MOONG DAL DHOKLA

I grew up in a set up where I didn’t have any Gujarati friends. Those were the times where most households were only exposed to their traditional cuisine. So dhokla had a very late entry in my life and it was from a bakery near my house called Vijay Bakery. I loved the dhokla from there.Since then I have had many from other places but nothing tasted quite so yum.

Once I started cooking myself, I also experimented with many recipes but never quite nailed it. So for now at least I think making khaman dhokla which uses besan or ground channa dal is not my cup of tea.

But there is a recipe my mother picked up from either a Malayalam food program or a Malayalam magazine which I really love now. She has made it at least five or six times over the last two years and I thought I should post it here.

Moong dal is known for being very light on the stomach and is the choice food for anyone who is ailing or has digestive disorders, in fact, in some households it is only seen as something to be used if someone is ill in the house. However, it is should be included in our regular diets as it has so many benefits, in fact it is a darling of all Ayurvedic practitioners…they prescribe it to almost everyone.

Now let’s get into the recipe of this simple, easy and flavoursome moong dal dhokla.

Ingredients

1 cup moong dal,

2 tsps besan,

1 tsp curds,

A pinch of asafoetida or hing,

Salt to taste,

3-5 green chillies or to taste,

A pinch of soda bi carb,

1 tbsp oil,

1 tsp mustard seeds,

1 tsp sesame seeds (I didn’t use this),

A few curry leaves

Method

Wash and soak the moong dal for about 2 hours. Drain and grind this into a not-so-fine paste along with three green chillies. Use just about half a cup of water while grinding.

Add the besan, curds, salt, hing to the batter and mix well. Lastly mix in the pinch of soda bi carb.

Grease a flat steamer dish with a little oil and pour in the batter. Steam this in a steamer for about 10-15 minutes.

Remove from the steamer and let cool for sometime. Cut into cubes.

Heat the oil and add the mustard seeds, sesame seeds, curry leaves and halved green chillies. Once the seeds splutter pour over the steamed cubes.