Handvo Recipe, Gujarati Handvo Recipe | How to make handvo at home

Gujarati Handvo Recipe – Handvo is a baked dish made from various dals/lentils and rice, sesame seeds and spices. The batter is prepared from lentils and rice and is usually fermented overnight. This is a baked dish. Hence the Handvo batter is traditionally baked in a special steam cooker. It is also possible to prepare handvo in an oven. The handvo batter can also be used to make khatta dhokla, yet another famous Gujarati dish.

Handvo is one of my favorite Gujarati savory dish.  While growing up in a Gujarati family my mother used to cook this quite often. Almost every other fortnight if not week. We used to have Handvo in dinner along with tea :D. Although this dish goes well as evening snack with a cup of tea.

p.s. If you like this handvo recipe do checkout my other dhokla recipes sandwich idra dhokla, khatta dhokla, white dhokla (idra dhokla) and muthiya dhokla.

Let us check step by step recipe of Gujarati Handvo. Also don’t forget to scroll till the end of this post. I have mentioned few tips that you can use to make a perfect Gujarati Handvo.

1. Handvo Recipe: To prepare Handvo batter

Let us start with the Handva batter first. There are different ways to prepare a nice authentic Handva batter that will be turned into delicious Handva. I have used the mixed lentils and rice flour to prepare my handwa batter. Alternatively you can soak the chana dal, urud dal along with rice for 6-8 hours in a bowl with curd and water and then grind the mixture to prepare batter. However, I have just used instant handvo batter that is nothing but a mix lentil flour with rice.

Whatever alternative you use, the following steps are common to prepare fermented handvo batter.

Gujarati Handvo fermentation preparation:

1. In a bowl, take 2 cups of mixed lentil and rice flour.
2. Add around 4 tablespoon of bitten curd or yogurt.
3. Now to make nice batter add 1 1/2 cups of water and mix it well. Check the consistency and add more water if required.
4. Cover the vessel with lid and keep aside for 8-10 hours at a warm place. Make sure you keep the batter at warm place otherwise fermentation wouldn’t be perfect.
   Tip: If you don’t find a warm place at home to ferment the handvo mix, you can put the batter in the oven. Make sure the oven is not turned on. Just keep the handva batter there and it should get nicely fermented.

Once the handva batter is nicely fermented keep it in refrigerator and pop out of the fridge when you are ready to make delicious home made handva.

2. To prepare Handva Vegetable mixture

Traditionally Gujarati handva consist of many local vegetables that are available in India. Bottle gourd (Lauki / Dudhi) is a key ingredient that is used in almost all kinds of Handva recipes. However, feel free to put all kinds of vegetables that are available in your supermarket. Here in this home made handva recipe, I have added the usual vegetables; lauki/dudhi, green peas, grated potato and onion. Onion is optional. Feel free to ignore if you dont like them.

1. Take the fermented handwa mix into a bowl. Add grated bottle gourd (lauki/dudhi), green peas, grated potato, cabbage (optional), onion (optional) and mix well.
2. Now add chopped garlic, ginger, green chilies, turmeric powder and salt to taste. Mix the batter well and add water to adjust the consistency if required.
3. The sesame seeds is one of  the key ingredients. It gives nice flavor to handva. Add a tablespoon of sesame seeds to batter and mix the handva batter very well.
4. The batter is ready. We can now start the process of handva making and bake a nice handva cake for us.

The gujrati handvo mixture is ready with all vegetables. We can now start making the handvo cakes from this batter. This recipe is easy recipe that anyone can follow and prepare. The handvo traditionally is prepared in a handva cooker  but we are not using that today. The cooker is not always available and I usually like my handvo in shape of cakes as seen in below pictures. This way the handvo remains crispy.

3. To prepare Handvo cakes (without oven)

Now the last and final stage of handvo is to create handvo cakes in a pan. Repeat below steps for each handvo cake.

1. Take 1/2 cup of handvo batter into a separate bowl and add 1/4 tsp of soda bicarbonate. Now pour 2-3 drops of lemon juice on soda bicarbonate and mix it well with the batter. This way the handvo will become nice & fluffy.
2. In a pan heat a tablespoon of oil and temper some mustard seeds (rai) and sesame seeds. Also add dry red chili and curry leaves in tempering.
3. Pour the handvo batter in pan on top of tempered seeds. With a spoon gently spread the batter across the pan.
4. Cover the pan with a lid and let handvo get cooked on each side for 5 minutes on low flame until it is nice golden brown in color.

Gujarati Handvo can be easily prepared if you have already done some preparations.

Some tips to make perfect Gujarati Handvo Recipe

1. Fermentation of handvo mix plays a crucial role in the softness/fluffiness of final handvo cake. Make sure the handvo mix is kept in a warm place overnight to get the best result. Alternatively keep the handvo mix inside an oven without turning it on.
2. Before preparing the handvo cakes in the pan, take the batter in a separate vessel and add 1/4 teaspoon of soda bi-carbonate. Then, pour 2-3 drops of lemon on soda bi-carb and mix it well with handvo batter. Spread this batter on pan now. This way the handvo will thicken in size and become nice fluffy from inside.
3. Unused handvo batter can be stored in refrigerator for around couple of days. Put the unused handvo mixture in an air tight container and store it in refrigerator. Next day you can use same batter to prepare fresh gujarati handvo cakes. This batter can also be used to prepare another Gujarati savory: Khatta dhokla.
4. If you like handvo  even more crispy, cut the handvo cake into medium pieces and stir fry in a pan with some oil. The outer crust will become very crispy and it will taste amazing.

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