Puran Poli

Puran Poli is a Maharashtrian flat bread stuffed with a sweet lentil filling made from skinned spilt bengal gram/chana dal and jaggery. This is often made during festivals or occasions

Since I was born and brought up in Mumbai, during festivals like Ganesh chaturthi or Satyanarayana puja, this was often prepared by my neighbors and shared with us. You will also easily get this easily in sweet shops. As a child, I used to enjoy munching on this delectable puran poli . I still relish and love its taste

During this year’s Ganesh puja , I decided to make puran poli for my family and they really loved it. For me, it was like going back to memory lane

Do try out this dish and let me know how it turned out

Preparation time: 90 mins Cooking time: 30 mins Total time: 120 mins

Servings: 6

Ingredients

For Stuffing

• 3/4 cup chana dal/ skinned spilt bengal gram lentils
• 3/4 cup jaggery powder/grated
• 3 cups water
• 2 teaspoon ghee/ clarified butter
• 1 teaspoon fennel powder
• 3/4 teaspoon dry ginger powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cardamom powder
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg powder

For Poli/Outer covering

• 1 1/2 cups wheat flour
• 1/2 cup Maida/ all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• water as required
• 4 tbsp ghee
• 1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
• Oil/Ghee for shallow frying/drizzling

Steps to Prepare

• Clean and soak chana dal for 1 hour.

• Drain excess water and add to pressure cooker  

• Add water to cooker

• Pressure cook for 6-7 whistles until soft and done  

• Strain liquid of chana dal.

• The stock can be used for making amti or for kneading rotis. we will need chana dal for the recipe  

• Heat ghee in a pan  

• Add in all spice powders and mix well for few seconds without burning them  

• Add cooked chana dal

• Add jaggery  

• Mix well until well combined.  

• Cook over low heat stirring occasionally until mixture dries completely  

• Allow to cool completely, you can also mash the mixture well  

• While stuffing is cooling, prepare the covering. In a bowl, mix flours and salt. You can prepare this completely with wheat flour or mix of both flours as I have done  

• Add turmeric and ghee to flour mixture

• Add water little by little and knead into smooth dough . Cover and rest the dough aside for 20 minutes    

• Divide dough into equal portions, dust surface with flour

• Make small circle from dough balls .Place small amount of stuffing at center  

• Now seal the dough completely

• Roll ball into roti /circle 

• Drizzle ghee/oil and spread on hot tawa /pan/skillet 

• Place prepared poli on hot tawa and cook on both sides  

• Smear ghee on both sides, cook until brown spots appear and is golden  

• Serve puran poli at room temperature with amti/ghee or milk