A traditional Gujarati snack! A savoury cake made from rice, lentils and vegetables. It can be cooked on a kadhai or baked in the oven. I’ve baked mine in a springform cake pan. I usually cook this with bottle gourd (dudhi) which is the main vegetable. I’ve however made this one during the lockdown when dudhi wasn’t available so substituted it for courgettes and was very happy with the results and will probably use that going forward as its much easier to get in the UK!
I get packs of ready handvo flour every time I go to Mumbai and each pack is pack is 500g or 2.5 cups so this recipe uses the same proportion. Adjust it to suit your requirement. I’ve always made this in a large pan and cut the handvo to pieces or wedges while serving, but you can also make mini handvos in muffin pans which I am going to try next time.
Feel free to add other vegetables to the mix like onions, fresh fenugreek leaves, peppers, green peas.
Overview
- Serves: 8
- Difficulty: Moderate
Ingredients
Handvo batter
- 500g (2.5 cups) handvo flour
- 1/2 cup plain yogurt
- 2 tbsp oil
- 1.5 cups warm water
Vegetables
- 3 cups grated courgette or bottle gourd (dudhi)
- 2 cups grated carrots
- 1/2 cup chopped coriander
- 3 tbsp crushed dried fenugreek (kasturi methi)
- 1 tbsp grated ginger
- 5 green chilies finely chopped
Spices
- 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
- Salt to taste
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp baking soda (or 1 pack ENO fruit salt)
Tempering 1
- 2 tbsp oil
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 2 tbsp seseme seeds
- 3 to 4 dried red chillies
Tempering 2
- Oil
- 2 tbsp seseme seeds
Method
- Step 1 – Mix all the ingredients from the handvo batter to make the batter. Cover and keep in a warm place overnight or for 6-8 hours
- Step 2 – Preheat oven to 180 C (160 C fan assisted). Grease baking tray. If using springform pan line bottom with parchment paper
- Step 3 – Add all the vegetables to the batter and mix well
- Step 4 – Add all the spices (except the fruit salt)
- Step 5 – Temper all the ingredients from tempering 1 and add to the batter and mix
- Step 6 – Temper 2 tbsp seseme seeds in oil (tempering 2)
- Step 7 – Mix fruit salt into the batter
- Step 8 – Pour batter into prepared baking tray and sprinkle tempered seseme seeds (from tempering 2) on top
- Step 9 – Bake for 45-50 mts or till skewer is clean. Bake for 10-15 more minutes after skewer is clean to ensure the insides are completely done. Broil for the last 5 minutes if you like a dark crusty top
- Step 10 – Cut into wedges or squares (depending on how you have baked it) and serve with coriander chutney and mango chutney (or sweet mango pickle)
Note – If you don’t have ready handvo flour, you can make your own by dry roasting the following ingredients and grinding them to make a course flour (not a fine powder)
- 1 cup short grain rice
- 3/4 cup pigeon pea lentils (tuvar dal)
- 1/2 cup split bengal gram (chana dal)
- 1/4 cup split green gram (moong dal chilka)
- 1/4 cup green gram (yellow moong dal)
- 1/4 cup pink lentils (masoor dal)
- 1/4 cup split black gram (urad dal)
First roast the rice and keep aside and then the lentils. After roasting grind in batches for uniform grinding.