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Each cuisine is replete with its own flavours and aromas. To give shape to palates, a plethora of dishes are made and associated with different regions. So is the case with handvo. While many talk about dessert for breakfast, Gujaratis took it too seriously to create their very own savoury cake. Handvo is not just another breakfast dish but a nutritious treat too.
Most often, people tend to look at Gujarati cuisine through the lens of dhokla, fafada, khandvi, and more. While these are definitely highlights of the fare, there are other dishes that deserve attention too. Be it the Gujarati pudla, a vegetarian omelette made with besan and vegetables, or the savoury cake, called handvo. The dish appears like a cake due to its round shape, but the stuffing and flavour is nowhere close to your regular ones.
Usually made with grated bottle gourd, the cake is stuffed with a variety of lentils like moong dal. A combination of rice and lentils are fermented to prepare the batter for the cake. This is then cooked in a bundt pan-like vessel. The cake gets all crusty and crunchy once cooked properly, giving a golden-brown appearance. Also known as a khatto cake, handvo is very filling yet healthy. Depending on the season, all sorts of vegetables can be added to your cake.
While this cake serves as a great way to disguise vegetables like bottle gourd, in winters, you’d find red carrots and fenugreek added to the handvo. Commonly eaten for breakfast, a slice of handvo provides ample nutrition for one to function throughout the day. Packed with iron, proteins, and loads of vitamins and minerals, the dish is super healthy and filling too.
In fact, handvo can be made in a variety of ways, depending on your choice of ingredients. For instance, there is a potato handvo in which mashed potatoes are added to the dal and rice mixture. This is then served hot as breakfast or snacks. Then there are healthier versions like buckwheat handvo which are made with buckwheat aka kuttu. This works well for fasting too.
While handvo is usually fried, you can bake it too to make it healthy. The savoury cake is placed in a tray and baked in an oven. The dish is cooked until the outer layer gets crusty and golden-brown. This way, you can enjoy handvo minus the extra calories and oil.
