Instant Pot Lauki Kheer (Bottle Gourd Pudding)

5 from 1 vote

May 19, 2020, Updated Mar 20, 2024

Easy Indian dessert made in the Instant Pot by pressure cooking lauki (bottle gourd) with milk and sugar! This lauki kheer is flavored with cardamom, saffron and rose water!

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Easy Lauki Kheer made in the Instant Pot.

This pudding made of bottle gourd (lauki) is an easy way to satisfy your sweet craving and is flavored with cardamom.

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Lauki (bottle gourd) was not a very popular vegetable in my house. My brothers used to hate it, I liked it of course just because I loved every vegetable.

The only way everyone ate it happily was when mom made lauki halwa or lauki kheer out of it.

Sarvesh is the same! He doesn’t care much for this vegetable but if I add sugar to it and make a dessert out it, he will have 2 bowls of it.

Last time when I got lauki from the Indian grocery store, Sarvesh as usual showed no interest in eating it.

So, I turned to my trusted Instant Pot and made this Lauki Kheer. Needless to say, it got over in no time!

This kheer is one of the easiest desserts that you can make in the instant pot. It doesn’t need much time at all.

This Lauki Kheer

✔ is an easy dessert to satisfy your sweet cravings.

✔ great way to include lauki in your diet.

✔ is made with few basic pantry ingredients.

Kheer in India is made with so many ingredients. Of course, the most common one is rice kheer (made with rice), then there’s one with seviyan, tapioca pearls and I can go on!

Vegetables like carrot, lauki etc. are also commonly used in Indian kitchen to make kheer. My mom always lauki kheer when my dad was fasting.

It was the quintessential vrat (fasting) dessert. My brothers who didn’t care for lauki otherwise were most definitely interested in the kheer.

Mom made it on stove-top in a kadai. However, I have used my Instant Pot here. I really like making kheer in electric pressure cooker.

It makes it so easy without much monitoring.

The process is really simple, you grate the lauki and then cook it with milk and sugar. Cardamom, rose water or kewra water, saffron can be added to enhance the flavors.

Now sometimes when you pressure cook milk in the instant pot, it can curdle. This is what you should do to make sure that doesn’t happen.

I always use a separate sealing ring for desserts. So, I don’t use the one which I use for my everyday cooking like dal and all.

Make sure that your sealing ring is clean and there are nothing stuck on it, free of any residues. That can cause the milk to curdle, so make sure the sealing ring is clean and dry.

For this kheer, I like to use my hand grater. You can use a food processor but then the lauki becomes a mush and I don’t like that texture in my kheer.

So, I prefer grating it by hand and use the thicker side of the grater to grate it. That way the kheer has more texture.

Serving Suggestions

This dessert can be enjoyed hot or cold.

I love mine chilled. So I make the kheer and then chill it for at least 4 to 5 hours before serving.

Some people love this kheer warm, so it is a personal choice.

The kheer continues to thicken as it cools down. However, if you want the kheer to be even more thick, you can definitely cut down on the amount of milk added in the recipe.

Method

Before you start, peel and grate the lauki. Remember to grate the lauki from the thicker side of the grater, if you grate from the thin side, it just loses texture which I like to retain in the kheer. So, grate using the thicker holes.

1- Press the saute button on the Instant Pot. Once it displays hot, add the ghee. Then add the cashews and raisins. Fry for few seconds until the raisins plump and cashews start becoming golden brown.

Remove them from the pot on a plate.

2- Then add the grated lauki to the pot. Saute for 2 minutes.

3- Then add the milk and stir.

4- Also add the sugar. Stir and close the pot with the lid.

5- Press the Porridge button and adjust the time to 9 minutes (on high pressure). Let the pressure release naturally.

6- Open the pot and press the saute button. Add cardamom powder, kewra water (or rose water) and saffron strands.

7- Also add back the fried cashews and raisins.

8- Let the kheer simmer on saute for 5 minutes.

It will continue to thicken as it cools down. Serve lauki kheer warm or chilled. I love mine chilled!

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