Chana Dal Ki Bharwan Namkeen Poori - Kali Mirch

This week we decided to head back to North Indian cuisine and explore something from kitchen of Uttar Pradesh. The motivation behind this exploration is my MIL. She has come to stay with us this month. So we decided to leverage this opportunity and prepare some authentic recipes from Rasois (kitchen) of UP and since Paranthas and pooris are my favorite part, I thought it would be more apt for us to try some stuffed paranthas.

My MIL has got some delicious paranthas in her repertoire that she is very passionate about. She exhibits great exuberance and thrill while making these recipes and shares them with everyone with overwhelming joy. We had already made Urad Dal ki Khasta Kachori with her in our kitchen, so we tried Chana Dal ki Bharwan Namkeen Poori this time.

Chana Dal or split Bengal gram is one of the most commonly available lentils in India along with several other lentils like yellow, green, red and black. India is one of the top lentil producing nations in the world and primarily, being a vegetarian country we are also the top consumer of these lentils. Lentils are a rich source of proteins and carbohydrates with no saturated fats. They are rich in fiber, vitamins and minerals. Folks who like to keep a strict watch on their weight or who are suffering from diabetes like to observe what is known as “Glycemic Index” of a food item. This is an index that associates a rank on the scale of 0 to 100 to food items, based upon how they affect our blood glucose (sugar) level. So food that has high GI (score >70)causes a rise in blood sugar level, whereas low GI food should be preferred due to their slow release of energy. You can find more about the GI of different food items from this link http://www.glycemicindex.com/index.php

Chana Dal seems to be phenomenally low on GI and should be a must have lentil if you are looking to keep your sugar level in check.

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Chana Dal Ki Bharwan Namkeen Poori

Rating 5.0 from 1 reviews

Prep time: 12 hours

Cook time: 45 mins

Total time: 12 hours 45 mins

Serves: 4-5

Ingredients

250 grams split bengal gram (chana dal) soaked overnight or for minimum 6 hours
500 grams wheat flour
7-8 green chilies
8-10 cloves of garlic
1 cup fresh coriander
1 tsp turmeric powder
1½ tsp roasted cumin seeds
1 tsp fenugreek seeds
½ tsp asafoetida powder
Cooking Oil
Salt

Instructions

Knead wheat flour in to a soft dough.It should be softer than roti dough.
After the soft dough is ready, wrap it into a damp muslin cloth and set it aside for an hour.
Heat 3 tbsp oil in a large pan (kadai). Add fenugreek seeds and fry them till they become light brown.
Now add asafoetida powder and turmeric powder and fry them for few seconds.
Add soaked chana dal and fry them until they become light brown.
Chana Dal becomes light brown in about 6 minutes on low flame.
Now add salt as per taste. Add water to cover the level of chana dal and cook it covered until it gets cooked completely.
Make a coarse paste of green chilies and garlic using 1 tsp water.
Chana Dal gets completely cooked in 10 minutes. Get rid of excess water by cooking on a high flame.
When water gets evaporated, turn off the flame. Let the chana dal cool down.
Grind chana dal into a fine paste.Note: Do not use water while grinding.
Add roasted cumin seeds,green paste and chopped coriander and mix them all well.Tip:If you feel the mixture is too dry, add 1-2 tbsp of water to make it little moist.
Take a small portion of dough and roll it into a log. Cut the log into equal size balls.
Take one ball and roll it using a rolling pin into 4-5 inches diameter round.Place the mixture at the centre and roll the edges towards the centre and join them together to form a stuffed ball.
Dust the ball with some flour and roll the ball into 7-8 inches rounds using a rolling pin.
Now place the poori/parantha on hot griddle(tawa).
When the color of upper surface changes, it indicates that under surface is half cooked. Now flip over to change sides.
Apply some oil on the upper surface.
Flip over and apply oil on other side.
Change the sides of Poori/Parantha couple of times.
Chana Dal ki BharwaPoori is ready.Poori can be best relished with Pumpkin vegetable.

This preparation of Bharwan (stuffed) Poori (you may also call it as parantha) is very healthy too. Chana dal is soaked overnight and then pressure cooked. It is then grinded into a finer paste and mixed with some spices to form the chana dal stuff. We make use of very little oil to grease the paranthas on both sides. If you are on some kind of strict diet that does not allow even small quantity of oil, you may choose to skip applying oil on the parantha. This parantha is relished with some veg gravies; however the best combination recipe would be pumpkin vegetable. In UP, the combination of poori and kaddu ki sabzi (pumpkin vegetable) is a kind of inseparable. You get these combination recipes on streets of cities in UP. My MIL tells me she still craves for the poori-kaddu ki sabzi that she had tasted on food stalls at Holy ghats of Vindyachal.