Mango, king of fruits, season is in full swing!! Who doesn’t like the sweet, luscious taste of mangoes? When I heard about this Gujarati Fajeto Recipe from a dear friend, I just had to try it out. Also known as Mango Kadhi, aam ras kadhi or Fajeto, it is a Gujarati dish made with a combination of ripe mango pulp, yogurt, chickpea flour and a few selected spices. It is eaten specially with aamras and puri, but you can also serve it with steamed rice and phulkas.
In the beginning, I was very skeptical on how the sweet taste of Mango goes with the tanginess of the kadhi, but I can assure you, the outcome is a delight to eat. We thoroughly enjoyed Mango Kadhi. If you like sweet and sour taste in your food, then this is for you….go for it!!
Gujarat is famous for its “sweet” food and people usually know only about Khakharas, Fafda Theplas and Dhokla. But this Gujarati Fajeto Recipe is not known as much amongst people from states except Gujarat. Usually during summer the Gujarati diet makes extensive use of mangoes in most of their recipes before the season ends. Fajeto Recipe initially started as a simple way to use up all the mango pulp that was left in the peels and seeds of mangoes when preparing aamras (mango pulp). This made me inquisitive to know more about the recipe and thanks to google!!
Summer is the season for mangoes and aamras (mango pulp) is made for meals often. To make that quantity of pulp, you are left with a lot of seeds and peels. Women would soak them in water to get most of the pulp out and then use that water to prepare aamras ki kadhi (mango kadhi or Fajeto). When a woman wants to put across a message to her family, that she has made a judicious use of mangoes, she makes Fajeto.
It is amazing that a humble beginning of this recipe led to people making ras specially to make fajeto. The mango adds a distinct flavour to the kadhi, but don’t worry, it does not make the dish extremely sweet. Probably the sourness from the yogurt balances the sweetness. Though Gujaratis are famous for having sweet food, this dish takes sweetness to a different level altogether. But trust me, it tastes awesome, especially with steamed rice. In fact, I had it immediately as a soup and loved it. The first thing I could relate Gujarati Fajeto Recipe was to the South Indian morkuzhambu, so I would like to name it mango morkuzhambu or mango rasam.
I usually love the mild sweetness in the dishes that comes from adding some sugar or jaggery. In this cuisine especially, it is said that it is used to balance the slight bitter taste that comes from the hard water in some parts of Gujarat.
This would be a great addition to summer parties, you could easily prepare Mango Kadhi and serve it to your guests to bring in some variety on the table. Do try this yummy Gujarati Fajeto Recipe this mango season as they are available in abundance these days. I have followed the recipe to T as suggested by my friend, but feel free to make any variations as per your choice or as suggested in my notes.
Off to Gujarati Fajeto Recipe!!
Step-by-Step process to make Gujarati Fajeto Recipe:
- In a medium sized bowl, add mango pulp, yoghurt and chickpea flour.
NOTE: You can used fresh mango pulp or canned mango pulp (sweetened). Will share the recipe for aamras (mango pulp) soon!!
- Whisk all the ingredients to a smooth mixture adding required water. There should not be any lumps.
- Heat ghee (or oil) in a pan over medium heat. Add cumin seeds, cloves and dry red chilli.
- Once the cumin seeds start to turn brown, add curry leaves and asafoetida.
- As the curry leaves splutter, pour in the mango pulp mixture.
- To this add red chilli powder, dry ginger powder and required salt. You may add turmeric if you wish to.
- Mix well and allow it to boil over medium heat for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring in between to avoid any lumps formation.
- Optionally you can add sugar or jaggery to suit your taste. But this will make the kadhi even sweeter, so it’s purely your choice.
- Check the consistency of kadhi and you may add more water if the kadhi is too thick.
- Turn off the heat when the consistency of the kadhi is thick enough and when the raw smell of the ingredients disappear, especially chickpea flour.
- Garnish with coriander just before serving.
Gujarati Fajeto Recipe | Ripe Mango Kadhi | Indian Mango Curry | Gujarati Cuisine
Ingredients
- 1 Cup Mango pulp sweetened, fresh or canned
- ½ Cup Yogurt
- 2 Tablespoons Chickpea Flour besan
- For Tempering:
- 1 Tablespoon Ghee Clarified butter
- 1 teaspoon Cumin seeds
- 3 to 4 Cloves
- 1 Dry red chilli broken into two halves
- Few Curry leaves
- A generous pinch of ground asafoetida
- 1/2 teaspoon Red chilli powder
- 1 teaspoon Dry ginger powder Soonth
- ½ teaspoon of sugar or jaggery optional
- Salt and Water as required
- 2 Tablespoons finely chopped coriander for garnish
Instructions
- In a medium sized bowl, add mango pulp, yoghurt and chickpea flour.
- Whisk all the ingredients to a smooth mixture adding required water. There should not be any lumps.
- Heat ghee in a pan over medium heat. Add cumin seeds, cloves and dry red chilli.
- Once the cumin seeds start to turn brown, add curry leaves and asafoetida.
- Immediately pour in the mango pulp mixture.
- To this add red chilli powder, ginger powder and required salt.
- Mix well and allow it to boil for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring in between to avoid any lumps formation.
- Check the consistency of kadhi and you may add more water if the kadhi is too thick.
- Turn off the heat when the consistency of the kadhi is thick enough and when the raw smell of the ingredients disappear.
- Garnish with coriander just before serving.
Notes
2. Proportions of mango pulp and yoghurt can vary.
3. You can also use buttermilk instead of yoghurt and adjust water accordingly.
4. Adjust sweetness and consistency to your preference.
5. If you do not like your kadhi too sweet, you can include a little raw mango pulp to make it a little sour and balance the sweetness.
6. Another variation could be to substitute red chilli powder with ginger and green chilli paste. In this case avoid dry ginger powder.
7. You may substitute ghee with oil, but traditionally recipe calls for ghee.
This recipe is a part of the blog hop theme for this month “Gujarati Cuisine“ and also one of the recipes in my upcoming post on “Gujarati Summer Thali“.
So friends, do come back to check out the awesome spread from this cuisine.
Check out other Gujarati recipes from the culinary hoppers team:
- Poornima’s – Khandvi
- Piyali’s – Surti Locho recipe
- Shubha’s – Dal dhokli
- Anu’s – Cabbage muthia
- Shobana’s – Trevti dal
- Parvathy’s – Muthyias
- Vani’s – Sukhadi
- Jaya’s –Methi khakra & Mamra na ladoo
Many more to come!!…..STAY TUNED!!
Happy Cooking 🙂
Cheers!!
Padma.
