Dal Dhokli

This is traditional Gujarati dish. The beauty of this dish is that you can have three different tastes, sweet, savory, and spicy. It’s up to the maker to make one prominent as he/she pleases, as all three would taste equally good. I like mine spicy. From the culinary point of view, I think Dal Dhokli can be termed as wheat pasta in spicy thick lentil soup or it could be categorized as Gujarati Stew. Lentils have good protein, and it’s healthy because only place where oil is used is in tadka.

Ingredients:-
-- For Dal

• 1 cup Toor dal
• 1 Tomato, chopped
• 10-12 peanuts
• 3 Green Chilies, chopped
• 1 tbsp Tamarind Juice
• 1 tbsp Fresh Cilantro, chopped
• 2 tbsp Red Chili Powder
• 1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder
• 1 tbsp Dhania - Jeera powder
• 1 tbsp Jaggery
• 1 tsp Garam Masala
• 1-1/2 tbsp Lemon Juice
• 2 tbsp Coconut, grated
• 1/2 tsp Sesame Seeds
• Salt to taste

-- For Tadka

• 2 tbsp Oil
• 1/2 tsp Mustard Seeds
• 1/2 tsp Cumin Seeds
• 1/2 tsp Methi seeds/Fenugreek seeds
• 2-3 Red Chili, dry
• 5-6 Curry Leaves
• A pinch of Asafetida

-- For Dhokli

• 1 cup Wheat Flour
• 1/4 tsp Turmeric Powder
• 1/2 tsp Chili Powder
• 1/2 tsp Oil
• 1 tsp Salt
• Water for dough

Method:-
1. Wash toor dal, and cook it in pressure cooker with peanuts and tomato.

2. In the mean time, add wheat flour, salt, turmeric powder, red chili powder in a bowl and mix well. Add oil and knead the flour.

3. Wisk cooked dal lightly with 2 cups of water. Make sure that peanuts are intact. Add little more water if it’s too thick. Please keep in mind that it will become even more thick after the dhokli is added.

4. Heat oil in deep vessel. Add mustard seeds and cumin seeds. When they crackle, add methi seeds, curry leaves, asafetida, and red chili.

5. Add dal into the tadka. Add green chilies and tamarind juice. You can use Kokum instead of tamarind juice.

6. Also add jaggery, salt, red chili powder, dhania-jeera powder, turmeric, lemon juice, garam masala, and cilantro, coconut, seaseme seed. Let it get heated up.

7. Roll out very thin rotis of the dough. Cut it into 2 inch strips and then cut each strip into diamond shaped pieces.

8. When Dal is boiling, add all the diamond-shaped pieces to Dal one by one. Keep the flame high all the time so the Dal actively bubbling. This will prevent the dhoklis to stick to each other.

9. Boil Dal Dhokli on high flame for 4-5 minutes. You can add little water any time if too thick.

10. Serve bubbling HOT with lemon on side.

Enjoy...

This is my entry to Priti and Purva's Rakhi – Thread of Love event.