One of my favourite dishes its taken me a while to perfect this recipe. I have asked all my aunties, my mum and sisters for their recipes and experimented for many years till I feel iv got it just right. So what is Handvo? Handvo is a traditional Gujarati savory cake made with rice, lentils, and lots of vegetables like bottle gourd, courgette, fenugreek leaves, and carrots. Spiced with fresh ginger and green chilies, tempered with mustard seeds, sesame seeds, and dried red chilies. This wholesome dish can be enjoyed as a meal by itself or with a side of pickle or chutney. Handvo can be served warm or at room temperature for breakfast, lunch, snack, or dinner. I love to pair mine with some chilli sauce and Indian tea for breakfast. Handvo can be made ahead and refrigerated for up to a week. I like to cut mine into smaller pieces and then reheat each piece for 20 to 30 seconds in the microwave. Handvo makes for a perfect picnic or travel food. Surprisingly mourish you will wish you made more…
Ingredients
- 1 Medium Bottle Gourd If you do not have this use 1 medium Courgette
- 1 Medium Carrot
- 2 Teaspoons Salt
- 1 Teaspoon Sugar Optional
- 4 Small Red Dried chillies
- 1 Teaspoon Cumin Seeds
- 1 Teaspoon Black Mustard Seeds
- 3 Pieces Cinnamon About 2cm long
- 4 Teaspoons Sesame seeds
- 5 Curry leaves
- 1 Teaspoon Fenugreek Seeds
- 150 grams Rice
- 50 grams Tuvar Dhal Yellow lentils
- 30 grams Chana Dhal White lentils
- 20 ml Sunflower Oil
- 1 Teaspoon Turmeric
- 2 Green Chillies
- 3 Cm Ginger
- 2 Teaspoon Salt
- 1/2 Lemons
- 3 Tablespoons of Soya Yogurt
Instructions
- Soak Rice and lentils in water over night in separate bowls
- Add rice and lentils into a blender and blend until coarsely ground
- Then add turmeric, sugar (optional) and blend some more
- Pour mixture into a bowl add 50ml water and mix and leave for 4 hours to ferment
- After mix has fermented add 20ml sunflower oil
- Add Salt
- Grate the bottle gourd or courgette and carrot and add to mix
- Add ginger (peeled and chopped) and green chillies and fenugreek seeds
- Add soya yogurt
- Add 1/2 lemon juice and mix thoroughly
- Add fruit salts one last mix and the batter is ready
- Rub oil into a non stick baking tray add mixture
- The consistency should be thing and not too watery use a spatular to spread mixture evenly
- Heat up 3 tbls of oil in a small pan add mustard seeds, cumin till they start to pop
- Add sesame seeds, cinamon and curry leaves and to the oil and mix
- Pour the hot oil all over the top of the mixture
- Preheat the oven to gas mark 5
- Cook for 120 minutes
- After about a hour with a sharp knife poke the middle of the cake see if you still have any uncooked batter when you pull out the knife.
- Once you have cooked it allow to cool and serve with pickle or chillies sauce
Notes
Make sure your mix is not too wet if it does go too runny then add more rice.
