Oats Kheer
- 5 min prep
- 20 min
- Cook
- Serves 3
- 380 kcal
- 12 g protein
Creamy, saffron-gold kheer in 20 minutes, using oats roasted in ghee in place of rice. Same cardamom, same nuts, a fraction of the stirring.
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp (14 g) ghee
- ½ cup (45 g) rolled or quick oats
- 3 cups (735 g) full-cream milk
- A pinch of saffron, soaked in 1 tbsp warm milk
- 4 to 5 tbsp (50 to 60 g) sugar, to taste
- ¼ tsp cardamom powder
- 6 cashews, chopped
- 6 almonds, slivered
- 1 tbsp (8 g) pistachios, chopped
- 1 tbsp (10 g) raisins
Method
- 1Warm the ghee in a heavy-bottomed pan over low heat. Add the cashews, almonds and raisins and fry for a minute until the nuts turn light gold and the raisins puff. Lift them out with a slotted spoon.
- 2Add the oats to the same ghee and roast on low heat for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring, until they smell toasty but have not browned.
- 3Pour in the milk gradually, stirring as you go so the oats do not clump. Raise the heat to medium and bring to a gentle boil.
- 4Lower the heat and simmer, stirring every minute or so and scraping the bottom, for 8 to 10 minutes with rolled oats or 4 to 5 minutes with quick oats, until the oats are soft and the milk has thickened slightly.
- 5Stir in the sugar and the saffron milk and cook for 2 more minutes until the sugar dissolves.
- 6Add the cardamom and most of the fried nuts. Turn off the heat while the kheer still looks a little thinner than you want; it thickens as it cools.
- 7Serve warm, or chill for 2 hours and serve cold, topped with the remaining nuts and the pistachios.
Notes from the Department
- Add sugar only after the oats are cooked. Sugar added early slows the softening and can make the milk catch.
- If the kheer turns too thick in the fridge, stir in a splash of warm milk before serving.
- For a richer kheer, simmer the milk alone for 10 minutes first to reduce it a little.
Nutrition per serving
- Energy
- 380 kcal
- Protein
- 12 g
- Carbohydrate
- 45 g
- Fat
- 18 g
- Fibre
- 2.5 g
- Sugars
- 33 g
Why this works
Classic kheer relies on rice slowly releasing starch into reducing milk, which takes the better part of an hour. Oats release their starch much faster, so the milk thickens to a creamy, spoonable kheer in about ten minutes. Roasting the oats in ghee first takes away any raw, porridgy taste and gives the kheer a faintly nutty flavour.
It tastes like a festive dessert but uses breakfast-cupboard ingredients, and the oats bring soluble fibre that rice kheer does not. It also works as a breakfast sweet on a festival morning.
Rolled oats or quick oats
Both work. Rolled oats keep a little bite and give a more textured kheer. Quick oats almost melt into the milk and make it smoother, and they cook in half the time. Avoid steel-cut oats unless you are prepared to simmer for 25 minutes and add more milk.
Swaps
Replace sugar with jaggery for a deeper flavour, but stir it in only after the heat is off and the kheer has cooled slightly, or the milk may curdle. For a vegan kheer, use coconut oil and thick coconut milk or oat milk; coconut milk gives a lovely payasam-style flavour. For a gluten-free kheer, use oats labelled certified gluten-free.
Storage
Keep covered in the fridge for up to 2 days. It sets quite thick when cold, which some people prefer. The Department of Leftovers recommends eating it straight from the fridge.
Questions people ask
- Which oats are best for oats kheer?
- Rolled oats give a kheer with more texture, and quick oats give a smoother, creamier one. Both work in the same quantity; just adjust the simmering time.
- Can I add jaggery to oats kheer?
- Yes, but add it off the heat once the kheer has cooled for a few minutes. Hot milk and jaggery can split. Use about the same weight as the sugar.
- Why did my oats kheer turn too thick?
- Oats keep absorbing milk as they cool. Turn off the heat while it still looks slightly thin, and loosen leftovers with warm milk.
Inspired by Dassana's Veg Recipes. Method, notes and photograph by the Ministry of Oats.
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