Gatte Ki Sabzi
Jan 13, 2016, Updated May 09, 2022
Gatte Ki Sabzi is a popular curry from the state of Rajasthan, tastes great with rice or roti.
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An traditional dish from the state of Rajasthan – chickpea flour dumplings are boiled and then simmered in a yogurt based tangy curry. Gatte ki sabzi tastes great with roti or plain rice! A great alternative for those days when you have no veggies in your refrigerator.
I love sharing traditional Indian recipes on my blog. In fact I would like to share more of these since this is the kind of food I make and eat every day but as much as I would like, this does not always happen. With all the festivals in between, I often forget to share traditional food. But since this is healthy eating month and traditional Indian food is really healthy (are you surprised??!! don’t let the creamy curries at restaurants befool you!) I thought of sharing this delicious curry from the beautiful state of Rajasthan in India. Gatte Ki Sabzi is basically chickpea flour dumplings in a yogurt based curry. Gatte = chickpea flour dumplings and sabzi = a common term used for vegetarian recipes.
I obviously didn’t grew up eating this sabzi because I do not belong to Rajasthan but I absolutely love love it. In fact I love the food, the culture, the history, the clothes and just about everything about Rajasthan. It’s so colorful there and if you go to India, make sure you visit this amazing state and yes also eat their delicious food.
This gatte ki sabzi is one of the recipes that I often make when I don’t have any veggies left in my refrigerator. It’s amazing what all Indians do with chickpea flour or what we call besan in Hindi. We make so many things with it, like this kadhi and this ladoo and so much more that I haven’t even shared on my blog. This sabzi has 2 steps to it – making the gatte and then making the curry. It’s all really simple but does take some time.
The biggest problem one can have is that the gatte would turn out hard. Now it’s easy to fix this, just add yogurt and knead your gatta dough well and they won’t be hard anymore!
Gatte ki sabzi is really good with roti or rice, I especially enjoy it with plain rice. So next time when you are not sure which sabzi to cook for dinner, try this gatte ki sabzi. I am sure you will enjoy it as much we did! 🙂
Method
First make the gatte. In a bowl mix together besan, turmeric powder, red chili powder, ajwain, garam masala powder and coriander powder. Add oil, yogurt, salt and mix everything together.
Form a dough by mixing in everything together. If the dough isn’t coming together you can add little water. Also this will be sticky, so it’s a good idea to oil your hands before mixing this dough.
Once you have formed the dough, divide it into 4 equal parts and shape each part into a log.
Boil water in pan. Once it comes to a boil add the prepared rolls into it. Boil for around 15 minutes, or till knife inserted in the rolls comes out clean.
Take gatte out of water and cut them in 1/2 inch rounds.
Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a pan and pan fry the gatte for few minutes or till they start turning golden brown in color. Drain on kitchen towel and set aside. This step is optional – traditionally this is not done but I like doing it.
To the same pan, add 1 more tablespoon of oil and once oil is hot add cumin seeds and let them crackle. Meanwhile make a paste of the onion, ginger and garlic.
Add ginger garlic and onion paste next and cook till raw smell goes away completely, around 4-5 minutes.
Add spices – coriander powder, amchur, turmeric powder and garam masala along with 1-2 tablespoons of water (so that the spices don’t burn). Cook the spice for a minute or two. Also add the salt.
Now reduce the flame to low and add whisked yogurt. Keep whisking till the yogurt has totally mixed it. Once it has mixed well, increase the flame to medium. Adding room temperature yogurt at low heat prevents the yogurt from separating when you add it to the curry.
Add water, as required. I added around 2-3 cups and let it all come to a boil. At this point check the salt and spices and adjust accordingly. You can also add little sugar if the curry taste too sour to you.
Once the water comes to a boil, add the gatte to the curry and let it simmer at medium-low for 10 minutes. Add crushed kasuri methi and remove from heat.
Garnish with fresh cilantro and serve gatte ki sabzi immediately with rice or roti.
* The traditional method of making this curry does not involve pan-frying the gatte. It is usually only boiled and then added to the curry however I do it because I like it that way. You can skip this step if you want.
Gatte Ki Sabzi
Ingredients
For gatte
- 1 cup chickpea flour [besan]
- ¼ cup yogurt
- ¼ teaspoon red chili powder
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
- ¾ teaspoon coriander powder
- ½ teaspoon ajwain [carom seeds]
- ¼ teaspoon garam masala powder
- salt to taste
- 1-2 teaspoon vegetable oil
for curry
- 1 inch ginger
- 2-3 garlic cloves
- 2 medium onion
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 3/4 cup whisked yogurt at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1.25 teaspoon coriander powder
- ½ teaspoon garam masala powder
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1/4 teaspoon dried mango powder [amchur]
- 1 teaspoon sugar optional
- 1 teaspoon kasuri methi crushed [dried fenugreek leaves]
- water as required
- salt to taste
- cilantro to garnish
Instructions
Make the gatte
- First make the gatte. In a bowl mix together besan, turmeric powder, red chili powder, ajwain, garam masala powder and coriander powder. Add oil, yogurt, salt and mix everything together.
- Form a dough by mixing in everything together. If the dough isn't coming together you can add little water. Also this will be sticky, so it's a good idea to oil your hands before mixing this dough.
- Once you have formed the dough, divide it into 4 equal parts and shape each part into a log.
- Boil water in pan. Once it comes to a boil add the prepared rolls into it.
- Boil for around 15 minutes, or till knife inserted in the rolls comes out clean.
- Take gatte out of water and cut them in 1/2 inch rounds.
- Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a pan and pan fry the gatte for few minutes or till they start turning golden brown in color. Drain on kitchen towel and set aside. This step is optional - traditionally this is not done but I like doing it.
