Puran Poli with Moong bean

Puran Poli Recipe

Yields: 10 puran poli

Dough for poli:

Ingredients:

Whole wheat flour	1 cup (200 ml)
Ghee	1 tbsp (15 ml)
Salt (optional)	a pinch
Turmeric powder	1 tsp
Water required to knead the dough	1/2 cup (100 ml)

• Add whole wheat flour, salt & turmeric powder into a mixing bowl and mix them.
• Now melt ghee in a small pan, pour into the flour & mix well with fingertips.
• Gradually add water into the flour and knead into a soft dough for about 5-7 minutes.
• Grease the dough with little ghee & then keep it covered.

Sweet moong bean filling:

Ingredients:

Moong bean (whole green gram/pachai payaru)	1 cup
Jaggery powder	1 cup
Desiccated coconut	1/2 cup
Black sesame seeds	1 tbsp
Green Cardamom	2
Dried ginger	1″

How to cook whole green gram:

• Wash & soak 2 cups of whole greengram for 3 hours in hot water.
• Pressure cook them by adding water in the ratio of 1:2 (simmer for 7 minutes after reaching high pressure).
• Divide the cooked legumes into two portions and keep them separately for preparing the sweet & savoury fillings.

How to make filling for puran poli:

• Toast sesame seeds on the stove top until they begin to pop up.
• Blitz toasted sesame, cardamom, dried ginger & cooked moong for few seconds.
• Transfer to a plate and add desiccated coconut.
• Mix well & leave aside.
• Heat a heavy-bottom cooking pan with jaggery powder & water (1-2 tbsp) in medium flame.
• When the syrup begins to bubble up add the moong mixture and stir until combined.
• Remove the pan from heat.
• Now the filling for puran poli is ready.

How to prepare puran poli:

• Divide the dough into 10 amla-sized balls and the filling into 10 lemon-sized balls.
• Roll out thin poli (approx. 16-18 cm diameter) as shown in the gif below.
• Heat a griddle in medium flame.
• Cook both the sides of poli and then drizzle ghee on both the sides.
• Transfer it to a serving casserole.
• Similarly prepare puran poli using the remaining dough & filling.
• Serve hot puran poli as dessert with any meal.

Poli making tips:

Consistency of dough & filling: We can make perfect puran poli only when the dough & filling are at the right consistency. We can add ghee (or coconut oil) while kneading the dough for poli (for paratha I like to add olive oil) to make the dough super soft & pliable. It is also required to make the filling soft & smooth but not hard or squishy. If the filling turns hard we can sprinkle some hot water, or we can add some wheat flour if it is squishy. Ideally the dough & the filling have to be of almost same consistency.

Size of the dough & filling: I prefer to use the filling almost double the size of dough while making poli mainly to enjoy the sweet flavor. But for paratha we can use both the dough & filling of equal size or more.

Thickness of poli: It is unpalatable when we end up in making thick hard poli. Nevertheless it is tricky to make soft thin poli by stuffing a lemon-sized filling into an amla-sized dough. We need to roll the rolling pin without applying too much of pressure on the dough and at the same time we need to roll it out as large as possible. So we may have to dust the dough frequently to prevent it getting stuck to the surface. The diameter of my puran poli is about 18 cm (8″) but it is possible for a professional cook to roll the poli up to 20-22 cm (9″).