Holi, also known as the festival of colours, will be celebrated throughout India on March 21, 2019. This much-loved festival is an occasion where family and friends to get together for a day of celebration.  While Holi is known mostly for the gulals, colours and pichkaaris, food also plays a significant role. Gujjiyas, bhang and dahi bhallas are some of the delicacies prepared for Holi in North India. But in Maharashtrian households, Holi is incomplete without Puran Poli. Holika Dahan 2019 Date and Time: Know Shubh Muhurat and Puja Vidhi of Chhoti Holi.

Puran Poli is know by different names like paruppu poli in Tamil, holige or obbattu in Kannada and ubbati in Konkani. Every region has its way of preparing it. This festive dish is sweet and is circular like a parantha. Puran refers to the rich dal and jaggery stuffing and poli means roti.

It's usually made of white flour, stuffed with a chana-jaggery mixture, cooked in ghee and eaten with butter. Weight watchers, don't despair. You can enjoy puran poli on a healthy diet. Although Puran Poli is a high-calorie food, still you can always make it nutritious by switching white flour with whole wheat flour using ghee sparingly.

Healthy Benefits of Puran Poli

1. If puran poli is made with whole wheat flour, it provides vitamin B complex and certain minerals.

2. The dal used in this Indian dessert is a good source of protein. Combined with wheat flour, the protein from the dal will provide our body with essential amino acids, which are building blocks for protein.

3. Jaggery, an essential part of this dish, contains iron, calcium, potassium, phosphorus. It also aids in digestion, as jaggery breaks down and becomes alkaline in the digestive system.

Health Recipe for Puran Poli

Ingredients:

Wheat Flour 3 cups
Split Grams 1 ½ cups
Jaggery 1 ½ cups
Cardamom 10-11 nos
Salt ½ teaspoon
Ghee 2 tablespoon

  • Boil the dal with salt after soaking it for two-three hours.

  • Grind the dal into a paste after it’s soft and pliable.

  • Skin the cardamom and powder it.

  • Melt jaggery on low heat and strain.

  • Heat the dal paste again on low-medium flame.

  • Pour in molten jaggery.

  • Add cardamom powder.

  • Once the mixture is cooled, make laddoo-sized balls out of it.

  • Knead the wheat flour into a dough, adding some salt to the dough.

  • Now take a small portion, enough to make a chappati and roll it out.

  • Stuff it with the dal mixture and roll it out like a parantha.

  • Cook it on a tawa with a teaspoon of ghee.

  • Serve hot with butter.

Watch Healthy Wheat Puran Poli Recipe

Please note that while puran poli is a calorific dish, a small portion of any sweet dish will not make you fat, just like how one workout session will not help you help you lose weight. So go ahead and enjoy this healthy puran poli this Holi.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 20, 2019 05:25 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).