Khandvi
Khandvi aka Dhivadi: these are two popular names of this soulful Gujarati snack/dish. This dish has to be on top of the famous Gujarati dishes. Khandvi are smooth, melt in the mouth rolls of chickpea flour aka besan and yogurt batter which is cooked to perfection, tempered with mustard seeds, some cut green chilies, and curry leaves, garnished with coconut powder, and chopped coriander leaves.
Ingredients
For Khandvi batter
- 1 cup Chickpea Flour spooned and leveled
- ¾ cup Sour yogurt
- 2¼ cup Water to be mixed with yogurt
- 1 tbsp Ginger + green chili paste
- ½ tsp Turmeric powder
- 1 tsp Salt or as per taste
- ⅛ tsp Asafetida
For the Khandvi Tempering/Seasoning
- 1 tbsp Canola oil
- 8-10 Curry leaves
- 1 tbsp Mustard seeds
- 1 tbsp white Sesame seeds
- ½ tsp Red Chili powder
Garnish
- 2 tbsp Coconut Freshly grated or desiccated
- 2 tbsp Coriander leaves Chopped
Instructions
Making Khandvi Batter
- Get all the ingredients ready. Sift the chickpea flour. Take 1 cup (Spooned and levelled) sifted flour in a medium sized bowl.
- In another bowl, make buttermilk by mixing yogurt with water. Stir well to make smooth buttermilk. If yogurt is not sour add lemon juice to it.
- Add buttermilk to the chickpea flour little by little. With a wired whisk, keep on stirring and mixing till all the lumps are dissolved and you get a smooth batter. Make sure there are no lumps in the batter. You can also use immersion blender to mix the batter.
- Add salt, turmeric powder, asafetida, ginger green chili paste to the batter. Mix well.
- Spread oil on plates or cookie sheets or tray. Alternatively, you can also use heavy duty aluminum foil spread on your kitchen counter.
- Pour the batter in a heavy thick bottom sauce pan. Keep the flame low. Begin to stir.
- Keep stirring when the khandvi batter is being heated up. Lumps will begin to form and you have to continuously stir to dissolve them. Use wooden spatula or a heat proof silicon spatula.
- The batter would thicken up slowly. Keep on stirring. Make sure the batter don't stick to the bottom of the pan and for that you will have to stir continuously. It may splatter so please take precautions.
- Do a plate taste to see if it rolls up when batter thickens well. Spread a tablespoon of the batter on a greased plate. Let it cool a bit and then begin to roll. If you are unable to roll, then the batter needs to be cooked more.
- It took me 15-20 minutes to get the right consistency on a low flame. The timing will vary depending on the intensity of the flame, the thickness and size of the pan. Just do the plate taste mentioned above. When you can form the rolls, batter is ready. If the batter becomes thick, it becomes difficult to spread and you don't get thin layers in the rolls. In this case, you will get thick layered rolls but it still taste good.
Making Khandvi Rolls
- Quickly pour about ½ cup of batter on a large plate or cookie sheet and spread thinly & evenly with a spatula. You have to be quick with the remaining batter too. Since even a bit of cooling and the batter becomes likes blob, difficult to spread.
- Make thin and even layer as possible as you can. If you spread it thick then it will be hard to roll, your roll might even break. So be quick in spreading the batter.
- Let it cool for 5-7 minutes. Cut into equal size strips.
- Gently roll each strip tightly. Then place them in a serving tray or plate. If the cookie sheet pan or plate is large, then you will get large rolls. In this case after you finish rolling half, just cut horizontally and make a second roll.
- Arrange the khandvi rolls next to each other or stack them up neatly in a plate or tray. Sprinkle red chili powder on top of the rolls.
Tempering/Seasoning for Khandvi
- Heat oil and crackle the mustard seeds. Then add curry leaves, green chilies and fry for a few seconds.
- Add the sesame seeds and when they change color & crackle, pour the hot tempering mixture along with the oil on the khandvi rolls evenly.
Garnish
- Garnish Khandvi rolls with coconut powder and chopped coriander leaves.
Optional serving suggestion
- Serve Khandvi with coriander chutney or coriander mint chutney.