Easy Sooji Halwa Recipe Without Milk

This easy recipe for sooji halwa uses no milk but this is not a dairy free dessert as we use ghee or butter to make this easy, quick and delicious Indian dessert. Sooji halwa is a delicious Indian sweet or dessert made of semolina flour (sooji), ghee (or butter) and sugar as the 3 main ingredients to which you also add water or milk & few other ingredients for flavoring and garnishing which you can adjust based on your preference.

Ghee is absolutely an essential ingredient for this recipe for sooji halwa, as ghee is what adds much flavor to this Indian dessert which you can prepare so quickly.

However, if you do not have ghee at home, you may make this with butter as well though the flavor may not be the same exactly.

Ghee is basically clarified butter which adds more natural, traditional and authentic flavor to suji halwa, but butter works too!

What Is Sooji Halwa?

Halwa (there are many varieties) is an Indian dessert which is made of mainly flour, sugar and ghee along with other ingredients, and it is basically a very delicious Indian style pudding.

And sooji halwa is made using sooji flour which is course semolina wheat flour and this sooji halwa has a very soft, melt in mouth like texture and it is very delicious too.

Besan ka halwa is another easy halwa recipe which can be made using besan flour or chickpea flour.

The best thing about sooji halwa is that it is one of the most easy and simple Indian desserts which you can make so quickly.

This is also a very popular festival sweet prepared in India with minimal ingredients.

Sooji halwa is also often served as the popular halwa puri along with poori or luchi puri and chana masala.

Halwa poori (halwa puri) is simple & delicious meal consisting of poori, sooji halwa and chana masala.

Sooji flour (semolina flour) is also known as rava in South India.

I recommend using very good quality ghee for the best flavor and results.

If you are not familiar with the term ghee, it is nothing but clarified butter (as I mentioned earlier) popularly used in Indian cuisine and you can see that ghee is very much used in Indian desserts which make them so rich and delicious.

Cashews and raisins are fried in ghee and added to the halwa at last, which makes it more delicious and flavorful, however I didn't add the fried cashews and raisins to the halwa.

You can easily garnish the cooked sooji halwa with nuts like sliced pistachios or almonds or just leave it plain if you do not want to add the fried cashews and raisins.

In the recipe for sooji halwa, I include directions for using the nuts, as it is one of the popular ways of making this dessert and when you are making sooji halwa, you are expected to add the fried nuts, although you can skip this if you don't prefer it.

How To Make Easy Sooji Halwa?

This recipe for sooji halwa is so easy, quick and simple to follow and you can make this dessert within few minutes.

Other than ghee, the most important ingredient that we use here is the slightly coarse semolina flour, which is popularly known as sooji or suji in North India and in South India, this flour is popular known as rava flour, which is basically semolina durum flour which is slightly coarse in texture.

Sooji/semolina flour is used in many Indian recipes including dessert recipes and most of the recipes using sooji flour is super easy to follow and make (the cooking time for this flour is very less) and they are delicious too.

See easy breakfast recipes using semolina flour like simple semolina porridge recipe, masala upma recipe, simple sooji upma recipe etc.

Sooji laddu (sweet semolina balls) is another very popular and easy to make dessert using sooji flour or semolina flour.

So here is how you can make easy, quick and delicious sooji halwa following this simple and easy sooji halwa recipe.

Ingredients for sooji halwa

½ cup sooji flour (semolina flour)

¼ cup ghee or butter

1 tablespoon extra ghee (or butter)

1 ¼ cup water

½ cup sugar

cardamom powder a pinch

for garnishing (optional)

1 tablespoon cashews or other nuts chopped (may use little more)

1 teaspoon raisins adjust the amount as you like

Steps To Follow (The Process)

Dry roast the sooji in a pan for about 2 to 3 minutes (in low heat while stirring) until raw smell goes away. You can skip this step if you are using roasted sooji flour.

Add ghee and cardamom powder to the dry roasted sooji and once the ghee is melted, roast the sooji flour in melted ghee for another couple of minutes.

Make sure to roast the sooji well for the best flavor but also watch not to burn the sooji flour.

So always keep the heat low and keep stirring while you roast the sooji flour.

Add water to the sooji, stir well and cook the mixture in medium heat.

Stir and cook until the sooji is cooked and almost all the water is evaporated.

Once the sooji flour is completely cooked, add the sugar to the pan and stir well until the sugar is almost dissolved which takes about a minute.

Continue to stir and cook in low heat until the halwa starts separating from the sides of the pan.

This step will take around 2 to 3 minutes of total time.

If you are not frying cashews and raisins for the halwa, just add the extra one tablespoon of ghee also to the same pan and once the ghee melts, continue to stir and cook the halwa in the ghee for another couple of minutes in low heat for a nice flavor.

Transfer the sooji halwa to another serving dish.

You may garnish the sooji halwa with any nuts of your choice like sliced pistachios or almonds for a quick and easy garnish.

If you want to add the fried cashews and raising, follow the below steps.

To add fried cashews and raisins (optional)

If you want to add the fried cashews and raisins, heat the extra one tablespoon of ghee in another pan, lightly fry the cashews and raisins until golden brown.

Add the fried cashews and raisins (along with the ghee) to the sooji halwa and gently mix in, you may also keep a few fried cashews and raisins separately to garnish the halwa.

Continue to stir & cook the halwa in for another couple of minutes in low heat until the flavors blend very well.

Serve the sooji halwa while it is still warm for the best results!

You can serve it alone for a quick & easy dessert or serve it with for dessert after dinner or serve it with poori or luchi puri & chana masla for a halwa puri breakfast or dinner.

More Indian Dessert Recipes That Are Easy To Make

besan ka halwa

rava ladoo (sooji ladoo)

coconut rava ladoo

semiya payasam (vermicelli kheer)

Below you can get the recipe for easy sooji halwa in detail.