In the last post written on World Vegan Day by my son Rajesh, he mentioned that most of authentic vegetarian recipes in this blog can easily be made vegan and that’s what we have been doing lately.
We made this vegan ondhwa using slightly different ingredients a couple of weeks ago.
Ondhwa often called handvoh is a Spicy Lentil Cake made with a mixture of lentil and rice flour.
Most Indian shops sell this flour mixture as “Ondhwa mix”. Thereare lots of different brands and I like to buy the ones I am familiar with like this Jalpur Brand. Ondhwa is very popular among Gujaratis who lived in East Africa. Over there, when I was growing up, we didn’t have an oven so used to make ondhwa on a makeshift oven. We used to keep the ondhwa mixture to cook in a saucepan , on a coal jiko and covered the saucepan with a lid which was then covered with charcoal too. It’s one of the best ondhwa I have ever tasted. This Post shows how a cake is baked on a jiko in Kenya.
How do you serve Ondhwa?
Ondhwa is usually served as a snack with tea and chutney. In my opinion, it is a meal on its own as it has lentils and rice plus you can add a choice of seasonal vegetables marinated in yoghurt (vegans can use soya yogurt with a tablespoon of lemon juice when marinating the flour mixture). This recipe will give you details of how we made the ondhwa, that the vegans in my family could enjoy it too.
Eno is usually used as an anticid for indigeation. It contain sodium bicarbonate, citric acid, and anhydrous sodium. Sodium bicarbonate and the citric acid together are perfect raising agents and a lot of Indian cooks use this instead of using sodium bicarbonate and lemon juice. so don’t be surprised to see us using Eno for making dhoklas, bhajias or ondhwas.
Vegan yogurt:
Most brands of vegan yogurt are tasty and would work with this recipe as long as we add some lemon juice to give it the sour tangy taste.
You can use any sesame seeds. Classic Ondhwa always has lots of sesame seeds sprinkled on it. I often add some nuts too to give it a bit of a crunch.
Ingredients (serves 4):
- 2 cups of ready mixed Ondhwa flour
- 1 cup coarse corn flour
- ½ cup strong wheat flour
- 1 cup soya yoghurt
- 2 tbls fresh lemon juice
- 2 small potatoes
- 1 medium onion
- 1 Carrot
- 1 or 2 fresh green chilies chopped finely
- 1 tsp crushed ginger
- 1 tsp crushed garlic
- 5-6 tbls cooking oil ( need it for the tempering and lining the plate)
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 3 or 4 tbls sesame seeds
- 2 tsps soda Eno Fruit salt
- handful of nuts – cashews and peanuts
Method:
- Mix the Ondhwa flour, the corn and wheat flours with soya yoghurt and lemon juice. Add some warm water to form a mixture which is firm. Cover it and keep it in a warm place for 3-4 hours.
2. Grate the potatoes, onions and carrots and add them to the Ondhwa mixture. Add in the ginger, garlic and green chilies. Add the salt and turmeric. Mix it all together.
3. Mix the Eno Fruit salt with a half cup of warm water and add to the mixture. The ondhwa mixture will start to rise.
4. Heat 4 tablespoons of oil in a saucepan. Add the mustard seeds and a tablespoon of sesame seeds to the oil. Once the mustard seeds stop popping and sesame seeds go dark, pour the hot oil over the ondhwa mixture and stir well.
Do try this vegan version of Ondhwa and let me have your comments.
The recipe for a selection of my the vegetarian ondhwa is below:
https://givemesomespice.com/2010/03/ondhwa-or-handvoh-spicy-lentil-cake/
2. Ondhwo (handvo) savoury lentil Cake
3. Ondhwo/handvo with quinoa, bulgar and chickpea dall
Vegan Ondhwa or Handvoh – Vegan Spicy lentil cake
Ingredients
- 2 cups of ready mixed Ondhwa flour
- 1 cup coarse corn flour
- ½ cup strong wheat flour
- 1 cup soya yoghurt
- 2 tbls fresh lemon juice
- 2 small potatoes
- 1 medium onion
- 1 Carrot
- 1 or 2 fresh green chilies chopped finely
- 1 tsp crushed ginger
- 1 tsp crushed garlic
- 5-6 tbls cooking oil ( need it for the tempering and lining the plate)
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 3 or 4 tbls sesame seeds
- 2 tsp soda Eno Fruit salt
- handful of nuts – cashews and peanuts
Instructions
- Mix the Ondhwa flour, the corn and wheat flours with soya yoghurt and lemon juice. Add some warm water to form a mixture which is firm. Cover it and keep it in a warm place for 3-4 hours.
- Grate the potatoes, onions and carrots and add them to the Ondhwa mixture. Add in the ginger, garlic and green chilies. Add the salt and turmeric. Mix it all together.
- Mix the Eno Fruit salt with a half cup of warm water and add to the mixture. The ondhwa mixture will start to rise.
- Heat 4 tablespoons of oil in a saucepan. Add the mustard seeds and a tablespoon of sesame seeds to the oil. Once the mustard seeds stop popping and sesame seeds go dark, pour the hot oil over the ondhwa mixture and stir well.
- Transfer the mixture into a very well greased baking tray. Sprinkle the remaining sesame seeds and the nuts on top of the mixture.
- Bake at 170 degrees for 30 minutes and 150 degrees for 20 minutes. Check and cook for a few more minutes if required. Check that the ondhwa is cooked by putting a knife in the middle of the Ondhwa. The knife should come out clean. If not cooked, give it a few more minutes. The top should look fairly dark when the Ondhwa is cooked.
- Serve the ondhwa hot with green chutney and masala tea. This must have been one of the tastiest ondhwas made so far. We did not tell the family that we had converted the usual Ondhwa recipe to a vegan dish and no one could tell the difference.
Notes
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