Healthy & Trending Sweets for Diwali – Vegan, Gluten-Free & No-Maida Treats

With the vibrant Diwali season almost around the corner, Indian households are gearing up for the festive season full of sharing good food, joy, and laughter with friends and families. The true essence of a festival lies in sharing the joy with your near and dear ones. And, without sweets and desserts, is it even called a festive season? However, while we truly love gorging on those scrumptious sweets and desserts, it is also important to take care of our health and dietary preferences.

The traditional recipes of Indian sweets, ‘mithais,’ often incorporate milk, khoya, clarified butter, fresh cheese, chenna, cream, and other dairy products. But considering the rise in gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan dietary preferences these days, you don’t really need these traditional ingredients to make lip-smacking, healthy & trending sweets for Diwali.

From barfis and rabdis to halwas, pedas, and fusion desserts like rasmalai tres leches, exquisite festive desserts can be prepared using dairy-free and nut milk options. These twisted alternatives to the traditional recipes don’t take away the festive feel. Instead, they make enjoying the festive eating guilt-free and align the items with your dietary preferences. So here we have assembled a few healthy & trending sweets for Diwali. Let’s explore!

Vegan Almond Barfi

In India, festivals and barfis go hand in hand, as they never fail to bring that inherent flavor of festivities. When it comes to Diwali, these sweets make celebrations even more joyful with every bite. While the original recipe includes milk solids, condensed milk, milk powder, sugar, ghee (clarified butter), nuts, etc, this vegan, gluten-free almond burfi is a 4-ingredient (ground almonds/almond flour, vegan butter, sugar & a touch of saffron), easy-to-make alternative to the traditional ones. This Diwali, try your hand at this amazing recipe, and don’t let your vegan friends feel deprived of the festive joy.

Vegan Layered Carrot Halwa-Coconut Burfi

Why make just one dessert when you can make two and get them married? To double the joy of this Diwali season, try these layered camaraderies of Carrot Halwa and Coconut Burfi using just a few ingredients. These perfect festive treats come together really quickly if you follow the hassle-free vegan, gluten-free, nut-free recipe.

Made with desiccated coconut, coconut milk, sugar, grated carrot, almond flour, and cardamom, these double-layered delicacies have a moist lower layer of shredded coconut burfi topped with sweet, caramelized shredded carrots with a hint of cardamom and lime for elevated flavors. To further add to their already impressive appearance, you can consider sprinkling some chopped pistachios.

Almond Halwa

Almond Halwa’s creamy, velvety texture and warm, nutty flavor make it a perfect treat for the festival of lights. To make this healthy, vegan, gluten-free dessert, all you need is some chopped almonds, granulated sugar, hot water, saffron, and cardamom. In under 30 minutes, this delicious dessert can be prepared following a few simple steps.

To prepare this vegan halwa for Diwali, just mix the sugar in the hot water, add cardamom, saffron, and almond flour, and pressure cook. Pressure cooking makes the sugar, water mixture thicken, while the almond flour rehydrates very quickly in this method to achieve the desired texture of the halwa. Along with the almonds, you can always add dry fruits to further elevate the creamy texture of the halwa.

Dairy-Free Rasmalai Tres Leches

This Vegan fusion dessert is a must-try this Diwali. The Spanish term ‘Tres Leches’ refers to the usage of three types of milk in a dish: usually evaporated milk, condensed milk, and heavy cream. But, in this twisted recipe, the flavors of classic Bengali Rasmalai meet the goodness of three types of non-dairy nut milk.

Traditionally, Rasmalai is prepared by immersing mouth-melting paneer dumplings in saffron and cardamom-scented, sweetened, thickened milk. In this recipe, a light, vegan sponge cake is baked to replace the paneer-based sponge, which is then soaked in a rich, homemade 3-milk mix (coconut milk, almond milk, soy milk) seasoned with cardamom and saffron.

Vegan Rabdi

Be it a festive season or not, the creamy, velvety Rabdi is an integral part of the Indian sweets. Rabdi’s delightful texture and luscious creaminess enhance the ecstatic festive feeling with every single serving.

While Rabdi can be easily prepared at home with milk, condensed milk, and mashed paneer, in this recipe, we will give it a simple vegan spin. Here, the milk is replaced by nut milk, while the addition of saffron and cardamom remains constant for that signature aroma.

In this dairy-free Rabri recipe, the nut milk pudding is made by slow-cooking and thickening a dairy-free alternative to milk, which is then sweetened and flavored with cardamom and saffron. Instead of the malai or fresh cream, a homemade nut-based milk cream is used to add to the creamy texture of this absolutely dairy-free vegan rabdi.

Gluten-Free Gujiya Peda

How about kicking off this festive season with a fusion of two very popular Indian sweets- Gujiya and Peda? Traditionally, peda is prepared by infusing milk solids with saffron and cardamom, while gujiya are half-moon-shaped fried pastries filled with coconut, nut, and raisin paste fillings.

This grain-free, soy-free, and gluten-free fusion and vegan version includes almond flour fudge with a swirl of coconut-pistachio-raisin filling with the signature flavors of saffron and cardamom. Here, the gujiya filling is combined with almond flour peda and rolled up like a pinwheel. With very little cooking involved, this fusion sweet tastes absolutely delectable.

Vegan Carrot Halwa Cake

Festivals and Carrot Halwa share an age-old friendship. In this era of dessert evolution, why not give this traditional recipe a vegan, fusion spin? Here, the vegan carrot halwa is used as a topping on a vegan sponge carrot cake. For the cake, shredded carrots are cooked a little bit with cardamom, lime zest, and maple syrup. The cooked carrots are then added to the vegan cake batter before the mixture is all set for baking. The carrot halwa topping is prepared with shredded carrot, nut milk, vegan butter, almond flour, and maple syrup. Once the cake is ready, it is topped with a generous amount of carrot halwa. To add more flavor, you can garnish it with some dry fruits.