Puran Poli is Maharashtrian stuffed sweet flat bread (or paratha) prepared using gram dal (chana dal) and jaggery. Chana dal and jaggery (gud) are main ingredients of Puran Poli recipe.
We prepare Puran or Pooran Poli at home especially on festivals like Holi, Gudi Padwa, Ganesh Chathurthi and many more. On these auspicious days, most Maharashtrians prepare Pooran Poli at home or at least buy it from outside to celebrate festivals if they can’t prepare one at home. On the occasion of Holi, Puran Poli is offered as naivaidya (offering) to Holi.
About Puran Poli
Puran Poli is Southern Indian recipe. It is mainly prepared in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andra Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The name of the recipe differs as per the state’s regional languages. In Maharashtra it is known as Puran Poli (पुरण पोळी) whereas in –
- Gujarat – Puran Puri (પુરણ પુરી)
- Andra Pradesh – Bobbattu (బొబ్బట్టు)
- Karnataka – Obbattu (ಒಬ್ಬಟ್ಟು) or Holige (ಹೋಳಿಗೆ)
- Kerala – Payasabolli (പായസബൊല്ലി)
- Tamilnadu – Paruppu poli (பருப்பு போளி)
Puran Poli is prepared from chana dal, jaggery (or sugar), wheat flour, cardamom and nutmeg powder, ghee or oil. Cooking method and ingredients of Pooran Poli slightly differ from region to region. In some regions pigeon lentils (toor dal) or moth beans (pesara pappu or moong beans) are used too. Some regions use turmeric powder in making puran poli to give yellowish shade and some regions don’t. So depending on where you are, you may get a different version of puran poli with a different taste.
Tips for perfect and mouth melting, light textured puran poli
I have a slight variation to traditional Pooran Poli recipe. The recipe in this blog is how my mom prepares it and with this variation the texture and looks of Pooran poli turns out amazing.
I haven’t used ghee or oil for baking pooran poli in this recipe, because Pooran Poli looks really nice when prepared in this way. Bake or roast pooran poli without applying ghee and serve ghee later with pooran poli.
Pooran poli cooked by applying oil is known as Tel Poli in Marathi (means oil applied pooran poli).
Making Puran Poli at home – is it a tough job?
Do you think it is a tough job to prepare Puran Poli at home? Here are some points to help you understand how easy it is to cook puran stuffed poli at home.
Preparing pooran poli is a skill. And I heard it from my elderly many a times that if you know to cook perfect puran poli that means you know cooking 😄 .
If you take care of all the below points, then making a perfect puran poli is not a tough job at all. So, follow this blog to cook perfect light and soft, mouth melting puran poli recipe at home. If you achieve below qualities, then you will surely receive appreciation and love from your loved once.
- Right quantity and right choice of ingredients
- Mouth-melting texture
- Nice spots on puran poli
- Light textured to handle
- And lastly spread Puran stuffing till all edges
Preparing Pooran Poli is not tough but it is time quite consuming though. Because many food items are served with Pooran Poli which requires some preparation and patience. This is what makes people to think making obbattu or holige or pooran poli a tough job.
Preparing other items with Puran Poli makes you a bit tired but it’s worth. Because ultimately you enjoy food at the end. However, if you prepare puran poli alone then definitely making this recipe is a very easy job.
Pressure Cooker method to prepare Puran Mixture
There is one more reason which makes many of us to think preparing puran poli recipe is tough. Puran is traditionally prepared using a puran making machine which makes making puran poli a tedious job for many of us.
However, in this blog I have explained a very simple way of preparing pooran poli recipe, i.e. using a pressure cooker. We can prepare puran by using masher or we can use grinder to prepare mixture which makes it easier to cook puran stuffed poli or roti at home.
Food items served with Pooran Poli in Maharashtra
I have listed many food items below which are served with this recipe in Maharashtra.
- Lemon
- Katachi Amti
- Batata Bhaji (Boiled Potato Veggie)
- Koshimbir (Raita)
- Varan bhat (Plain Dal Rice)
- Panchamrut (Kind of chutney with many flavours in it)
Because there are so many items which can be served with it, Puran Poli is generally served in big thali or on a banana leaf. Generally, at my home we prefer to serve festive food in Banana Leaf because these are the times to enjoy delicious food in a healthier way.
Banana leaf has lot of health benefits which I will try to share in some of my upcoming blogs. Food served in banana leaves really tastes best and you must try that once. Serve super hot food in banana leaf and taste the difference between normal thali food and banana leaf served food. And I am sure you will fall in love to eat food served on Banana Leaves.
I have prepared and recorded all of the food items you see served on this banana leaf (pic below👇). I will share all these recipes very soon with you. Recording all these recipes took approximately 6 to 8 hours and I recorded (for YouTube) all these on same day.
Shelf Life of Puran Poli?
Once Puran or Pooran poli is cooked it can be kept outside for 2 to 3 days if temperature is normal (not very warm). Pooran poli can stay longer for 5-6 days, if we keep it in fridge. In hot summer days, it is better to store it in fridge.
Puran mixture can stay in fridge for up to 1 week. So, once we have Pooran mixture cooked, we can store in fridge and enjoy freshly rolled and cooked Puran Poli any time at home. I love eating leftover Puran Poli as well with some lemon pickle and ghee which is a really amazing combination in case you end up having leftover Pooran Polis.
I always mention in my blogs that I prefer freshly prepared food instead of having any leftover food. On rare cases if I have some food leftover, then it’s good to cook recipes using that to avoid wastage of food. You can visit FoodQuench’s recipe page, if you are looking for any leftover food recipes – leftover chole recipe, leftover pav bhaji recipe and leftover roti recipes.
