10 Must-Have Gujarati Dishes

Gujaratis (people from the state of Gujarat in western India) have a big love affair with their food. No wonder, as soon as people find out that I am a Gujarati and a food blogger, the conversation turns towards Gujarati food.

If I had to use three words to describe Gujarati food they would be 'sweet', 'sour' and 'abundant'. Yes, Gujarati food is unapologetic about the presence of sugar or jaggery and lemon or tamarind in most dishes and about eating and feeding in hearty quantities.

As I have often declared, I am a Gujarati who eats very little Gujarati food. This is because I am not a great fan of all the sour and sweet flavours being there in the food all the time. However there are few dishes of Gujarati cuisine that I truly relish and that make me go back to my roots. 

Here is my list of Gujarati dishes you MUST have-

1. Fresh Toor Kachori (Leeli Tuver ni Kachori)

Fresh Toor Kachoris (Leeli Tuver ni Kachori)

This is a seasonal snack made in winters when fresh toor (leeli tuver) is available. This fried crisp kachori is filled with minced fresh toor that is sauteed with sesame, ginger, garlic, and flavoured with lemon and sugar for the Gujarati touch. It is a great snack and a traditional dish not easily found outside Gujarati home kitchens. So you either need to make it for yourselves or get invite to a Gujarati home in winters to have it!

2. Mag ni Dal na Pudla

Mag ni Dal na Pudla

This five ingredient quick fix make the taste of the moong dal (split green lentil) the hero of the taste of this dish. Neither too pungent, nor too spicy, this dish is great for kids and foreigners who love Indian food but beware of the pungency levels. It is full of proteins and makes for a great breakfast dish or a snack at any time of the day.

3. Lapsi

Lapsi: Image Courtesy: tarladalal.com

Lapsi is a sweet dish made of finely broken wheat. It is made by roasting broken wheat in ghee (clarified butter) and then cooking it in water with sugar and cardamom till it is soft. Lapsi holds quite some significance in Gujarati cuisine and is often cooked during a lot of festivals and weddings.

4. Handvo

Handvo: Image Courtesy: FoodFood.com

Handvo is a dish made famous by the scene in 3 Idiots where a drunk Kareena Kapoor asks Amir Khan as to why Gujarati dishes sound so dangerous with names like 'handvo' and 'dhokla' that sound like the name of bombs. Handvo are savoury lentil cakes made on the gas stove top that are served with a tempering of sesame seeds, red chillies and corriander on top. They make for a good snack or a light lunch or dinner dish.

5. Undhiyu

Undhiyu: Image Courtesy: tarladalal.com

Undhiyu is the most popular and elaborate Gujarati dish I have come across. Like tuver ni kachori, it is a seasonal dish, made only when fresh garlic with greens, surti papdi (broad beans) and leeli tuver are available. A main course dish had with pooris or rotis, it is made of different vegetables like papdi, tuver, baby brinjals, potatoes, sweet potatoes, purple yams and peas and muthiyas (fried spicy balls of fresh fenugreek with wheat flour, semolina and gram flour) in a green gravy made of fresh corriander, fresh garlic with greens, coconut and corriander seeds powder. This is a Sunday favourite in most Gujarati homes during winter when the family sits together to eat it and then can have a long afternoon nap afterwards (as it is very heavy!)

6. Gujarati Kadhi

Gujarati Kadhi

Move over Punjabi pakodewaali kadhi, this is kadhi as we Gujaratis do it! Undeniably sour and sweet with hints of spice from the chillies, curry leaves and cumin, Gujarati kadhi is a yogurt sauce best had with plain steamed rice. It is usually served with chhuti dal steamed yellow moong dal as an accompaniment, the scientific reason being to make up for the proteins needed in the meal!

7. Panki 

Panki: Image Courtesy: http://spiceroverindia.wordpress.com/2014/02/04/soam

Panki is a steamed crepe made of rice flour flavoured with turmeric, cumin, salt, garlic and green chillies. It is steamed by wrapping in a banana leaf and is served hot wrapped in the leaf. It makes for a great appetizer that gets the juices flowing.

8. Mag ni Dal na Dhokla

Mag ni Dal na Dhokla

Dhoklas are very famous Gujarati snacks. My experience has often been that it is the most popularly requested recipe from me. Mag ni dal na dhokla are made from split green lentils instead of the regular fermented rice batter (white khatta dhokla) or gram flour dhoklas (yellow khaman dhokla). Again made from 5 ingredients, these steamed dhoklas are light, lovely and tasty. They are perfect for vegetarians, vegans or those on a diet.

9. Khandvi

Khandvi

Khandvi are delicate, thin gram flour and buttermilk rolls that take some practice and effort to get proficiency in. The rolls in themselves are only flavoured with salt and buttermilk but the tempering of mustard, cumin and corriander adds another layers of flavour to it. I love this dish for it's delicate texture and flavours.

10. Masala Chaas 

Masala Chaas

With our love for hearty meals with plenty of food, no meal can be complete without masala chaas (spiced buttermilk) as an appetizer or after-meal digestive beverage. Masala chaas is a very easy and quick beverage and has beautiful flavours of cumin, ginger, chilly and fresh corriander that spice up the regular buttermilk made of  yogurt, water and salt.

Gujarati cuisine is full of flavours and colours with plenty of dishes in terms of variety and quantity.

Masala Chaas (Spiced Buttermilk) Recipe

Mumbai winters are of the 'blink-and-you-miss-it' kind. And we often say that the only season Mumbai has is summer with three months of summer monsoon thrown in. The point being that summer is already in the air and it's barely mid March.

