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Kheer

Sweet pudding dish from Indian subcontinent

Summary

Sweet pudding dish from Indian subcontinent

Field	Value
name	Kheer
image	Kheer.jpg
image_size	300px
caption	A bowl of kheer
alternate_name	ksheeram, doodhpak, meetha bhat (sometimes misunderstood as mayasam)
country	South Asia
course	Dessert
main_ingredient	Rice, milk, sugar, cardamom, jaggery, saffron, pistachios or almonds
variations	Vermicelli (semiya) kheer, Barley kheer, kaddu ki kheer, paal (milk) payasam, payesh, chhanar payesh (payesh made with chhana or paneer)
calories	249
type	Pudding

Kheer, khir, payesh, fenni or payasam is a pudding or porridge (specifically rice pudding) popular in the Indian subcontinent, usually made by boiling milk, sugar or jaggery, and rice. It can be additionally flavoured with dried fruits, nuts, cardamom and saffron. Instead of rice, it may contain cracked wheat, vermicelli (sevai), sago or tapioca (sabudana).

In Northern India, it is made in various ways. The most popular versions are the ones made with rice and vermicelli (semiya). In Nepal, it tends to be thicker and uses fewer ingredients.

Etymology

The word kheer is derived from the Sanskrit word kshira (क्षीर), which means milk or a "milk-based dish". Kheer is also the archaic name for sweet rice pudding.

The word payasam used in South India for kheer originates from the Sanskrit term pāyasa (पायस), which means "milk" or a dish made from milk. This term evolved into various regional languages, including Malayalam (പായസം, pāyasaṁ), Telugu (పాయసం, pāyasaṁ), and Tamil (பாயசம், pāyacam).

Origin

A story from Kerala titled "The Legend of Chessboard", holds that an old sage, who was Krishna in disguise, challenged the king of Ambalapuzha (chess enthusiasts) to a game. To motivate the sage, the king offered anything the old man would name. The sage modestly asked for a few grains of rice but with one condition: the king must put a single grain of rice on the first chess square and double it on every subsequent one.

Krishna, as the sage, won the game and the king started placing the grains. As he stacked them, he was shocked to see the number grow exponentially. In the end, the number came up to trillions. Krishna reveals himself and asks the king to provide kheer to every pilgrim who comes to what is now the Ambalapuzha Krishna Temple in the Alappuzha District, which still follows this command.

According to the food historian K. T. Achaya, kheer (or payasam, as it is known in South India) was a popular dish in ancient India. First mentioned in ancient Indian literature, it was a mixture of rice, milk and sugar. Payasam was also a staple food in Hindu temples in particular, where it is served as Prasāda to devotees.

Gallery

File:Mixed Dry Fruit Kheer - Home - Chandigarh - India - 00011.jpg|Kheer topped with dried fruits and nuts File:Rice pudding also called payasam or kheer.jpg|Kheer File:Paal payasam.JPG|Paal payasam File:Milk kheer.jpg|Kheer with vermicelli (called seviyan kheer, semiya payasam or shemai) File:Semiya Payasam Vermicelli Kheer.jpg|Vermicelli kheer

References

"Best rated puddings in the world".
"Best rated puddings in the world".
(16 September 2025). "Have No Fear, You Can Make Kheer Here! – The Wesleyan Argus".
Monier-Williams, Sir Monier. (1872). "A Sanskṛit-English Dictionary Etymologically and Philologically Arranged: With Special Reference to Greek, Latin, Gothic, German, Anglo-Saxon, and Other Cognate Indo-European Languages". Clarendon Press.
"Kheer: An Essential Dish {{!}} Civilization of India".
(20 December 2013). "DS group enters dairy market, with 'ksheer' - Hindustan Times".
"payasam".
(24 June 2020). "History of Indian Food".
(3 October 2009). "A truly international dessert". Hindustan Times.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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