HALAVA

When spring time begins, we have a tradition in our family to do some cleaning in our bodies. You may think: “What? They are vegetarian, follow a healthy lifestyle and now body cleaning? “Well I have to explain that it is also a part of the healthy lifestyle. We like to use what we get, and spring is the best time to do some body general cleaning. The easiest and at the same time most pleasant way of doing this, is drinking lots of freshly juiced fruit and vegetable juices. Best are those made from carrots and apples.
I was always really sad to see all these carrot remains landing in the trash can after every carrot juice we made. I thought that we should somehow use it. After all, there must be a way to utilize those carrots!
I got the idea of making them into a halava – a piquant and sweet appetizer, which is ideal with your dinner menu, or can be served separately as a great dessert.
So what do we do?
Melt minimum 2 spoons of butter in a pan (actually the more butter the better :) and put about 2 big handfuls of the carrot remains. Then, pour a glass of water or milk on this and cover. Cook about 30 mins. and mix from time to time so that the carrots won’t stick to the pan. Now add 1 vanilla flavored sugar, 3 tablespoons sugar and 2 teaspoons ginger powder. If someone doesn’t like ginger, or the dessert is meant for children, you can omit putting in the ginger. Kids usually don’t like spicy dishes. You can also add a handful of raisins – they underline the taste. That’s it! Healthy and delicious, you have to try it yourself.

For those of you, who don’t have a fruit juicer, or you do, but hardly ever use it, I have a different version of this halava. Grate 5 big carrots to small shreds and do the same thing as with the previous recipe, but don’t add any water or milk. The grated carrots have enough water in them, which will evaporate during the cooking and cook the carrots thoroughly. I admit that this version of halava is richer and more delicate in taste, but you have to remember that my idea was to utilize the juiced carrot remains.