Sev Khamani
Sev Khamani, a Gujarati delicacy made with chickpea lentils and basic spices. This soft and grainy textured goodie is a great balance of spicy, sour and sweet flavors that just melts into your mouth.
In my household Sunday mornings call for different Gujarati delicacies for breakfast/brunch. I usually opt for high protein breakfast that includes eggs. However my gujjiu self does crave a good Surati goodie on Sunday mornings. Growing up in Surat, our Sunday back home were lot different than Sundays here in the States. My parents used to give us 10 to 20 rupees to get local foods. Like Khaman, Idla, Sev Khamani, Coconut patties, Chana dal samosa and everyone’s fav locho! Back then 10-20 rupees used to hold a lot of value. Now is a completely different story.
You will find many Surati delicacies on my blog, and this Sev Khamani is a new addition to my Surati food collection! Sev Khamani’s main ingredient is chickpea/Bengal gram (chana dal) lentils. In addition it requires basic ingredients like ginger, garlic, chili, sugar, lime juice, salt etc. This soft and grainy textured goodie is a great balance of spicy, sour and sweet flavors that just melts into your mouth.
There are two way to make this Sev Khamani. The first step is common in both ways, which is to soak the lentils and make spicy garlicky batter. Now cooking the batter can be done two different ways. One is to simply steam the batter and make khaman which will then turn into khamani with much needed tempering. The second method is to cook the batter itself in a pan with decent amount of oil. Which requires a bit longer time and lot of frequent stirring to prevent the batter from burning/sticking to the pan.
I love me a good Surati goodie, but also like an easy simple ways to make them. So I go with steaming route to make the process a bit easier! Steamed khaman is then crumbled up in tiny grainy pieces. The most important part is the tempering with simple yet mighty ingredients to give this Surati delicacy spicy, savory, tangy, sweet flavors all in one bite! I love garnishing it with freshly grated coconut, pomegranate seeds, fresh cilantro and thin sev.
This gorgeous plant based and naturally gluten free/dairy free Sev Khamani makes a great addition to your festive feast! I am going to add this to my Diwali dinner as one of the sides since it is not only vibrant with all the colors and depth of flavors but also easy to make for a big crowd. Who you know will end up loving this dish! I suggest you do the same and add it to your Diwali feast. Leave me a comment below or tag me on Instagram @myvegetarianroots. I would love to get your feedback on this recipe!
Happy & Healthy Eating!
Sev Khamani
Ingredients
Steamed Chickpea lentil Batter
- 1½ cup Dry Chickpea Lentils/Bengal gram (chana dal) soaked for 6-8 hours
- 6 Thai Green Chilis
- 2 inch Ginger
- 3 large Garlic Cloves
- 2 tsp Salt
- ¼ tsp Asafetida (Hing)
- ¼ tsp Turmeric Powder
- 2 tbsp Sugar
- 2 tbsp Lime Juice
- 1 tsp Eno
- ¾ cup Water more or less to get right batter consistancy
Tempering
- ½ cup Avocado Oil or Peanut Oil do nto be alarmed with the amount of oil. We are not using any oil for steaming, and this tempering oil will be the only oil for the entire recipe.
- 1 tbsp Mustard Seeds
- 8 Fresh Curry Leaves
- 8 Thai Green Chili
- 6 small Garlic Cloves use less if the clove size is large
- 2 inch Ginger
- ¼ tsp Turmeric Powder
- ¼ tsp Asafetida (Hing)
- 1 tsp Salt
- 2 tbsp Sugar
- 2 tbsp Lime Juice
- ¼ cup Golden Raisins
- ¼ cup Chopped Cashews
- ½ cup Water more if the khamani is dry
Garnishing
- ½ cup Chopped Fresh Cilantro
- ¼ cup Grated Fresh Coconut
- ½ cup Pomegranate Seeds
- 1 cup Nylon Sev Thin Sev
Instructions
Steamed Chickpea lentil batter (turns into garlicky khaman)
- Wash dry Chickpea Lentils/Bengal gram (chana dal) for 3-4 times, until the water run clear through the lentils. Soak it for 6-8 hours.
- Right before processing the lentils, Start your food steamer by placing water at the bottom and greased thali/tray on a stand inside the steamer. This will assure the thai/tray to be hot with boiling water once we are ready with the batter.
- After 6-8 hours of soaking, remove all the water from the lentils. Place soaked lentils in a food processor with 6 thai green chili, 3 large garlic cloves and 2 inch ginger root.
- Start processing it, use as little water as possible. Add ¼ cup at a time to process it to grainy texture while keeping it thick. You should not need more than ½ to ¾ cup of water.
- Once processed, take it out in a big wide bowl. Add in 2 tbsp of sugar, 2 tbsp of lime juice, ¼ tsp of asafetida (hing), ¼ tsp of turmeric powder, 2 tsp salt. Mix it vigorously using a whisker for 3-4 minutes. It will start to become light and fluffy. Add little water at a time if the batter is too thick, and keep whisking it continuously.
- Once the batter become light and has thick runny consistency, add in 1 tsp of eno (fruit salt), and whisk again vigorously in just one direction.
- As soon as the batter is fully fluffy with eno (fruit salt), immediately pour it out in a greased hot steam thali/tray. Cover the steamer and steam it for 20 minutes. Once steamed, poke it with a knife to assure steaming all the way through the batter. If the batter does not stick to the knife, that means it is fully steamed.
- Once steamed, take the thali/tray out of the steamer and let it cool down for 15-20 minutes or so. This is called khaman.
Making and Tempering of khamani
- Crumble steamed khaman or use big shredder to shred it. Make sure it does not get mushy nor remains too lumpy, it should remain grainy. Once crumbled, keep it aside.
- Process 8-10 thai green chili, 6 small garlic cloves and 2 inch ginger root in a food processor. Keep it aside.
- In a deep wide pot, heat up ½ cup of avocado oil or peanut oil. Once hot, add in mustard seeds and let them pop fully. Then add in 6-8 fresh curry leaves.
- Add in processed chili, garlic, ginger mix. Bring the heat to low/medium and saute it for couple of minutes while stirring frequently. Do not burn the garlic.
- Then add in ¼ tsp turmeric powder and ¼ tsp asafetida (hing). Mix well and then add in ½ cup of water. Mix well, turn the heat up and bring it to simmer.
- Once simmering, add in 1 tsp of salt, 2 tbsp of sugar and 2 tbsp of lime juice. Mix well and simmer for a minutes.
- Bring the heat to low, Mix in chopped cashew and golden raisins. Then add in all the crumbled/shredded khaman. Gently mix everything together without making it mushy. If it seems dry, you can add another ¼ to ½ cup of water and mix again.
- Once tempering is fully mixed in with all crumbled khaman, keep the heat to low and cover it. Let it cook for 2-3 minutes on low heat. Uncover and mix again. Cover again and let it cook for another 1-2 minutes.
- Your khamani is ready! Simply garnish it with grated coconut, pomegranate seeds, cilantro. Sprinkle generous amount of nylon/thin sev right before serving!