Halwa is basically a 3 ingredient recipe viz, flour/fruit base, ghee and sugar. It depends on the type of halwa you are cooking and the few more ingredients get added to the list. For instance, apple halwa needs a pinch of food color and cardamom powder. Wheat halwa needs cashews and food color. Almond halwa does not need any dry fruit as it itself is a nut and same goes with cashew halwa. Food color is always optional when we prepare such recipes as at home. Because the ingredients of food colors are not stomach friendly and it might result in gradual damage of our stomach enzymes. Hence we just go for preparing recipes with minimal use of food color or nothing at all. Wheat halwa is all time favourite in my home, especially the ones bought from Tirunelvelli. They are tagged with the place name itself and popularly known as "Tirunelvelli Halwa" which is quite rich in sugar and ghee. OMG! you should try the tirunelvelli halwa atleast once in your life time for sure. ...