The weather has already reached the summer vacation season level (sigh. vacation!). The levels of mercury are soaring, and so is the humidity. This season comes with decreased appetites and a greater desire for refreshing and thirst-quenching cooling beverages.

Masala Chaas: Spiced Buttermilk

There are a wide variety of beverages available - but for me nothing beats the heat like 'aapdi masala chhas' (our spiced buttermilk)! A light drink of cooling yogurt with a hint of spice from ginger, green chilly and cumin.. ah! 

Chhas can be served in various ways. In the Gujarati tradition of food, chhas is usually served before a meal as it increases appetite and aids digestion. It can also be had as a refreshing beverage any time of the day. It also forms a good accompaniment for khichdi. 

Masala Chaas: Spiced Buttermilk

Masala Chaas (Spiced Buttermilk) Recipe

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Cooking Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

2 cups yogurt

4 cups cold water

2 green chillies

1/2 inch piece of ginger

2 tbsps finely chopped corriander leaves 

1 tsp cumin powder

Salt to taste

Method

Grind together the chillies and ginger to form a fine paste.

Mix together the yogurt and water in a deep vessel.

Add in the salt, the cumin powder and the ginger and green chilly paste. Blend well with a hand blender.

Now add in the chopped corriander leaves.

Serve chilled!

Mag ni Dal na Dhokla

Can I just say one thing about them?

Mag ni Dal na Dhokla

Yes, just look at those beauties!

Despite being a Gujju, I am not a dhokla person.  I do not like the flavours of the ever popular 'khaata dhokla' which are the white ones made from fermented rice batter or 'khaman dhokla'  which are the yellow ones made from besan. To me, these humble and not-so-popular dhoklas win hands down! 

Mag ni Dal na Dhokla

Ingredients

1 cup green moong dal (with skins)

1/2 inch ginger roughly sliced

1-2 green chillies cut into 4/5 pieces each

Salt to taste

Oil to cook

Method

Soak the moong dal overnight or for at least 6 hours. Remove excess water and grind with the green chillies, ginger and salt to make a thick batter that has the consistency of a dosa batter. This is the same batter as used to make Mag ni Dal na Pudla. 

To steam the dhoklas, take a deep thick large pan and put about 2 cups of water in the bottom and start heating it.  Grease a deep steel dish or thaali and pour the batter evenly in it till it is about 3 cms lower than the edge of the thali. Use a steel ring or an upturned steel bowl as a stand in it to put the thaali on. 

The deep pan for steaming with the steel ring as a stand

Place the dish with the batter on the ring as shown below.

The batter filled thali in the steaming pan

Cover with an upturned dish and let the batter steam and cook on a high flame for about 7 minutes and then on a lowered flame for 3 minutes.

Steaming the Dhoklas

The best way to check the doneness of dhoklas is to put a knife edge into it. If it comes out clean, then your dhoklas are ready to eat. Cut into squares of about 2 inches and serve hot with your favourite chutney or ketchup.

Khandvi

Khandvi is one of those rare traditional Gujarati dishes that I enjoy eating. Its simple flavours and silky texture are a delight to have in your mouth. Pair that with the fact that khandvi is not fried, and you have all the reasons why I love this snack. I finally learnt how to make khandvi  this Sunday and one thing is for sure: making khandvi can be a real fun project!

My first attempt at Khandvi in all its glory!

Ingredients

For the Khandvi rolls

1 cup gram flour (besan)
1 cup yoghurt (a little sour)
1 cup water
1 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp asafoetida
Salt to taste

For tempering

2 tsps oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds

A few corriander leaves for garnishing

Method

Grease the back of a large plate. Keep this ready as it will help speeden up the spreading process later that really needs to be fast.

Combine yoghurt and water to make buttermilk. If you do not have sour yoghurt, put in 1 tsp of lemon juice. Whisk in the gram flour, the salt, the turmeric powder and the asafoetida to from a really smooth mixture. You can use your fingers to check and break down any powdery lumps. You need to make sure there are no lumps in this.

The gram flour and yoghurt mixture

Pour this mixture into a pan, turn on the flame and start stirring. After a couple of minutes when the pan has heated well, lower the flame and keep stirring. Keep stirring to ensure there are no lumps.

Heating the gram flour and yoghurt mixture

I realised after the first minute that this mixture lumps up fast. So I used a trick: I used a potato masher placed vertically such that its base touched the bottom of the pan and turned it round and round to stir it. There wasn't one single lump after that! 

Use a potato masher to ensure there are no lumps!

Keep stirring and cooking the mixture on the low flame till it achieves a thick paste-like consistency. This takes about 8-10 minutes. When I was spreading it out, I realised my mixture was a little too thick and could have done with a minute less on the flame. So, turn off the gas before it becomes of the below thick consistency.

Paste that is a tad too thick

Keep the pan on the gas even though it is turned off so that the mixture doesn't cool off too quickly. Using your spatula or a large serving spoon, quickly spread the hot paste on the back of the greased plate into a really thin layer. Speed is very important here. You need to spread out all the mixture before it cools down and becomes difficult to spread.

Spreading the mixture on the back of the dish

If it is your first time, it is okay if the layer gets thick (it will taste just as nice!). I have heard it improves with practice and as you get the hang of making it.

Let this spread mixture cool for 3-4 minutes. Cut long vertical strips of it about 2 inches in width and roll them up  (as seen in the picture above).

Heat oil and temper with the mustard seeds and the cumin seeds. Pour the tempering on the rolls. 

Garnish with corriander leaves and serve as a side dish or as a snack just by itself.