Gujarat a beautiful city in India, has a different culture and ethics. Their language is prominent in the world, as prominent is their food. Their cuisine is eminent in the spices, sweets, and tastes they offer. They are healthy and light. Nowadays, Gujarati food is available easily in the city, and the craze we see in people is understandable. Surely they would provide some energy to play dandia all night.
Remember the role of khaman dhokla in the movie 3 Idiots? Many daily soap serials centered around Gujarati culture and their food. It’s hard to keep my word short, to describe their food culture, but these are the top 10 Gujarati food items one should eat.
1. Khaman
It is one of the most loved Gujarati snacks and is served on almost every auspicious occasion. Khaman is like the twin brother of DHOKLA, famous in the northwestern region. The best taste comes with the green sauce(chutney). The main element of Khaman is channa dal or channa gram flour. Furthermore, lemon juice, semolina, and curd add delicious flavor to them. Finally, asafoetida and chilies were added to give the tadka
2. Thepla
The Best breakfast to be enjoyed is thepla with hot tea. Never confuse it with chapati. Thepla is often multigrain, usually made with whole wheat flour, chickpea, and millet flour. Chapati dough prepared with white flour. However, it has a similar variety as parathas like methi, mooli, and dudhi. Thepla has a good preservation time of 3 days approx. Gujaratis often enjoyed eating thepla with curd and mango pickle.
3. Khandvi
Another delicious snack that embraces Gujarati food cuisine is khandvi. The gram flour and yogurt-made dessert are even elegant as served it is yellowish, tightly rolled bite-sized pieces. For better taste, try it with garlic chutney. Easy to make and is readily available in local shops, so people hardly bother to cook it at home. It contains fiber that is good for weight loss. Besan, curds, and coconut in it make it more healthy.
4. Undhiyu
Now comes here the mixed vegetable Gujarati dish. It has been cooked upside down as the name suggests in Gujarati undhiyu. This dish is usually eaten in winter with vegetables growing on the southern Gujarat coastline. Some key ingredients are Surti beans, unripe bananas, small eggplants, starchy potatoes, and purple yam. The flavor of the green garlic is what lends the undhiyu its distinct aroma. At weddings and banquets, the combination is Surti undhiyu with puri. In winter, people in their houses eat it with puri and shrikhand.
5. Gujarati Kadhi
Ever wonder about knowing and eating the Gujarati updated version of kadhi? You cannot miss another Great cuisine Gujarati Kadhi. You will be surprised to know the key elements are just buttermilk, gram flour, and yogurt.
It is the lightest of all other forms of curry, as the mixture of curd and gram flour quickly turns into a liquid mixture using cinnamon powder, curry leaves, coriander leaves, and mustard seeds; the pure taste is wow!
After it is ready to serve, you can eat it with rice, naan, or whatever you like. It is world-famous, as the former president of America, Barack Obama, loved this too.
6. Dabeli
Gujarat cuisine offers almost a new version of every old foodstuff, which we know about Gujaratis and their sharp brains. This time they shot the famous vada pav to transform it to give a new crispy taste, and it’s more related to the word Dabeli means pressed.
It is eaten along with dabeli masala, chutney, and seven, which are readily available in most shops. The core ingredients include potatoes, a burger bun, pomegranate, and peanuts. The maximum time to cook is 40 minutes if one does not have ready-made items. Sometimes people call it Desi Burger and kutcha Double Roti.
7. Fafda Jalebi
The most promised breakfast for every Gujarati is fafda and jalebi. You will be mesmerized by the crunch of it. The fried chickpea flour snack and sweet deep-fried pretzel jalebi give a heaven-like feeling. And I have no words to describe the essence of eating with dry papaya chutney.
The yellow complexation, rectangular fafda, and round jalebis are the perfect sweet salt combination. These are readily available in any food shop in Gujarat. They are the compulsory snack on the occasion of Dussehra. But diabetic patients should be cautious of jalebi served with it.
8. Gota – the Gujarati Pakoras
Another exciting renovating food is Gota which is often called The Gujarati pakoras. The pakoras of Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, and Rajasthan taste good, but the Gota is the supreme of all of them. Golden, crispy, yummy Fritters are the king of all dishes in the Holi celebration.
The perfect time to eat is in the rainy season with sweets and tangy chutney. You will be surprised to know that it originates from a small village Dakor in Gujarat.
9. Dhoodhpak
Any form of cuisine is incomplete without sweets, and Gujarati sweets are famous nationwide. They are as sweet as their culture and language are. One of which is the famous Dhoodhpak or Gujarati variant of Indian kheer. It is just a pudding of rice and a mixture of milk, rice, saffron, nuts, and sugar.
The saffron coloring, garnished with dried fruits, almond is all we can offer to taste best. Various texture has been given to enlighten the beauty of pudding.
10. Gathiya
Waiting for the tea time snack, so here it is, the besan and gram flour made snack you may call a thicker sev. These are available in different types depending upon one’s choice Tikha and Regular Gathiya. The key difference is just spicing. The normal one contains soda bicarbonate, salt, carom seeds, turmeric, etc. Tikha includes red chili powder and black pepper. By deep-frying, different forms of shape astonished us. One must eat this crunchy and spicy snack along with tea.
Here you see some tasty snacks like khaman dhokla, gota, etc. Mix vegetable food like undhiyu and sweets like dhoodhpak. These are some, but there are many more in the kaleidoscope of Gujarat culture. Some are related to the festival, and some are best for breakfast and diet. Many are new variants of other food items already known to us.
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