So, I finally got around to putting up, on the blog, the recipe for one of my most favourite Gujarati curries ever!Vatana Valor Bateta Tuver Nu Shaak is a heritage Gujarati dish, a classic. It is an absolutely delicious curry, veggies cooked in a green spice paste made using green chillies, coriander, ginger and garlic. An out-and-out flavour bomb this is!
Vatana Valor Bateta Tuver Nu Shaak, an eternal favourite at home!
More about this Vatana Valor Bateta Tuver Nu Shaak
Variations of this sabzi are prepared in Gujarati households everywhere, with the season dictating the major ingredients that go into it. The recipe I’m sharing today includes winter-special produce like vatana (Gujarati for green peas) and tuver dana (pigeon peas), along with valor (hyacinth beans) and bateta (potatoes). Towards the end of this post, I will also tell you how this curry is prepared in other seasons, as well as a few little tweaks you can make to this dish.
This is a one-pot recipe, a dish you can prepare in a small pressure cooker. Once you have the ingredients ready, the curry can be put together in just a few minutes. With some hot phulka rotis or plain parathas, this makes for a brilliant side.
How to make Vatana Valor Bateta Tuver Nu Shaak
My grandmother learnt this recipe from a Gujarati friend of ours, years ago, back when we were living in Ahmedabad. It passed on to my mother over the years, and then to me. We have made this curry so many hundreds of times over – it was always a huge favourite at our place, and it still is.Here is how we make it.Ingredients (serves 4): To grind:
- A fistful of fresh coriander leaves
- A 1-inch piece of ginger
- 4-5 cloves of garlic
- 2 tablespoons peanuts
- 2 green chillies
Other ingredients:
- 2 cups of hyacinth beans (valor or avarekkai)
- 1 medium-sized potato (bateta or urulaikizhangu)
- 1 cup fresh shelled pigeon peas (tuver dana or tuvarai)
- 1 cup fresh shelled green peas (vatana or pattani)
- 1/2 tablespoon oil
- 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
- 3/4 teaspoon carom seeds (ajwain, ajmo or omam)
- 2 pinches of asafoetida
- 1 tablespoon brown sesame seeds
- Salt to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 3/4 teaspoon garam masala (optional)
- 1-1/2 tablespoon jaggery powder
- Red chilli powder to taste (optional)
- 1-1/4 cup water or as needed
For garnishing:
- Grated fresh coconut, as needed
Method: 1. We will start by prepping the vegetables needed to make the curry. Remove the tops, ends and strings from the hyacinth beans. Chop each one into two pieces. Measure out the shelled pigeon peas and green peas. Peel the potato and chop into large cubes. Keep aside.2. Next, we will prepare the paste required for the curry. Chop the coriander leaves roughly and add them to a mixer jar. Peel the garlic cloves and ginger, chop roughly, and add to the mixer jar too. Chop up the green chillies as well, and add to the mixer jar. Add in the peanuts too. Grind everything together to a smooth paste, along with a little water. Keep aside.
Top: Step 1, Bottom left and right: Steps 2 and 3
3. Now, we will start preparing the curry. Heat the oil in a small pressure cooker bottom. Add in the mustard seeds, and allow them to sputter. Then, add in the carom seeds, asafoetida and sesame seeds. Allow these ingredients to stay in the hot oil for a few seconds.4. Turn the flame to low-medium now. Add in all the vegetables we prepped earlier.5. Also add in salt to taste and the turmeric powder. Mix well, gently.6. Add in the jaggery powder and garam masala, if using. Mix everything gently but well.7. Now, add in the spice paste we ground earlier.