Make the curry
- To the same pan, add 1 more tablespoon of oil and once oil is hot add cumin seeds and let them crackle. Meanwhile make a paste of the onion, ginger and garlic.
- Add ginger garlic and onion paste next and cook till raw smell goes away completely, around 4-5 minutes.
- Add spices - coriander powder, amchur, turmeric powder and garam masala along with 1-2 tablespoons of water (so that the spices don't burn).
- Cook the spice for a minute or two. Also add the salt.
- Now reduce the flame to low and add whisked yogurt. Keep whisking till the yogurt has totally mixed it. Once it has mixed well, increase the flame to medium.
- Add water, as required. I added around 2-3 cups and let it all come to a boil. At this point check the salt and spices and adjust accordingly. You can also add little sugar if the curry taste too sour to you.
- Once the water comes to a boil, add the gatte to the curry and let it simmer at medium-low for 10 minutes.
- Add crushed kasuri methi and remove from heat.
- Garnish with fresh cilantro and serve gatte ki sabzi immediately with rice or roti.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Gatte Ki Sabzi
Hi! Manali i had tried the methi matar malai using your recipe and it turned out yummy 😋. Today i tried this gatte ki sabzi, the taste is good 😊but my gravy consistency became little thin by me.😔
for the “paste of the onion, ginger and garlic”, do we just grind the onion? Final product came out very bitter because of the ground onion. We are wondering what we missed
it just needed to be cooked for a longer time, also the onions are sometime too bitter. Try using yellow or white onions
Sat Sri Akal Manali
I need some advice. when i put the gatte in the boiling water it turned yellow and cloudy and became besan soup with no gatte. the water was a rapid boil and the gatte seemed to just melt into it. the dough was not sticky and rolled fine. any ideas on what i’m doing wrong would be appreciated.
Best Regards
WJKK WJKF
hmm looks like extra moisture in the gatte maybe?
Hi Manali, I have never really cooked much for the most part of my adult life, but lockdown got me looking for recipes I could rely on and yours is my number 1 go-to-page ! I have made this dish (and many others) and it turned out as if I have always made it all my life … Lol ? Thank you for being so detailed – it helps people like me who are just starting out. Many thanks !
Welcome Ritika, so glad to know!
I just finished making this. The gravy is tasty. The gatte was very firm and the spices were not complimentary. One of the worst things I’ve ever made and will not make again. It was one of the very few times my husband refused to eat something I made. Thank you for introducing us to something new though – we were hoping to like it!
sorry you did not like it, making nice gatte takes some practice, also gatte are not supposed to be melt in mouth – if you were looking for that consistency. And gatte ki sabzi has very different flavors that what non-Indians expect from Indian food so that could also be the reason that your husband didn’t eat it. Adding yogurt and working with soft hands definitely helps in softer gattas, anyway thanks for trying
I had something like this once in a restaurant without knowing what it was. I thought I had ordered malai kofta. The waiter told me it was made from chickpea. Every recipe I could find for Malai Kofta was from Aloo not Besan…. until I found the name of this dish, Gatte Ki Sabzi in someones comments of a recipe for Malai Kofta.
I’m making this recipe tonight! One question: is there any reason why I can’t make the Gatte into balls and boil like that instead of logs and then cutting them? I will make it per recipe directions but await comment on my idea.
Also instructions for Gatte seem to have duplicate entries. Steps 4 and 5 seem the same as 1 and 2.
I think you had Kadhi (which is made from besan/chickpeas flour also) https://www.cookwithmanali.com/punjabi-kadhi-pakora/
I doubt any restaurant in US would serve gatte ki sabzi, I would be very surprised if they did.
I forgot to add yoghurt in gatte mix.is it ok.
Hi there,
Do you think I can use Besan ( which is very fine ) instead of chickpea flour which is coarser ?
thanks 🙂
Hi Ritu, just use the regular besan that you would use to make kadhi, chila and stuff. Very fine besan won’t work well here.
It is! Thank you! 🙂
My family loves chickpea dumplings, but I was pretty sure I couldn’t replicate them at home. Can’t wait to give this recipe a try – yum!
Thank you Megan, hope your family likes them!
Thanks Cheyanne! I think you will like this!
Thanks Sarah!
This is why Indian food is my fave, healthy and INCREDIBLY delish. I think I will give this one a try, but, where does one find dried mango powder?!
Thanks Emma! You can find dried mango powder at Indian grocery store or even on amazon [http://www.amazon.com/Swad-Amchur-Powder-7-oz/dp/B00449PFJY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1452794739&sr=8-1&keywords=amchur] it basically adds tangy flavor, you can skip it as well 🙂
gravy looks royal…
Thanks Amrita!
Thank you Marcie!
haha so now go make it Shweta! yes I do the same, make this when I don’t have any veggies at home. Thanks for photo love! <3
Thank you Kelly, yes it’s so good with roti! 🙂
Thank you Connie, yeah that bowl is lovely isn’t it? Got it from India! 😀
Thank you Jen!
Thank you Angie!
Thank you Alice!
Thank you Harriet, I think you will love it!
Thank you Dannii! I love my traditional recipes too!
I have tasted Gatte ki sabzi in Jaipur and completely fell in love with it. Awesome dish that I somehow did not try making at home till date. Your pictures are so tempting and has reminded me of Rajasthani food. Will have to make this soon to satisfy the craving.
Thank you Uma, I am sure you will love it!
Look at the beautiful pot you served the sabzi.Love this sabzi a lot but there is no takers at home.So i simply prepared regular ones.
I love that pot too! 🙂