Prep: Wash, peel, and grate carrots. You can do that by using a box grater, or a food processor with a shredder attachment (my preference). Chop the cashews and almonds and keep them aside.
Saute Carrots: Preheat the Instant Pot on Saute mode. When it displays "hot", add ghee (or butter), chopped nuts, and carrots, and saute for 2 minutes. This prevents the carrots from turning mushy later.
Pressure cook: Add milk, saffron, and sugar, and stir well. Let the milk come up to a simmer to prevent curdling under pressure. Cancel saute. Close the lid, vent set to sealing position. Select Pressure Cook and cook for 2 minutes at high pressure.
Saute: When the pressure cooking is done, manually release the pressure. Select Saute and adjust to high. Stir in milk powder and simmer the halwa to cook off the liquid, stirring every few minutes. This takes around 10-15 minutes.
Garnish & Serve: Stir in cardamom powder, garnish with chopped nuts and serve warm!
Video
Notes
Buy good quality carrots: Carrots make or break this dish. Looks for fresh, vibrant orange-colored carrots (or red), with no blemishes or brown spots on their skin. Medium size carrots are ideal for this halwa since smaller ones are hard to grate and larger ones have a woody core.
Grate or shred: You can either grate the carrots using the big holes on a box grater or shred them using a food processor with a shredder attachment. For larger quantities, a food processor is a lot easier.
Stir while sauteeing: When sauteing towards the end, be sure to stir every few minutes to prevent the halwa from sticking and burning.
Milk and Milk Powder: I use a combination of 2% milk and whole milk powder. Feel free to use whole milk instead to make it more creamy and rich.
Double the Recipe: You can easily scale this carrot halwa recipe for parties. Simple double the ingredients, but the pressure cook time stays the same. Please note that it will take you longer to saute the halwa after pressure cooking.
Note: The nutrition facts below are my estimates. If you follow any diet plan, I recommend cross-checking with your preferred nutrition calculator.