Qubani ka Meetha also known as Khubani ka meetha is a popular sweet dish from Hyderabadi cuisine. This tangy sweet dessert is made from dried apricots, sugar and nuts having a compote like jammy consistency.

Recipe Snapshot

  • Prep time: 10 minutes
  • Cook time: 25 minutes
  • Total time: 335 minutes
  • Yield: 4
  • Category: Desserts
  • Cuisine: Hyderabadi, Indian

Ingredients

  • 25 to 28 dried apricots ((khubani))
  • 1 to 1.5 cup strained water from the soaked apricots
  • 2 to 3 teaspoon sugar as required ((optional))
  • sliced almonds (- optional)

Method

Preparation

  1. Rinse the apricots well in fresh water.
  2. Then soak them overnight in 2 to 2.5 cups water or 4 to 5 hours in warm water.
  3. Remove the apricots the next day and keep the water aside as we will be using it later.
  4. Press the softened apricots with your fingers and remove the seeds. You can also chop them if you prefer. Keep the hard kernels aside and break the kernels with a pestle or nutcracker.
  5. Throw away the hard covering and keep the almond like nuts aside.

Making Khubani ka Meetha

  1. Add one cup of the strained water in the frying pan along with the chopped apricots.
  2. You can also just mash the apricots with your hands and then add them to the pan.
  3. Cook on a low flame for 22 to 25 minutes stirring occasionally. While cooking mash the apricots with a spoon.
  4. If the mixture looks dry, add some of the reserved strained water.
  5. Now add sugar according to taste and cook for 5 to 6 minutes more.
  6. Lastly add the almond like seeds of the apricots.
  7. Mix and stir and then serve khubani ka meetha hot or warm or cold.

Serving Suggestions

  1. For the best taste and flavor, serve this sweet dish hot or warm.
  2. For a richer experience, you can opt to serve it with malai (clotted cream), whipped cream, custard, ice cream, gulab jamun or rabdi.

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.