A warm hug on a chilly winter evening, a safe sweet obsession for as long as possible, a recipe that makes you fall in love with the magic of lentils — moong dal halwa in India is more than just another mithai.
There are some recipes we relish and appreciate but don’t always go back to. Then there are some dishes that we indulge in once and continue thinking about it for hours and hours later, pining to dig into yet another portion of it soon. Such is the curious case of moong dal halwa, a traditional Indian delicacy that is steeped with flavours of culture, history, love of the maker and a ubiquitous identity that spans across cities and states of India.
Moong Dal Halwa has all the characteristics of a winning sweet delicacy. It is a mithai with a soul. Its sweetness is enough to enchant even the ones who declare themselves anti-sweet tooth. Moong dal halwa is just the fitting kind of mushy, playfully grainy, satiatingly sweet and generously warm. And coming from an experimental gourmand like myself, a mouthful of this halwa with a dollop of vanilla ice cream tastes just as divine if not more! But that’s only after your tastebuds have beheld the original theatrics of this piping-hot halwa.
But here’s a crucial question — in the sea of a vast variety of halwas, how did moong dal halwa sail its way as one of the most popular and widely loved (read craved) sweets in the Indian culinary community of locals and expert chefs alike? Why is it North India’s and especially, Rajasthan’s highly treasured recipe, which is now indubitably found in every home and restaurant there. It is as common as its traditional counterparts such as ghevar, churma or even dal baati!
A confluence of cultures
Moong dal halwa essentially is a conflux of two culturally and geographically cardinal food elements—halwa and moong dal. It is believed that halwa reached the Indian land meandering through the olden Persia piggybacking on the convoy of the Mughals. The word ‘halwa’ itself emerges from the Arabic vocabulary, which means a sweet confection. A household dessert in Turkey, halwa has two varieties. The first is prepared with starch or flour, butter, sugar and nuts, while the second is typically a confectionary made with sesame nut paste (known as tahini) and sugar, served as slices of cubes. Its textural semblance is identical to the halwa India wholeheartedly enjoys, being slightly soft and grainy and melt-in-mouth!
Now on to moong dal and its journey of becoming the protagonist as the classic Indian halwa originating from the culinary-scape of Rajasthan. The state is one of the largest producers of moong dal, a skinned and split version of moong beans. Award-winning chef Ashish Bhasin of The Leela Ambience Gurugram decodes over a telephonic call, “Rajasthan has a very unique combination of geography, temperature, ecosystem and easy availability of local ingredients. This, since a long time, has enabled the natives to abundantly use dairy products like milk and ghee and dry products like gram flour, lentils, makki ka atta (maize flour) and so on.”
Thus, centuries ago, the fusion of Persian halwa and Rajasthani moong dal consequentially birthed moong dal ka halwa. Found in every home and family, moong dal halwa is no longer an occasional delight. It has become the main character of every food table laden with desserts and mithais—at weddings, religious poojas, festivals and those languorous winter days at home. When asked where he has tasted the best moong dal halwa in India, chef Bhasin, whose roots are from Ajmer, swiftly declared, “at home, made by my mom and elder sister.”
Anatomy of moong dal halwa
What makes moong dal halwa undeniably well-balanced in nutrition and flavours is everything that makes it. Chef Ranveer Brar in a recipe video explains, “Moong dal halwa is considered one of the purest sweets in India and is also good for the body. Pure fat of ghee, protein of dal and sweetness of sugar is what makes it a wholesome delicacy.”
The key ingredients that make moong dal halwa as chef Abhilasha of Marwari Khana Kitchen says are grinded moong dal and ghee cooked on slow flame, stirred rigorously, alongside milk, sugar, kesar, cardamom and nuts that are needed to complete its magic. In Rajasthan and cities in North India, the reputation of moong dal halwa as a star winter food is unbridled. Plenteous pouring of ghee comes loaded with fat content that helps in keeping the body warm while also keeping immunity in check.
But don’t stop experimenting
Ruchit Harneja, a pastry chef at Musaafer, a restaurant in Houston reconstructed the classic form of the dal halwa into something surprising and beautiful. Called Dal Badam Halwa, Harneja creatively sculpted the sweet fudge sitting on a plate with soft, ready-to-be-digged-in edges and a rather extravagant almond crown. In his Instagram post, he reveals, “Our interpretation of the winter halwa is put together with crisp lentil crumble, salted toffee cake and chili guava semifreddo.”