Rich & Delicious Mango Foxnut Pudding / Mango Makhana Kheer … a nutrient dense dessert

Creamy and rich Mango Foxnut Pudding / Mango Makhana Kheer … an indulgent, satisfying, nutrient dense, protein rich, gluten free dessert which is as simple as it is delicious. With no added cream and just 1 tbsp of ghee, this pudding gets its body from the use of foxnuts/makhana and nuts and its sweetness from condensed milk. With foxnuts being a traditional Indian superfood, this dessert is quite good for you!

Using condensed milk is a great way to fast track desserts, cutting down on cooking time for recipes like these. A basic makhana kheer recipe came about while I was creating recipes for a brand. That was the first time I attempted to make a dessert with makhanas / foxnuts because in my head, these delicious popped seeds or makhanas were always a savoury snack.

As kids, foxnuts or popped lotus seeds, called makhana in the subcontinent, were just normal everyday snacks we would have available at home. A quintessential Indian or rather Asian ingredient, these light nonchalant little popped seeds were nothing special yet were very traditional. Our mothers and grandmothers were perhaps armed with the wisdom passed down to them and naturally enough, as kids, everything we ate was home made. There was little or no concept of packaged snacks or ordering in.

Back then, like most homemade snacks, these popped seeds were deep fried into delicious crispy bites tossed in a very basic seasoning of salt, pepper, chat masala. Eating them was a treat where we chewed on delightfully oily popped seeds that were ever so satisfying. Raw peanuts often got the same treatment of a quick deep fry and those were mixed in with chopped onions and green chilies to imitate the very delicious peanuts served in the armed forces club back then. Life was very simple and we needed very little to make us happy. Importantly back then, everything was homemade – jams, chutneys, ketchup, spice mixes, puddings, cake, sev, papads, murukus, samosas, pickles, preserves, pakodas, mixtures… everything!

40 years later the world is a new place. Very little is made at home, 90% of the stuff can be found effortlessly and easily on the shelves instore or easier still online. It’s a strange world of instant gratification, where packaging lures you into buying excitingly advertised edibles and you can be tricked into believing that this can never be made at home in a fuss free manner. I’m just old school I guess because I look in horror at savoury makhanas being sold in every conceivable flavour in brightly packaged bags that call your name as you walk by. It’s a win for the industry but simple things like this made at home would reduce waste, help you switch to fewer ultra processed foods, and importantly get to know what’s on your plate!

Happily enough, 40 years later my life is still quite simple and I make almost everything from scratch at home just like my mother and grandmothers did, just differently. I enjoy the process immensely. From exploring ingredients, to thinking out of the box, to figuring out how to increase the nutritional value of recipes, to exploring the net for new ideas for familiar ingredients. It’s very fulfilling and though it’s very time consuming, labour intensive, leaves you with loads of cleaning up and dishes to wash and put away, messy counters and a few failures, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. That joy of creating something delicious is so worth every bit of effort, and this Mango Makhana Kheer is one such end result.

A few days ago Ambi sent me these beautiful dessert goblets with spoons in lead free brass and it was honestly love at first sight. The quality, the finish, the heft, the workmanship were all excellent, the attention to detail outstanding. ‘Ambi’ translates to paisley in English. It’s an intricate tear drop design and has been a favourite since college days. Most of my silver jewellery and sari weaves include the paisley or ambi pattern, all my Tie Rack scarves bought from the UK in the 1990’s have paisleys in deep earthy tones, my Kashmiri pherans and stoles too. The very first tussar saree that I bought from the Cottage Emporium in 1988 has the most beautiful paisley block print, such is my love for the paisley or ambi. It was lovely to connect with a brand with a similar love. Their deep love for design and Indian artistry reflects in the brass and copper products Ambi showcases with an extensive collection of cookware, serve ware, collectibles, artifacts etc.

I thought I’d make a nice Indian inspired pudding or a kheer to serve in these pretty goblets and this creamy, rich, delightful Mango Foxnut Pudding / Mango Makhana Kheer turned out to be quite apt. It connected so many dots … a traditional Indian pudding using a traditional Indian superfood, something made from scratch like our grandmothers would have done, mango based since it’s peak summer and a green, unripe mango is also called ambi in India.

Made with a base of milk and condensed milk, simmered with a mix of foxnuts/makhanas and pistachios, almonds and cashew nuts, the result is a creamy, luscious thick kheer/pudding. This Mango Makhana Kheer doesn’t take long to thicken, 5-7 minutes at best so it’s quite a fast track dessert! Once cool, I added a mixture of strained chilled mango puree and saffron and left it to set overnight. I did add a base layer of the sweetest kesar mangoes to add interest to my kheer and it turned out bowl scraping or rather goblet scraping good! Since beautiful phalsas, a traditional Indian summer fruit, are in season, I added some to the garnish and they offered a nice, sweet, tart, tangy contrast!

To get the mango colours to pop more, I might use only cashew nuts and/or blanched almonds next time, perhaps coconut milk to play with flavours. I’m currently loving how soul satisfying this dessert was and I have to say the heft and design of the brass goblets made it taste better in my humble opinion. They were really nice to cradle in the hand while eating the pudding, and as I have always believed, serve ware is a huge part of the culinary experience.