Quinoa & Nectar Kheer | Quinoa Pudding with Liquid Sweetner

I am wishing a Happy Navratri / Vijaya Dasami/ Durga Puja to all my friends. Today I am presenting a low calorie healthy kheer or Payasam or pudding. I can hear you asking, how can a kheer; a sweet recipe can be healthy and low calorie? What if it’s prepared with quinoa and without any sugar? Here comes my Quinoa Kheer prepared with Truvia^® Nectar

Sweets and Processed carbs are loaded with calories and I always look for healthy substitutes and alternatives. Quinoa and Millets are great substitute for rice but what about the sweet? The answer is Truvia^®, this sweetener is prepared from the leaves of the stevia plant and it is made with stevia and honey, with 50% fewer calories than sugar. If you go through my archives, you would see my non-recipe food research posts. I always love to learn about the products in details and same goes with Truvia^® . You can find all the healthy and safety information about Truvia^®  in their website.

Truvia has lot of products and you can find all product details in their products page and also they have shared some interesting recipes too. Today, I am preparing this recipe with their new line of product Truvia^® Nectar.

So what’s Truvia^® Nectar?

It’s a stevia sweetener blend with honey. Truvia^® Nectar is a multipurpose sweetener that can substitute for honey, agave, or granulated sugar. But the highlight is Truvía^® Nectar is about twice as sweet as honey and so you need only half the amount of nectar for the same sweetness. Basically we use ½ tsp of Truvia^® Nectar in place of 1 tsp of sugar or honey or agave, which obviously means half the calories without sacrificing the sweetness. Isn’t that great? And you know what, it tasted exactly like the wild forest honey that I used taste in Periyakulam. (Malai then) I started to use this nectar in my morning lemon juice mixture and in my green tea too. This is definitely a great buy.

 Without any further ado, here comes my quinoa pudding or kheer recipe. This is a perfect breakfast recipe too. We can cook quinoa well ahead and once we have cooked quinoa, we can whip this recipe in a jiffy. All you need is cooked quinoa, milk of your choice (I used whole milk), some cardamom powder, cloves, nuts and of course Truvia^® Nectar.
 

Ingredients:

• Quinoa – ½ cup
  • ½ cup of raw quinoa yields 1.5 cups of cooked quinoa. 
• Water – ¾ cup
• Salt – a pinch
• Cardamom Powder – 1 tsp or 2 pods of green cardamom crushed
• Cloves – 2
• Milk – 2 cups
• Truvia^® Nectar – ¼ cup (Yes, thats all you need for 1.5 cups of cooked quinoa and 2 cups of milk)
• Nuts of your choice – I used 1 tsp of cashews and 1 tsp of golden raisins
• Ghee/Clarified butter – 1 tsp

Prep – Work

• Rinse the quinoa thoroughly and drain the water.
• Add this rinsed quinoa and ¾ cup of water in the pot/pan and bring to boil by adding a pinch of salt.
• Once it starts to boil, reduce the heat and cover the pot with a lid and let it cook for 10 to 15 minutes.
• Make sure the quinoa is not mushy. If its cooked before 15 minutes and if the water is still present, drain the water and let it cool.

Preparing the Kheer:

• In a heavy bottom pan, boil two cups of milk.
• When the bubble starts to form, add the crushed cardamom or cardamom powder and cloves.
• Let it boil for two minutes and now add the cooked quinoa.
• Let it simmer for 15 minutes in low heat. Turn the heat off.
• Finally add the Truvia^® Nectar and mix well.
• In a tempering pan, heat 1 tsp of ghee and once the ghee is hot add the nuts and raisins.
• Roast for a minutes and add it to the kheer.

That’s it. Yummy kheer is ready. This can be served hot or cold.

Vegan Alternatives:

• Instead of regular milk, you can use almond milk or soymilk or coconut milk.
• Also tempering the nuts in ghee is completely optional. Either you can skip it or just top it with plain nuts or roast it with vegan butter.

Notes:

• As I prepared it for a festival, I used whole milk to make it rich and creamy. But you can substitute it with 2% milk or milk of your choice.
• Adjust the Truvia^® Nectar as per your preference.
• Instead of cardamom powder, crushed cardamom pods can be used too.
• Quinoa can be replaced with any millets, flattened rice.

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Quinoa & Nectar Kheer | Quinoa Pudding

A healthy, low calorie, no sugar kheer/pudding or payasam prepared with quinoa which is sweetened with Truvia® Nectar

Prep Time20 minutes mins

Cook Time40 minutes mins

Total Time1 hour hr

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Indian

Servings: 4

Calories:

Author: Srividhya G

Ingredients

• ▢ Quinoa – ½ cup
• ▢ Water – ¾ cup
• ▢ Salt – a pinch
• ▢ Cardamom Powder – 1 tsp or 2 pods of green cardamom crushed
• ▢ Cloves – 2
• ▢ Milk – 2 cups
• ▢ Truvia® Nectar - ¼ cup
• ▢ Nuts of your choice - I used 1 tsp of cashews and 1 tsp of golden raisins
• ▢ Ghee/Clarified butter - 1 tsp

Instructions

• Prep – Work
• Wash the quinoa thoroughly and drain the water.
• Add this washed quinoa and ¾ cup of water in the pot/pan and bring to boil by adding a pinch of salt.
• Once it starts to boil, reduce the heat and cover the pot with a lid and let it cook for 10 to 15 minutes.
• Make sure the quinoa is not mushy. If its cooked before 15 minutes and if the water is still present, drain the water and let it cool.

Preparing the Kheer

• In a heavy bottom pan, boil two cups of milk.
• When the bubble starts to form, add the crushed cardamom or cardamom powder and cloves.
• Let it boil for two minutes and now add the cooked quinoa.
• Let it simmer for 15 minutes in low heat. Turn the heat off.
• Finally add the Truvia® Nectar and mix well.
• In a tempering pan, heat 1 tsp of ghee and once the ghee is hot add the nuts and raisins.
• Roast for a minutes and add it to the kheer.
• That’s it. Yummy kheer is ready. This can be served hot or cold.

Vegan Alternatives

• Instead of regular milk, you can use almond milk or soymilk or coconut milk.
• Also tempering the nuts in ghee is completely optional. Either you can skip it or just top it with plain nuts.

Notes

As I prepared it for a festival, I used whole milk to make it rich and creamy. But you can substitute it with 2% milk or milk of your choice.
Adjust the Truvia® Nectar as per your preference.
Instead of cardamom powder, crushed cardamom pods can be used too.
Quinoa can be replaced with any millets, flattened rice.

I am not a nutritionist. The nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. It varies depending upon the product types or brands.

Tried this recipe?Mention @vidhyasvegetariankitchen or tag #vidhyasvegkitchen

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