Corn and Spinach Handvo
Handvo is a baked savory appetizer or snack, made from ground flour made form rice and a mix of lentils, lots of vegetables, and tempered with a vaghar of mustard seeds, sesame seeds. Once baked it has crispy edges and a soft texture inside. It is very easy and flavorful.
Ingredients
- 3 cups Handva/Oondhwa flour
- ½ cup plain sour yogurt
- 2 cups spinach
- 1 cup corn
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tbsp jaggery or brown sugar
- 2 tbsp green chili paste
- 2 tbsp garlic grated
- 2 tbsp ginger grated
- 2 tbsp neutral oil
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- Salt to taste
- ½ tsp Eno/baking soda
Vaghar- Tempering
- 3 tbsp oil
- 1 tbsp sesame seeds
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 1-2 red dried chilies
- 3-4 curry leaves
- 2 cloves
- 1/8 tsp asafetida/hing
- ½ tsp red chili powder
Instructions
- Take a mixing bowl, big enough for the batter to fit in. Add Handvo dry mix, yogurt and water. You might need more water or less too. The batter should be medium thick consistency.
- Let the batter sit at room temperature for 4-6 hours, covered. (If you do not plan on making it immediately, you can leave the batter in the refrigerator for 2-3 days. Just keep checking on it. I like to stir it. I leave out yogurt initially if I am going to store it in the fridge longer and add yogurt for room temperature fermentation.)
- Once the fermentation is done, pre heat the oven at 400 F. Take a round or 9x13 baking pan, grease it with oil. Leave it aside.
- Add ginger, garlic, green chili paste, turmeric, salt, jaggery, oil and lemon juice in the fermented batter. Add vegetables too. Mix well until everything is mixed well.
- Add baking soda and mix very well. You want to make sure the soda is dispersed everywhere in the batter. Pour this batter in the baking pan.
- Tempering – Heat some oil in a small pot on medium heat. Once the oil is hot, add mustard seeds. As soon as the mustard seeds crackle, add asafetida, sesame seeds, cloves, curry leaves, red chilies and turn off the flame. Add red chili powder too. Your oil should not be too hot, otherwise the vaghar will burn. It won’t taste good. So be careful. Immediately pour this vaghar on top of the handvo batter in the baking tray. Do not mix at this point. It stays afloat on top.
- Bake for about 30-40 minutes or until the top get nice deep brown color and toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. If you think its baked but there is not enough browning on top, you can broil for 2 minutes on high. Always be careful when broiling anything. It can burn something very quickly. Put a timer or stay next to the oven.
- Remove it and let it cool down for 10 minutes. If you try to cut into it when it’s hot, it will be little bit soft. After cooling it down, it sets up better.
- Serve it with some tea or coffee as a snack alongside chutneys. You can also serve it for dinner.
Notes
- Once you add, baking soda or Eno, the batter cannot sit longer. The next steps must be followed immediately as the soda or eno starts activating.
- If you use Opo squash or Zucchini, then grate it closer to adding to the batter. It releases a lot of water and can turn brown quickly.
- While adding water to the batter, start with less and then add more if needed. If you added too much water, you could always add a little bit of rice flour in it to thicken it up.
- Makes for great picnic or potluck food. It taste great next day too.
- Gluten Free - Do not use asafetida/hing to make it gluten free.
- You can also make them into muffin pans or any other baking pans.