Carrot Pudding / Carrot Kheer / Carrot Payasam made in Instant Pot or Pressure Cooker. Carrot Kheer is made with carrots, milk, cashews and dates, with the added aroma of cardamom & saffron. A delicious & satisfying desert, with no added sugar. You would not mind yourself or your kids asking second and third servings!
I first had this Carrot Kheer at a friends place, it was so yummy! My friend’s mom was visiting and made this awesome carrot kheer, so credit to you auntie Chandra Subramanian for this recipe. The only thing going through my mind eating the kheer was how can I recreate this in the instant pot. The other great part about this carrot pudding is – no need to spend the time grating carrots. Isn’t that great? Grating is the only reason I don’t made Indian carrot halwa frequently, even though I love it.
You can serve this carrot kheer hot or cold. I like it cold with a garnish of pistachios. With no added sugar and no grating required, this Carrot Kheer has become our go to desert 🙂 So let’s start cooking!
How to make Carrot Kheer in Instant Pot?
First we will prepare the ingredients.
- Peel the skin of the carrots and roughly cut in pieces.
- Set aside the dates. You would need pitted dates with the seed removed. If you don’t have dates, you could add 1/3 cup of sugar.
- Measure 1/3 cup of roasted unsalted cashews, roughly 50gms. If you don’t have roasted cashews, you can toast the cashews in 1 tbsp of ghee or oil until lightly brown. If you prefer very thick pudding, increase cashews to 1/2 cup.
- Measure and set aside 1 litre or about 34oz of milk.
To start cooking, add the carrots, cashews and dates with 1 cup of milk to the instant pot insert. Pressure cook for 7 minutes with vent in sealing position. When the instant pot beeps, quick release the pressure and open it. Before and after pictures below.
Transfer the contents to a blender and blend to a smooth paste. If needed, add some portion of the remaining milk while blending. I used my Vitamix to blend to a smooth consistency.
Add the remaining milk and the blended mixture to the instant pot insert. Add cardamom, saffron strands and give a good stir. We are almost there, we just need to give this pudding a quick boil and it is ready. I get the pudding to a boil on Sauté mode, while stirring frequently. You could also use the “Boil” function with the “Yogurt” mode (press yogurt, then Adjust). Switch off the instant pot as soon as there is a boil. That is it…Carrot pudding in ready!
I prefer it cold, so I transferred the pudding to a bowl and let it cool on the counter top and in the refrigerator. Garnish with pistachios and enjoy it.
Yumm…I love this Carrot Pudding. I would love to hear how you like it. Other desserts that is super easy in the instant pot – Carrot Halwa, Rice Kheer, Seviyan Kheer and Sweet Seviyan.
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- 3 Carrot small, cut into pieces
- 1 litre Milk about 34 oz, preferably whole milk
- 1/3 cup Cashews roasted unsalted
- 8 Dates pitted
- 1 pinch Saffron (Kesar) or few strands (optional)
- 1/2 tsp Green Cardamom (Elaichi) ground (optional)
- Almonds or Pistachios to garnish
- Peel the skin of the carrots and roughly cut in pieces.
- Add the carrots, cashews and dates with 1 cup of milk to the instant pot insert. Start it in manual or pressure cook mode for 7 minutes with vent in sealing position.
When the instant pot beeps, turn off the instant pot. Quick release the pressure and open it. Transfer the contents to a blender and blend to a smooth paste. If needed, add some portion of the remaining milk while blending. (Depending on your blender, you might want to cool a bit before blending)
- Add the remaining milk and the blended mixture to the instant pot insert. Add cardamom, saffron strands and give a good stir.
- Start the instant pot in Sauté mode and let the pudding come to a good boil. Switch off the instant pot as soon as there is a boil.
- Transfer pudding to serving bowl and let it cool on the counter top and refrigerator. Garnish with pistachios and serve chilled.
- Sanitize the instant pot thoroughly when cooking milk and desserts - the steel insert, lid and sealing ring. If you have an extra sealing ring for sweet foods, use it.
- For a thicker and more creamier pudding, increase the quantity of cashews to 1/2 cup. If you don't have roasted cashews, you can toast the cashews in 1 tbsp of ghee or oil until lightly brown.
- If you don't have dates, replace with 1/3 cup sugar.
- If you prefer sweeter deserts, increase the quantity of dates to 10 or more.
- You can also use a hand blender to blend after pressure cooking. I prefer to do it in the Vitamix as it makes a smooth pudding.
Note: Nutrition values are my best estimates. If you rely on them for your diet, use your preferred nutrition calculator.
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Hi
Can my instantpot ultra keeps saying burning just after it has warmed up. Any reason why?
Hello Zainab – That might be the safety feature. When my DUO heats a lot and there is no food in it, it does give an error. I believe once the pot is hot, it is expected to have food cooking in it, so it does not burn. Not sure if there is any other issue with the pot, you can always contact instant pot support. I have heard they are very responsive.
