Zealver Clubs

Handvo

Reviewed by Dr Namrata Bagaria, MBBS, MPH (Harvard)Last reviewed

Main Serves 4 45 minutes, plus soaking and fermenting

Handvo is the Gujarati answer to cooking once and eating for three days. Lentils and rice ground together and fermented, vegetables folded in, then baked into a savoury cake with a crisp crust.

Combining dals with rice is not only tradition; it makes the protein more complete than either would be alone. With the vegetables in it, a slice is a genuine meal rather than something to eat alongside one.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup rice
  • 1/4 cup toor dal
  • 1/4 cup chana dal
  • 1/4 cup split yellow moong dal
  • 1/2 cup curd
  • 1 cup grated bottle gourd, squeezed dry
  • 1 carrot, grated
  • 1 tsp ginger and green chilli paste
  • 1/2 tsp turmeric
  • Salt to taste
  • 1 tsp fruit salt (Eno)

For the tempering

  • 2 tbsp oil
  • 1 tsp mustard seeds
  • 1 tsp sesame seeds
  • A pinch of asafoetida
  • A few curry leaves

Method

  1. 1

    Soak the rice and all three dals together for four hours. Drain and grind with the curd and a little water to a coarse batter, slightly thicker than dosa batter.

  2. 2

    Cover and leave overnight in a warm place to ferment. It should smell pleasantly sour and have risen a little.

  3. 3

    Stir in the bottle gourd, carrot, ginger and chilli paste, turmeric and salt.

  4. 4

    Heat the oil in an oven-safe pan, add mustard and sesame seeds and the curry leaves. Pour half the tempering into the batter and stir.

  5. 5

    Add the fruit salt, mix briefly, pour the batter into the pan over the remaining tempering, and bake at 180C for thirty to thirty-five minutes until firm with a browned top. Or cook covered on a very low flame for about twenty-five minutes.

  6. 6

    Cool a little before cutting into squares.

Good to know

  • Squeeze the water out of the bottle gourd properly or the batter goes loose and the handvo stays wet in the middle.
  • It keeps three days in the fridge and is good cold, warm or briefly reheated, which makes it a genuinely useful thing to have made.
  • Any vegetable works: cabbage, peas, spinach, grated beetroot. It is a good way to use what is left in the fridge.
  • A slice with a bowl of curd is a complete meal, and the fermenting makes it easier to digest than the ingredients suggest.

Related reading