Mixed Fruit Payasam - Pazha Payasam

Few remaining fruits in each variety  in the fruit basket were disturbing my mind. Wanted to consume all the fruits, wanted to avoid them turning black and getting thrown into the garbage. So, I decided to make a fruit payasam without using actual sugar. Heard about the health benefits of  Palm Sugar, a natural sweetener and sugar substitute, I bought it from a nearby Asian Store and used it in this recipe.

Ingredients

Bananas - 1 big one or 2 medium ones

Apple - 1 big one

Pear - 1 big one

Pineapples - 1 slice

Kiwi - 2

Strawberries - 5 or 6 medium ones

Ripe Mango - 1

Dry Grapes - 1 Handul

Elachi Powder - 1 tsp

Milk - 1/2 cup

Cashew Nuts - 1 Handful roasted in ghee

Palm Sugar - 3/4 th of a cup ( Brown colour coarse sugar powder )

Method

1. Wash the fruits and dry them. Peel the skin of fruits like apple, pear, banana, Mango, Kiwi. Cut all the fruits into medium size.
2. Grind all the fruit cubes into a fine smoothie in a mixer grinder and keep it ready.
3. In a heavy bottomed vessel, add the fruit smoothie first and then add 3/4 cup of Palm Sugar. Along with that, add a pinch of kesar food colour a pinch which gives the payasam mild orange / yellow colour.
4. Mix them nicely and let it cook and boil for 5-6 minutes.
5. Then add the elachi powder , add the ghee roasted cashew nuts into the Payasam.
6. Finally add half a cup of milk ( boiled and cooled separately) into the payasam. Mix again and switch off the flame after a minute.
7. Let it cool for sometime. This payasam tastes very good once if it cools and settles down completely.

Variations

You can add any variety of fruits and try this Payasam. But dont add the citric fruits while making this Payasam.

You can add more sugar if you feel that the fruits sweetness is not enough.

Tips

Like our puliogare, this payasam taste increases with time. It tastes even better after 2-3 hours after all the fruit flavour mix and blend together.