Do you think I could use cashew milk in place of the whole milk? I’m eliminating dairy at the moment, so just wondering if this would work! Sounds DELISH!
Hey Linda – Some readers have tried this with almond milk and enjoyed it. They added some almond meal/flour to thicken at the end. So I believe cashew milk would work too. Please do share if you try it!
Ohhh okay, sounds good! Thanks so much, I’ll let you know how it turns out!! 🙂
Hello,
I tried the recipe it came out well for twice. But now after boiling milk getting curdles. Can you help me? I increased the dates and cashews quantity. Pressure cook for 7 mins.
Hey Sk – I have seen that the milk can curdle if the sealing ring or ip lid was not 100% clean. What happens is the steam condenses on the lid and water from the lid drops back into the milk. If there were any savory foods cooked before with spices, they can go back into the milk, which then curdles it. Hence before cooking desserts or anything with milk, thoroughly wash the pot, lid and sealing ring. If you have a different sealing ring for desserts, then that can be used. Hope that helps!
Thanks for your reply Meeta. I will try that one.
Hi Meeta,
If I double the ingredients, does the cooking time remain the same ?
Thanks !
Chhavi
Hey Chhavi – Yes, the cooking time will remain the same even if you double the quantity. Hope you enjoy it!
Hello,
How much time it takes on sauce mode? I.e for boiling milk at the end.
Hey Sindhu – I did not measure the exact time, but it should be quick (3-5 mins) as the ingredients and pot would already be a bit hot from the previous steps.
As a side note, I used Vitamix to blend the mixture, so I do not need to cool it before blending. If you use another blender, it may be required to cool down the ingredients a bit.
Hope you enjoy the carrot kheer!
Thanks for your reply.. I am doing it today..So temting…😋
Thanks for the recipe. Can you tell me why you don’t pressure cook the entire amount of milk initially? Thanks!
Hey Anjali – I have seen that sometimes when pressure cooking (manual mode), milk sticks to the bottom, so I prefer to add less before in this recipe. In the rice kheer recipe, I do add all the milk, but cook it on porridge mode which works well. Hope that helps!
Hello , i love this kheer recipe soo much its so easy gonna try soon , and do you know how many days could this kheer stay well in the fridge ?
Hey Mini – The kheer can stay good in the refrigerator for 4-5 days. I would love to hear how it turns out 🙂
Thanks Meeta for sharing this recipe. Made it today for Holi. It is easy and outrageously yummy !! Can’t stop eating it. Best part is not super sweet or heavy like some other deserts can be. Keep up the good work and please keep sharing recipes ! I like that a lot of your recipes are super simple and one pot types. Thanks !
Hey Chhavi – So happy to hear you enjoyed the carrot kheer. I love this dessert for the ease. Thank you so much for your kind words and review 🙂
Oops…misspelled dessert in my comment above! 🙂
Made carrot kheer last year and only lasted a day, family, friends and neighbors loved it.
I have one question about ghee, 1lb of butter makes how much ghee and do you really save money from store ghee.
HAPPY NEW YEAR, WISH YOUR FAMILY PEACE AND SUCCESS IN 2018. AND MORE DELICIOUS RECIPES.
Thanks,
Rajan.
Hi Rajan – A very happy new year to you and your family too! I am blessed to have readers like you. So happy that you all enjoyed the carrot kheer.
Regarding ghee, I will let you know the quantity of ghee I get with the butter used in a day. The main benefit for me is that I know that I am using grass fed cows milk butter to make the ghee.
Thanks, Meeta
Hello Rajan – I made ghee yesterday – 16oz of butter makes a little more than 12oz of ghee. Hope that helps 🙂
Carrot kheer, never thought of that. Next on my list to try, one question you say transfer after cooking to vitamix, can you use hot or let it cool before using in vitamix?.
I have vitamix A3500 model.
Thanks,
Raj.
Hello Raj – This was definitely a new discovery for me too and we enjoyed it a lot. Usually the Vitamix is powerful enough to make a hot soup, so I add this hot in the vitamix. However for other blenders, it might be better to cool it. I will update the notes to mention this. Hope you enjoy it!
Thank you for the great recipe!!
I made it today and it was delicious!
Love that the sweetness comes from dates rather than sugar.
Glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for sharing your review 🙂
Looks delicious. My daughter is allergic to nuts. What do I substitute for the cashews?
Thank you, Priya. I don’t have any great alternatives unfortunately. You would need something that could thicken the pudding. Or you could just skip cashews and boil the pudding a bit more after pressure cooking on sauté (low) to thicken it. Let me know if you try it.
Hi Priya, we make a similar pudding but we use rice instead of cashews and it tastes good too. It’s called Gajrela. Perhaps try substituting rice for your daughter.
Great suggestion, thank you!
Love Love Love your recipes.. Keep doing your awesome work 🙂
Thank you so much! Will keep sharing ❤️
I made this. It is so good. I feel guilt free after eating. Thank so much for this recipe. This is my go to dessert now.
Yay! Thanks for sharing. Guilt free is the reason I love this pudding too ????