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 Kheer - Instant Pot Pressure Cooker
Ingredients
- 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
Instructions
- 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.
Notes
- 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.
Made this today with almond milk. Was very good tho I used more dates. Dint have kesar will buy and add tomorrow before serving. Also mine looks red. Based on previous comments.i added less milk. Thanks for the recipe.
Hi Leena – Thank you for sharing the changes you made. I am glad to hear the kheer worked well with almond milk too.
I like the flavor very much and I did add the additional cashews in the IP and then my vitamix to blend, but even after chilling it is still very runny. Not like a pudding. Is there anything I can use to thicken. I have cashew flour.
Hi Beth – Thank you for sharing your experience. This is an Indian style pudding which is typically not as thick. If you want to thicken it, you can add a cornflour slurry or more cashew paste.
I very much like your recipes. They seem challenging at first but your instructions are easy to follow which makes it so much less daunting.
I had a few problems with this one. I had only one large carrot and some dates that are compressed in a block. Trying to translate 3 small carrots and 6 dates, I came to 8oz carrot and 5 oz dates. This looked similar to your pictures. I always prefer to see weights in the ingredients list.
I used 8oz milk in the IP and when I did the manual release after cooking. A lot of residue came up through the vent. I suggest leaving the pot to natural release for 10 minutes to prevent this.
Finally I used 16oz cashew milk to make up the remaining liquid, hoping for the added flavor.
After cooling, my end result was a thick brown pudding unlike your more delicate yellow version. However it tastes great, quite full of date flavor (probably too much dates!) and not overly sweet.
I will try it once again but with less dates. Thank you for this.
What should the finished consistency of the pudding be……I followed exactly and it seems very loose, like an egg nog.
Hello Meeta,
Can I use lactose free milk? instead of using almond milk or coconut milk as alternative?
Mich
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!