Sheera halwa is a popular Indian pudding dessert recipe with delicious flavor, ready in less than 20 minutes. Sheera or Sooji Ka Halwa is prepared using ghee, rava (sooji, semolina), sugar, and dried fruits & nuts of your choice.
What is Sheera?
Sheera is an Indian halwa made by roasting semolina in ghee and then sweetened with sugar and flavored with cardamom powder or saffron strands.
This Indian pudding dessert is known as sheera or ravyacha shira or prasadache sheera in Maharastra and the coastal regions of Karnataka. In North India, this is popularly called suji halwa (sooji halwa). In South India, this is called rava kesari. In Myanmar, this dish is called sanwin makin and in the Caribbean, this is called as Mohan bhog.
Sheera is commonly offered to God during Ganesh Chaturthi, Varalakshmi pooja, Navratri, Diwali, Ram Navami, Kanya puja, Makara Sankranti, Sai Guruvar, etc., in the form of naivedyam or prasad.
Sooji halwa is also served as one of the popular Ashtami prasad along with poori and chana in North India.
In South India, sheera is sometimes served with upma for morning breakfast.
Ingredients
½ cup Ghee (can reduce to ¼ cup )
2 tablespoons Cashews, chopped
2 tablespoons Almonds, chopped
1 tablespoon Raisins, chopped
½ cup Semolina (sooji or rava or durum wheat)
1 ½ cups Water
½ cup Sugar
½ teaspoon Cardamom powder
How to make sheera
In a pot, add water and heat it. Let the water come to a boil.
Meanwhile, in another pan on medium flame, heat ghee. To this, add cashews and almonds, and just when it starts becoming light golden, add raisins and saute for a few seconds. To this, add sooji (semolina) and roast on medium flame until aromatic. Roasting sooji generally takes less than 3 minutes. I have roasted for just a minute or 2. The more you roast, the color of the final product changes. Keep stirring. Else, it will burn from the bottom. Check out the video here.
Now add the hot water and keep stirring. Be careful as sooji is going to splutter when hot water is being added to it. Keep stirring until you see the water is absorbed completely.
To the cooked suji, add sugar and mix well. The mixture may look gooey for a minute, but it will start becoming thick again. Cook until ghee leaves the side of the pan.
Finally, add cardamom powder, mix, and switch off the flame.
Serve and Enjoy!
Pro Tips
To get the perfect temple-style sheera, always follow the ratio of ghee:semolina (suji, rava):sugar is 1: 1: 1 and 1.5 cups of water. But remember, for a healthier version, you can reduce ghee to ¼ cup in the recipe above, and the amount of water will vary depending on the type of semolina used.
If you want a richer version, use milk instead of water or use half and half.
You can vary the amount of dry fruits and nuts as desired.
While pouring hot water, be careful as it is going to splutter.
I use Bombay rava (a fine variety of sooji) while making sheera or sooji ka halwa.
FAQS
Sugar is used traditionally used while making suji ka halwa. Sometimes in a few temples sugar is replaced with jaggery.
I use Bombay rava or sooji, which is also used to make upma. If you use coarse sooji, the time and amount of water needed to cook the sooji will increase accordingly.
I have made several fruit-flavored sheera like pineapple sheera, apple sheera, mango sheera, chickoo/sapota sheera, etc. You can make with any seasonal fruits - just make sure to vary the amount of sugar depending on the sweetness of the fruit.
Traditionally, only cardamom powder is used for flavoring. To make it look rich and festive, even Kesar or saffron can be used.
One of the main reasons for hard/dry sheera is not adding enough fat or water in the recipe. This can however be easily fixed. Reheat on low flame with a small addition of fat such as ghee/butter. You can also add a splash of water if needed till you get the desired consistency.
Halwa is good occasionally and during the festival season. The amount of ghee, sugar, and semolina used makes it a high-calorie food, thus affecting weight loss and diabetics patient.
This halwa recipe is already rich, but if you want to make it richer, add milk instead of water.
Video recipe
You can check the making of sheera (sooji halwa, suji halwa, semolina halwa) here.
Recipe card
Sheera Recipe | Suji Halwa | Sooji Ka Halwa | Rava Halwa
Ingredients
- ½ cup Ghee (can reduce to ¼ cup )
- 2 tablespoon Cashews, chopped
- 2 tablespoon Almonds chopped
- 1 tablespoon Raisins chopped
- ½ cup Semolina (sooji or rava or durum wheat)
- 1 ½ cups Water
- ½ cup Sugar
- ½ teaspoon Cardamom powder
Instructions
- In a pot, add water and heat it. Let the water come to a boil.1 ½ cups Water
- Meanwhile, in another pan on medium flame, heat ghee. To this, add cashews and almonds, and just when it starts becoming light golden, add raisins and saute for a few seconds.½ cup Ghee (can reduce to ¼ cup ), 2 tablespoon Cashews, chopped, 2 tablespoon Almonds chopped, 1 tablespoon Raisins chopped
- To this, add sooji (semolina) and roast on medium flame until aromatic. Roasting sooji generally takes less than 3 minutes. I have roasted for just a minute or 2. The more you roast, the color of the final product changes. Keep stirring. Else, it will burn from the bottom. Check out the video here.½ cup Semolina (sooji or rava or durum wheat)
- Now add the hot water and keep stirring. Be careful as sooji is going to splutter when hot water is being added to it. Keep stirring until you see the water is absorbed completely.
- To the cooked suji, add sugar and mix well. The mixture may look gooey for a minute, but it will start becoming thick again. Cook until ghee leaves the side of the pan.½ cup Sugar
- Finally, add cardamom powder, mix, and switch off the flame.½ teaspoon Cardamom powder
- Serve and Enjoy!
Notes
- To get the perfect temple-style sheera, always follow the ratio of ghee:semolina (suji, rava):sugar is 1: 1: 1 and 1.5 cups of water. But remember, for a healthier version, you can reduce ghee to ¼ cup in the recipe above, and the amount of water will vary depending on the type of semolina used.
- If you want a richer sheera, use milk instead of water or use half and half.
- You can vary the amount of dry fruits and nuts as desired.
- While pouring hot water, be careful as it is going to splutter.
- I use Bombay rava (a fine variety of sooji) while making sheera or sooji ka halwa.
Nutrition
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Ieva
I adore Indian desserts and this was no exception! Sweet and soft and just delicious 🙂 Thanks for the recipe.
Jovita
Absolutely beautiful perfect dessert! Thanks for sharing!
Natalie
I love how simple and delicious this dessert is. I always enjoy desserts with dried fruits & nuts, thanks!
Kim
So gorgeous! I also love that you can change up the fruits and nuts to whatever you have on hand. Makes it an easier dessert for any day!
Shadi
I have all the ingredients to make this! Looks so easy and delicious!