Sweet, inviting, and made for sharing, Instant Pot Sooji Halwa - Rava Sheera is a vegan, vegetarian Indian, Vegan dessert made with vegan butter or oil, sooji, and cashews in about 25 minutes. The recipe lays out the ingredients and each cooking step clearly, so you can adjust seasoning, texture, and serving size for your own kitchen.
Recipe Snapshot
- Prep time: 10 minutes
- Cook time: 15 minutes
- Total time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 4
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: Indian, Vegan
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp vegan butter or oil
- 1 cup sooji ((semolina, not semolina flour))
- 5 tbsp cashews
- 10 to 12 dates (chopped)
- 8 to 10 tbsp sugar ((date sugar, coconut sugar, jaggery powder or regular - some sugars are not as sweet, so use 2 tbsp more for sweeter)
- 1/8 tsp salt (, 1/4 tsp if using oil)
- 3/4 tsp ground cardamom
- 8 strands of saffron
- 3 cups water
Method
- Press saute on the Instant Pot. When hot, add vegan butter or oil. Add cashews and roast for a minute.
- Add dates and roast for half a minute. Add the semolina and cook for 2 mins, stirring occasionally. The semolina will start to get puffy.
- Switch off saute. Add the sugar, salt, cardamom and saffron and mix.
- Add water and mix well. You can also add 1/2 cup finely chopped pineapple or banana at this point to make pineapple kesari or banana kesari.
- Mix to pick up all the semolina from the bottom and the sides. Mix for a few seconds so the sugar dissolves.
- Close the lid, pressure cook for 3 mins. Release the pressure after 10 mins
- Mix and Fluff and serve garnished with a pinch of ground cardamom and almond, pistachio slivers.
Kiyaan Singh’s Kitchen Note
Keep this recipe as a working base: cook once as written, then adjust spice, texture, and serving style for your own table.
