Baked Spicy Lentil Cake (Handvo)

A popular Gujrati snack. This is a baked, spicy lentil cake made with rice and different lentils fermented batter mixed with spices. This is served with chutney. Handvo is crisp outside and soft inside.  serves 8

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup rice – small grain
  • 1/4 cup chana dal (split chickpeas)
  • 1/4 cup urad dal** split with skin (**use mung beans or azuki beans instead)
  • 1/4 cup toor dal*** (***use yellow lentils or any beans)
  • 1 teaspoon turmeric
  • About 1 inch piece ginger chopped
  • 1-2 green chilli adjust to taste
  • 1-3/4 teaspoons salt
  • 2 teaspoons sugar
  • 1/8 teaspoon asafetida^ (use garlic or onion powder instead^ )
  • 1/2 cup yogurt
  • 2 tablespoon oil
  • 1 cup laucki* shredded (subs zucchini, yellow squash, butternut squash, pumpkin)
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon Eno fruit salt (contains bicarb, citric acid and salt or use baking powder
    or whipped egg or cashew white perhaps

For Seasoning

  • 1 tablespoon oil
  • 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
  • 1/8 teaspoon asafetida*
  • 1 Tab sesame seeds

Also need

  • 2 teaspoon oil to grease the baking pan
  • 8×8 baking pan (preferably glass)

Method

TO FERMENT – or instead buy handvo flour already made up

  1. Wash and soak rice, chana dal, toor dal, and urad dal in about four cups of water for at least four hours.
  2. Drain the water and in a blender, or processor, blend the soaked rice & lentils, ginger & chilli to a lightly coarse texture (no water).  Add yogurt, turmeric, salt, sugar and asafetida* and blend it again for few more seconds. Transfer the dal mix into a bowl and let the mix ferment for about 10 to 12 hours.
  3. Add the squash, 2 tablespoons of oil and lemon juice to the fermented dal mix – mix it well. Add ENO to the mixture and mix (this will make the handvo mix light & fluffy)
  4. Grease the 8×8 baking pan generously and pour the handvo mix into the greased pan.
    Tap the pan; it will help to spread the mix evenly.
  5. Sprinkle the sesame seeds over the batter.SEASONING –
  6. Heat the oil for seasoning in a small pan over medium heat – after oil is moderately hot, add the mustard seeds and asafetida*. As the mustard seeds crack, turn off the heat.
  7. Drizzle the seasoning over the top of the sesame seeds. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees C.
  8. Cover the pan with aluminum foil and place it on middle oven rack and bake for 20 minutes.
  9. Remove foil and bake for another 20 minutes until top of the handvo is light golden brown or until knife inserted in centre of cake comes out clean.
  10. Let the handvo cool off for about 15 minutes. Cut into sixteen pieces and serve.*  A ½ teaspoon of the asafetida powder can be substituted by 2-minced garlic gloves or 2/3 of a cup of minced onion. Tiny amounts of asafetida give a gentle lift to cheese dishes, egg, salad dressings and fish.

Easy Green Chutney

Creamy Indian-inspired green chutney – Try on Indian-inspired dishes such as our dosas, fritters, sweet potatoes, aloo tikkipakoras, and cauliflower “steak”!  This is addictive!  Fresh, bright & flavourful!   8 servings


Ingredients:
2 cups loosely packed fresh cilantro** (~1 large bundle as recipe is written / some stems are okay)
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1/4 tsp each sea salt & black pepper
2 Tab lime juice (1 lime yields ~2 Tbsp or 30 ml)
1-2 tsp sweetener (maple syrup, agave nectar, or honey if not vegan) – most said too sweet & unnecessary
2-3 Tbsp ripe avocado* for extra creaminess
Water to thin (~1/4 cup or 60 ml as recipe is written)
small blender or food processor – or use a mortar & pestle

Instructions

1.  To prepare the chutney:  Add cilantro, garlic, salt & pepper, lime juice, sweetener & avocado (starting avo with the smaller amount and working up for creamier texture) to processor and mix to combine. (Add only enough water to encourage blending and make the sauce pourable. If it gets too thin, thicken with more avocado or cilantro).

2.  Taste and adjust seasonings as needed, adding more garlic for spice/zing, salt to taste, sweetener for sweetness, or lime juice for acidity.

3.  Chutney will keep in the refrigerator up to 3 days or in the freezer up to 1 month. From frozen, let thaw in the refrigerator overnight before using. Try on Indian-inspired dishes such as our dosas, sweet potatoes, aloo tikki, pakoras, and cauliflower “steak”!

–Try with Tandoori Tofu Sheet Pan Dinner–

SOME OF THE NUTRITION: Sodium: 81 mg Potassium: 107 mg

NOTES:
I love the sauce. It is absolutely delicious! I did not have enough cilantro so I used half parsley although I would have preferred cilantro. I did not have avocado so I replaced it with mayonnaise. It was absolutely delicious. Thank you for your wonderful recipes.

So good on your roasted cabbage and on fish tacos!

Using green pepper:  here’s how I make it–and I make gift jars because people LOVE mine:
1 green pepper for every 2 bunches of cilantro.
lemon juice
sugar
salt
loads of unsalted peanuts…make the chutney THICK.
1 hot spicy pepper–as much as you can take.

Blend green pepper first, then add cilantro & hot pepper. Add lemon juice, salt and sugar to taste, lastly add peanuts.

*Sub avocado –  I decided to try a few tablespoons of cashews quickly soaked in hot water and blended the sauce up and turned out great!

**  Sub mint leaves would work too.

great on our salmon! My teenagers loved it!  Also great with samosas

I’m from India, we make it every week for meal prep. I like to add mint leaves in it as well for extra freshness and a deseeded chilly gives it that extra kick…

More Flavorful Sauces

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