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What is Sheera?
Sheera is an Indian halwa sweet 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. This is popularly called suji halwa (sooji halwa) in North India. In South India, this is called rava kesari. In Myanmar, this dish is called sanwin makin and in the Caribbean, this is called 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
Ghee: Use homemade desi ghee for the best flavors. Adds richness and nuttiness to the sheera recipe. Nuts: Optional but gives a nice crunchiness to your sweet. Semolina: Also called suji rava, sooji or durum wheat is the key ingredient to make this halwa. Sugar: sweetener used to make this dessert Flavorings: Traditionally, only cardamom powder is used for flavoring. To make it look rich and festive, even Kesar or saffron can be used. This style of sheera is also called rava kesari in South India.
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. Add sooji (semolina) and roast on medium flame until aromatic. Roasting sooji generally takes less than 3 minutes. I have roasted it for just a minute or 2. The more you roast, the color of the final product changes. Keep stirring. Otherwise, it will burn from the bottom. Check out the video on making of traditional and authentic sheera recipe.
Now add the hot water and keep stirring. Be careful, as sooji is going to splutter when hot water is 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! Also check out our popular halwa puri chana recipe.
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 to cut down on fat, 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.
More sheera recipes
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