Best Instant Moong Dal Halwa Brands in India – Mishry

On some winter nights, a cup of marshmallow-loaded hot chocolate just doesn’t cut it. The days you crave for something richer, heartier, and desi-er, you’ve got North India’s Moong Dal Halwa. Loaded with copious amounts of ghee, nuts (and love) you can’t stop at one spoonful.

However, this is not as simple as a sooji halwa. Moong dal halwa is a laborious job. Soak, drain, grind the moong dal, roasting it until granular, further cooking it in milk, adding sugar, nuts, phew!

This is where an instant fix, a RTE moong dal halwa sounds MUCH better. But is it? Mishry put four instant moong dal halwa brands to the test, and safe to say, we were disheartened. We could not find a worthy contender to be crowned as a Top Pick. 

On our way to the local halwai!

Here are key details about the four contenders from this review. 

What were we looking for when reviewing the instant moong dal halwa brands? Like with most RTE products, our parameters were taste, texture, and overall convenience. We also gauged whether or not this would be a value for money deal.

1. Taste 

While moong dal is the base of this dessert, it does not really have a prominent flavor. The fat source (ghee), milk, sugar, nuts, and flavoring agents like cardamom and saffron play relatively major roles.

We checked to see which brand yields the freshest tasting halwa with a balanced sweetness, and well-rounded flavors of other ingredients. 

2. Texture 

Unlike atta halwa, moong dal halwa is not completely smooth. It has a granular bite (dardara) with nutty bits, and a ghee-rich bite that smoothly coats the palette. 

Which brand met our expectations?

3. Convenience

Just water or milk? What does the preparation process call for? How long does the process with an RTE mix take? Or all you need to do is heat it? 

Is the packaging convenient, can the remainder of the mix be stored? Or is it meant for immediate consumption?

4. Other Parameters

Under this parameter, we gauged the price, packaging, shelf life, ingredients used, and some other non-tasting factors. 

Key details about each of the contenders, their pros and cons, the method of preparation, and more is discussed in detail in the following section. 

Our Experience

Yu Foodlabs Moong Dal Halwa was quick and easy to prepare. Before describing the taste and texture, we’d like to highlight how Yu Foodlabs was the only contender that had magaz and fresh tasting nuts.

This wasn’t a deep golden brown, it was quite mild, like how halwa looks when it is only partially roasted. A bold and desirable cardamom aroma was noticed.

The consistency of this halwa, once ready to eat, was quite wet and loose, like oatmeal. It was thin and runny like a batter. When we tasted it, there were several sugar crystals that added a mild crunch and the nuts added a bite. That said, the halwa itself lacked the grainy texture it is loved for.

Taste-wise, this was an average product. The sweetness was balanced, the nuts and ghee tasted fresh. Moreover, it also had the sweet, piney, astringent flavor of cardamom. 

How we made it 

As suggested, we added boiling water in the container up to the mark and added the halwa mix. After mixing the components, we put the lid back on and set this aside for three minutes. Once done, we emptied the second sachet (toppings), stirred it all together and it was ready for tasting. 

Product Features

A bowl holding 90 grams of content is priced at Rs 130/-. The main ingredients are moong dal, desi ghee, saffron, sugar, green cardamom. The toppings include almonds, cashews, raisins, pistachios, and magaz. Thumbs up for the clean ingredient list.

This RTE halwa comes in a bowl. There are two sachets inside, one holds the halwa mix, the other has the toppings. This also had a wooden spoon.

Our Experience

While the instant moong dal halwa by ITC was one of the better ones (from the four we tested), it was still average in terms of taste and texture. It had an innate graininess but was quite dry. The richness of ghee was lacking.

As for the taste, it was ordinary. The sweetness was all right, but the almond slivers were stale to taste. Moreover, there was no flavor of cardamom here.

How we made it 

The pack suggests three methods of preparation- cooking, microwave, and immersion. We cooked this in a frying pan for 3-5 minutes while continuously stirring the mix. This was served hot. 

Product Features

A 250-gram pack is priced at Rs 160/- It has a 16-month shelf life and the main ingredients are refined sugar, water, refined sunflower oil, moong dal (16.1%), khoya (15.8%), almonds (1.5%), semolina, besan, and saffron (0.001%).

Like most ITC Kitchens Of India products are packed, this had an attractive carton and the halwa mix was inside a sealed pouch. 

Our Experience

To summarize our experience with Dhampur Green moong dal halwa, this was more like melted jaggery than moong dal halwa. The sweet, caramel-like flavor of jaggery was overwhelming on the palette. 

Not just the flavor, the aroma was dominant on jaggery too. The texture was decent, but this jaggery overpowered the entire bite that we could barely taste any halwa. This was a thumbs down. 

How we made it 

Similar to ITC, there are three preparation methods. We cooked this in a frying pan on high heat for 3-5 minutes. 

Product Features

A 300-gram pack is priced at Rs 299/- with a nine-month shelf life.There is a pouch inside a red and beige-colored paper pack. The main ingredients are ghee (35%), jaggery (25%), moong dal (18%), cashew (9%).

Our Experience

The taste, flavors, ingredients- Chokhi Dhani moong dal halwa did not work for us on multiple levels. Even before tasting or cooking this instant halwa, the off-putting stale smell (similar to ghee gone bad) let us down.

Taste-wise, the sugar and cardamom was mild, but other than this, this tasted average. In terms of texture, this was smooth like atta halwa which took away from the essence of moong dal halwa that is known for its coarse, grainy texture. 

How we made it 

We cooked this in a frying pan where we let it cook on high heat for 3-5 minutes while continuously stirring it. 

Product Features

A 250-gram pack is priced at Rs 210/- with a 17-month shelf life. The main ingredients are water (29%), clarified butter (18%), green gram lentils (18%), sugar (18%), milk solids (12%), gram flour (2%), almonds (1%), cashew nut (1%), green cardamom (0.13%)

We have NO Top Picks. Why?

We don’t really recommend any of the above mentioned brands. Instead, if you’re craving for some moong dal halwa, we’d suggest getting some from a halwai/mithai wala or preparing it from scratch.

Here are some interesting FAQs on tastiest instant moong dal halwa in India.

Not one, but we had four disappointing tastings. If the texture was decent, the flavors were off, and vice-versa. Safe to say, there is room for improvement when it comes to RTE moong dal halwa in the Indian market. We suggest buying it from a local halwai or making it at home.

Do you know about any delicious moong dal halwa brands that we should test? Comment down below.