Prefer to watch videos? You can watch Puran Poli recipe on FoodQuench’s YouTube Channel too.
Puran Poli – A recipe using pressure cooker
Description
This Maharashtrian Puran Poli a delicious sweet flat bread or paratha which tastes amazing and it is a vegan suitable recipe too.
Ingredients for Maharashtrian Puran Poli Recipe
Ingredients for Puran Stuffing
Ingredients for Puran Poli Dough
Step by Step method - How to cook Puran Poli Recipe
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Prepare Dough
First step to prepare puran poli is preparing dough because dough should be rested well for nice textured puran poli. So first add below ingredients to a mixing bowl.
- Plain Flour
- Rice Flour
- Salt
- Oil
Add 3 tbsp oil to flour and remaining 1 tbsp oil apply on dough once kneaded. -
Knead Dough
Knead dough well and later apply remaining 1 tbsp oil on the dough. Then keep dough covered for at least 2 hours.
Using enough oil, rice flour and resting dough for few hours is important for light and mouth melting textured puran poli. -
Boil Chana Dal for Puran Poli
Transfer chana (gram) dal to cooker and wash well until water is clear.
Once water is clear, add water to cooker and pressure cook dal for 6 whistles.
I have added 3.5 cups of water to dal because when dal is boiled and strained, remaining dal cooked water can be used for another tasty recipe (Katachi Amti). -
Check Dal's softness
After pressure cooker is settled down, check dal has become soft or not.
1 - Dal cooking time and number of whistles vary depends on the dal and water quality. Pressure cook for more whistles if dal is not soft. 2 - With this pressure cooking method, we don't need traditional puran making machine. However, we can grind puran mixture in grinder for very soft and smooth puran. -
Strain Dal
Place a vessel and strainer on top of it. Transfer dal to strainer. Let water completely drain out from dal and then use dal to cook puran.
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Dal cooked water
This dal cooked water is separated from chana dal. This can be used to make Saar recipe which is known as Katachi Amti in Marathi. It tastes amazing with Puran Poli.
I will share recipe of Katachi Amti on FoodQuench's blogs. Stay tuned for recipe updates. -
Add ingredients to boiled dal
Now transfer strained dal to the same pressure cooker. Then add sugar, jaggery to boiled chana dal. Now allow jaggery and sugar to melt on medium flame.
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Stir often
While allowing jaggery to melt, keep stirring with spoon often which helps to melt ingredients quicker and puran will not burn.
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After ingredients melt
When sugar and jaggery are melted and mixture started to thicken add few pinches of orange food colour to the puran.
Adding food colour is completely optional. -
Adding flavours to Puran or Pooran Poli
Now add nutmeg powder and cardamom powder to the puran and give it a mix. And cook puran until it thickens. Make sure to stir often, puran can burn otherwise.
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Way 1 - Mash Puran Mixture with Masher
Mash puran mixture with masher to make soft puran. This technique works if we don't have a grinder or traditional puran making machine.
Texture of puran won't be very soft with masher. However, it's manageable if sometime we don't have grinder or if grinder accidentally stopped working (unavoidable emergencies 😜 ). You can use grinder too if you have one and it gives very soft textured puran. -
Puran ready
Puran mixture is thickened well. So, turn off flame and let it cool down a bit if you want it to grind.
1 - It's absolutely fine to use this textured puran if you don't want to grind but ensure it to cool down completely. However, grinding this mixture gives you very soft puran. 2 - If you prefer to grind this mixture, make sure puran is cooled down a bit (little warm). Because grinding hot food creates pressure in grinding jars and spills out ingredients. -
Way 2 - Grind
Grind puran in batches. Add 1/2 tbsp water to puran mixture if you think it's very thick or dry.
Adding water while grinding puran is not necessary, you can decide on the puran mixture consistency. -
Puran Mixture Ready
Super soft puran poli mixture is ready and that too without hassle of using puran making machine.
Divide puran into medium or small sized portions as you prefer.
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Divide Puran Poli Dough
Now divide puran poli dough into medium or small sized portions as per the puran mixture ball size you prepared.
Make sure to wash hands before you touch the dough to maintain dough colour. -
Dough Portion
Apply some dry plain flour and rotate dough portion with finger like we do for preparing modak recipe. If you are not comfortable rotating dough with fingers, roll it out with rolling pin to a small puri sized shape.
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Stuff Puran Mixture
In small rotated and round dough portion, place the puran mixture ball. Rotate dough and puran mixture with fingers. Make sure puran mixture is well fitted in the dough portion. Remove extra dough portion which generally comes on top side.
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Roll out Puran Poli
Use dry flour and roll out puran poli to thin or medium thickness as you like.
I have rolled out puran poli very thin because this is how it's liked in my home. If you roll it out to medium thickness then puran poli will rise well like puri. -
Bake Puran Poli
Heat a tawa (pan) and place puran on it. On medium-high flame cook on one side and when cooked turn side.
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Nice Puran Poli Ready
After you turn the side of puran poli, we can see nice spots. Let puran poli cook from bottom side too and take it out.
Prepare all other puran poli in similar way. You can apply ghee on puran poli while roasting it, if you like. However, I do prefer preparing puran poli without applying ghee because looks of Puran Poli can be maintained.
And another reason is vegans can also enjoy Puran Poli if ghee is not applied while cooking.
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Serving Time
Serve Puran Poli with ghee. Don't miss to serve with ghee to enjoy every bite of delicious Puran Poli.
