Gujarati Green Undhiyu

Green Undhiyu anyone? Undhiyu is a very traditional Gujarati mix vegetable curry, bursting with flavours, made during festival or special occasion like weddings, engagements, birthdays, etc. No Gujarati wedding is complete without this dish. In India, it’s mostly cooked during winter season when all the veggies are available in plenty. There are many specialty vegetables goes into this dish. In Canada, I find some of these vegetables in frozen section of Indian grocery store so I try to make during summer when I get fresh small eggplant and some other veggies available easily in grocery store. We make green colour undhiyu with all the green spices and herbs or red undhiyu which has red chili powder. I personally love green colour undhiyu. This is one of my  most favourite vegetable curry. Even though we are family of three, I will make this curry which can feed up to 10-12 people so it will last us for 3-4 days…lol. Now you can imagine how much my family love this dish!!!

I have tried making undhiyu in the past using pressure cooker but I found the veggies are cooked more than I like. I also saw other recipes where they fry all the vegetables before mixing with spices…..not something I like to do! So this time I decided to try different method where I don’t need to fry but I also did not want to cook in pressure cooker. The result was so amazing that I finally decided to write this recipe.

This dish is not complete without methi (fenugreek leaves) muthia. Muthia is like fried crispy pakoda which you can buy from India grocery store or prepare at home. You can make muthia ahead of time. You can make extra muthia and freeze them to use for later.

This is a long recipe and time-consuming but I promise that it’s worth every bite.

This recipe serves around 10-12 people.

Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Cooking Time: Around 60 minutes

Ingredients for Methi Muthia:
1 cup besan (gram flour)
1/2 cup wheat flour or oat flour for gluten free version
1 cup chopped coriander
1 cup chopped methi (fenugreek) leaves
1 cup chopped suva (dill) leaves – this is optional
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp chili powder
Small pinch of asafetida
2 tbsp oil
Salt to taste
Very small pinch of baking soda (soda bicarb)
Oil for frying

Procedure to prepare methi muthia (recipe for quickest muthia in air fryer)
1. Clean, wash and chop coriander leaves, methi leaves and dill leaves.
2. Mix all muthia ingredients except oil for frying in a big bowl. Make a semi soft dough adding little water at a time.
3. Make small balls and press slightly with fingers to make some finger marks.
4. Deep Fry: Heat oil in a frying pan. When oil is hot, add few muthia at a time and fry on medium heat until golden brown from all sides stirring frequently. These muthias will be crispy from outside and moist from inside. Make sure they are cooked properly from inside.
Air Fryer: Pre heat air fryer on air fry mode 200C 20 mins. While air fryer is preheating. rub little oil on each muthia. Once air fryer is preheated, spread muthia on trivet. Close the air fryer and let it fry. Turn it after 10 minutes. Check after another 5 minutes and see if it is done. Mine took around 17-18 minutes. Turn off the air fryer once it’s cooked.
5. Store in a container and keep in refrigerator if you are using in few days. If you want to keep it for long time then freeze them.

Ingredients for Undhiya
15-20 small eggplant (brinjal)
3-4 medium size potato
1-2 sweet potato
300gm kand (purple yam) fresh or frozen
3 unripe banana
2 cup fresh or frozen toovar papdi or Surti papdi
15-20 fried muthia (recipe above)
Oil for cooking

Masala
2 cups methi (fenugreek) leaves chopped
2 cups coriander leaves chopped
1 cup dill leaves chopped (optional)
2 cup fresh or frozen toovar lilva (beans)
1 cup fresh or frozen green peas
1 cup dry coconut powder or fresh shredded coconut
8-10 cloves of garlic grated or fresh garlic stems chopped
3-4 green chilies finely chopped
2 tsp ajwain
3 tsp garam masala powder
3 tbsp coriander powder
Salt to taste
1 tsp sugar (optional)

Procedure
1. Mix masala ingredients in a big mixing bowl and keep on side.

2. Cut potato, sweet potato, kand in big chunks. If you are using fresh toovar papdi then open the pod and separate each side.

3. Remove the stem part of eggplant. Then make + shape deep cut on the top part of eggplant, fill it with masala and keep on side. Make 3 big pieces of each banana then make a slit on one side, fill with masala and keep on side.

4. In a big non stick pan, add 4 tbsp oil. Add potato and sauté on medium heat stirring frequently. When potatoes are cooks slightly and has brown marks remove and keep on side. Then in the same pan, add kand and sauté until slightly brown from all sides. Remove and keep on side. Add little more oil if needed in the pan and follow the same procedure with kand, stuffed eggplant and toovar papdi. It won’t take more than 3-4 minutes for each veggies. All the veggies except banana are now slightly cooked.

5. Take a big wide heavy bottom pan, add 3 tbsp oil. Layer stuffed eggplant first, then potato, sweet potato and kand on the top. Then layer papdi and all the leftover masala. Add 2 cups water and cover the pot with lid.

6. Turn on heat and cook on high heat for 7-8 minutes, then turn down the heat. Cook on low to medium heat for 10 minutes. Then add stuffed banana and fried muthia and mix it slowly. Make sure there is some water in the pot, if not then add 1/2 cup water while veggies are cooking. Cover the lid and continue to cook on low to medium heat until eggplants are cooked. Eggplant will take the longest to cook. While it is cooking, you will start feeling hungry because of all the flavours in the air…lol. My stomach was growling with hunger…..haha.

7. Serve this delicious undhiya with roti and Gujarati kadhi on side. I just love to eat this alone. Look at this beautiful picture, do you think you can wait to try it?

Undhiyu is bursting with flavours from methi leaves, dill leaves, garam masala, ajwain, coconut and so many other flavourful ingredients. You can add more fresh beans, it always tastes good with more beans. I prepared a lot of undhiyu which we ate 4 days in a raw without getting tired…. 😀 😀 . You can add veggies of your choice. We never add tomato or onions to this dish.

Hope you get to try this dish someday and agree with me.

Please do leave a comment or let me know if you have any questions.

Thank you for visiting my blog. Until next time!

Also check out other Gujarati recipe ideas on my website.

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