Top left and right: Steps 3 and 4, Bottom right: Step 5, Bottom left: Step 6, Above bottom left: Step 7
8. Wash the mixer jar with about 1/4 cup of water and add this to the pressure cooker bottom too.9. Add about 1 more cup of water to the pressure cooker bottom, or as needed to adjust the consistency of the curry. You need to keep the flame at low-medium. Mix well.10. Taste and adjust salt and jaggery if needed. Add in red chilli powder if the spiciness is not enough. Mix well.11. Now, close the pressure cooker and put the whistle on. Increase the flame to high. Allow 3 whistles on high flame. Let the pressure release naturally.12. When the pressure has completely gone down, open the cooker and mix up the curry gently. Your Vatana Valor Bateta Tuver Nu Shaak is ready. Serve it hot or warm, garnished with grated fresh coconut, with rotis or plain parathas.
Top left and right: Steps 8 and 9, Above bottom left: Step 10, Bottom left: Step 11, Bottom right: The curry, just after the pressure has gone down fully and the cooker has been opened
Tips & Tricks
1. Adjust the quantity of salt, green chillies and jaggery powder as per personal taste preferences.2. The garam masala is purely optional, but I would highly recommend using it. It adds a lovely flavour to the curry. You may use dhana-jiru (powdered coriander seeds and cumin), that quintessential spice in a Gujarati kitchen, instead of the garam masala.3. Adjust the quantity of water as needed.4. Using the red chilli powder is optional too. If the green chillies are hot enough, you may skip the red chilli powder entirely.5. I have used a small 5-litre pressure cooker to make this curry.6. You may roast the peanuts before adding them to the mixer jar. I usually don’t.7. You may add some fresh grated coconut while preparing the spice paste too. I usually don’t. I prefer garnishing the curry with fresh coconut instead.8. Adjust the number of whistles depending upon the make of your pressure cooker and the amount of water you are using. The above recipe works perfectly for us. Keep in mind that all the veggies need to be cooked through, but not overly mushy.9. Chop the potato into large cubes, to prevent them from getting too mushy.10. I have included the Gujarati and Tamil names of all the vegetables I have used in this curry, for better understanding.11. You may even make this curry in a pan. We have always used a pressure cooker to do so.12. I have used home-made garam masala here. You may use a store-bought version instead, too.13. This is almost an Undhiyu, but not quite. It uses way fewer ingredients than the Undhiyu and far less time, but tastes quite similar.14. The rule of thumb in this recipe is to use a 1:1:0.5 ratio of soft vegetables, seeds like green peas and pigeon peas, and root vegetables. If this ratio is maintained well, it gives a great consistency to the curry.15. A dash of lemon juice can be added, once the curry is ready. It is purely optional, and I usually skip it.16. This is a completely vegetarian and vegan preparation, suited to those following a plant-based diet. It can be made gluten-free too, by skipping the asafoetida used in the tempering. Most commercial brands of asafoetida available in India use wheat flour, to a lesser or greater extent – they are, therefore, best avoided when one is following a gluten-free diet. However, if you can find 100% gluten-free asafoetida, you could definitely use it.
Variations to the recipe
1. I have used 1 cup each of pigeon peas and green peas here. You may use 2 cups of pigeon peas or green peas instead.2. Skip the garlic in the spice paste, if you do not prefer it.3. I have used hyacinth beans here. You may use Surti papdi instead – a special variety of beans commonly available in Gujarat, especially in the winters. However, papdi is not found in South India. I have found that snow peas or sugarsnap peas work well in place of the hyacinth beans too. Bangalore peeps, you get snow peas and sugarsnap peas at Namdhari’s, in the winters.4. All vegetables used here are fresh. You may use frozen ones too, if you are in the practice of stocking them.5. In the summers, this curry can be made with frozen green peas, hyacinth beans and brinjals.6. You can substitute the potato for a carrot. You can even use a mix of potato and carrot.7. Methi muthiya can be added to this curry too, for extra flavour. I usually avoid them.8. I have used shelled fresh edamame (immature soya beans) in place of pigeon peas in this curry, and loved it too. I found the edamame in Namdhari’s, Bangalore.9. If you have access to shelled hyacinth beans or field beans (valor dana in Gujarati, avarekottai in Tamil), you can add those to the curry too.Did you like this recipe? Do tell me, in your comments!
The World Through My Eyes 