet Recipe

Learn how to make Gulab Jamun ~ An Indian confection of deep fried spongy milk balls soaked in rose scented and cardamom flavoured sugar syrup

It is almost that time of the year in India when winter begins. It is almost that time of the year when the dawn is lightly caressed by the frost. It is almost that time of the year when the golden rays of morning sun passes through the dew drops on the grass making them look like a precious diamonds sewn on the lush green carpets. It is almost that time of the year when the trees sway to the gentle morning breeze in the cool mist. It is almost that time of the year when the soft sun light appears from the distant hills and the birds tweet as they flutter through the dew laden sky! It is almost that time of the year when the summer’s blistering heat and the monsoon’s thundering rains give way to a season of crisp winter months. It is the golden season of Kartik, a season of cool air, chirping birds, dew drops laden fresh grass, the blossoming trees and the time when the entire Indian subcontinent adorns itself in the silky golden hued sunlight to greet the heavenly bodies into welcoming arms!

15 Minutes Microwave Doodh Peda (Milk Peda) Recipe | Step by Step Doodh Peda Recipe | Diwali Sweet Recipe

Learn how to make simple and quick 15 Minutes Microwave Doodh Peda (Milk Peda) using Milk Powder and flavoured with cardamom

This Diwali is special in two ways… One it is Diwali, an Indian festival of lights, and the second being it marks our 7th wedding anniversary! After ‘saying yes’ and committing ourselves to lifetime some 8 years ago, it has been a wonderful seven years of blissful married life! In these seven years we have seen many ups, faced few lows, lot of laughter, few and far between tears, a handful of tantrums, spiced with few fights, peppered with handful of arguments and sweetened with joy!

Mysore Pak Recipe | How to Make Mysore Pak | Diwali Sweet Recipe

Learn how to make Mysore Pak or Mysore Paak/Gram Flour Fudge ~ Traditional sweet of Bengal gram/chickpea flour, ghee and sugar flavoured with cardamom powder from Karnataka, a South Indian state  

Once upon a time, many many years ago, there was royal cook named Kakasura Madappa. He was an expert in creating magic with sugar and ghee. Bored with making same kind of sweets and pudding with exquisite and expensive ingredients, one day he decided to experiment with very common and inexpensive ingredient which all aam junta (common man of India) could easily afford. The main ingredient of this sweet which Madappa was experimenting was type casted as ‘to be used in making savoury dishes only’ in the cooking world. Madappa ignored the looks of unapprovals and the little murmurs of snide remarks from fellow cooks and continued his experiment in cooking something remarkable. Little did Madappa and his contemporaries knew that his simple concoction of gram flour, sugar and ghee was about to create a history in the world of sweet confections!