Dal dhokli is a one-dish meal made by simmering diamond-shaped wheat dumplings in a simple dal. It is like eating a voluptuously flavorful, wildly aromatic Indian pasta dish for dinner.
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A differently delicious and unique Indian dal
Dal dhokli (pronounced dhok-lee) is a simple tomato dal from Gujarat with one unique addition: flat wheat dumplings that are tossed into the dal. The dumplings soak in the sweet, spicy, tangy flavors and plump up even as the dal becomes thick and creamy - the perfect sauce for those tasty dumplings.
It might not be immediately obvious to someone only casually acquainted with Indian cuisine, but noodles and pasta have long been part of the country's complex food landscape.
I am not talking about more recent fusion recipes like masala pasta and masala macaroni served up by street vendors, quick-spiced ramen noodles cooked up by busy moms and dads as a lunchbox staple, or even the many Indo-Chinese dishes that Indians have long enjoyed, like hakka noodles.
No, these traditional dishes have been firmly embedded in regional Indian cuisines for centuries. And while some likely carry influences of invaders, colonizers and traders who arrived in the land centuries ago, their flavors and essence remain unequivocally Indian.
A food trek across India might lead to such delightful discoveries as Kerala's idiyappam, hand-pressed rice noodles eaten with a spicy stew; Konkani sutole or shevai, string-like rice and coconut noodles; suthriyan, a Tamil Muslim pasta of broad, flat wheat noodles dunked in a mutton curry; Ladakhi thukpa, a noodle soup with meat or vegetables; and Sindhi macrolyun patata, a sauté of macaroni with potatoes.
In Gujarat and Rajasthan, states that abut each other in western India and enjoy a robust mingling of their delicious cuisines, you'd find a hearty, nourishing and protein-rich pasta and lentil dish called dal dhokli.
There are two primary steps to making a dal dhokli:
- Making the dhokli or the pasta or the dumplings. This is similar to making roti and then cutting it with a pizza cutter or knife into little diamond shapes.
- Making the dal, which is a very basic dal, as Indian dals go, with a handful of spices and ingredients.
The whole process is far simpler than it sounds, and it goes by quickly. The dal is so delicious, you will no doubt return to this recipe again and again. Try it today for a differently delicious experience!
What a splendid n satisfying meal this was! I had always wanted to make something like this with dumplings, and this came out perfectly - not too spicy or sweet!...the dumplings were cooked just right.
-Aparna
Recipe card
Dal Dhokli Recipe
Ingredients
For dhokli
- 1 cup whole wheat flour (if available, use atta or the Indian durum wheat flour used to make roti)
- ¼ cup besan (chickpea flour)
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne (or any red chilli powder)
- ½ teaspoon carom seeds (ajwain)
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- Salt to taste
- 1 tablespoon oil (use any neutral-flavored oil)
For tadka (tempering)
- 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
- ¼ teaspoon asafetida (hing)
- 2 sprigs curry leaves
- 1 tablespoon ginger (grated)
- 1 jalapeno pepper (or serrano pepper, minced)
- 2 large tomatoes (finely chopped)
- 1 tablespoon ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon cayenne (or any red chilli powder. Tweak to your tolerance for heat)
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric
Other ingredients
- 3 cups water
- 1 tablespoon jaggery (or sugar)
- 2 tablespoons cilantro (chopped)
- Salt to taste
Instructions
Make dhokli
- Place the dhokli ingredients in a bowl- whole wheat flour, chickpea flour, cayenne, turmeric, ground cumin, carom seeds (ajwain) and salt. Whisk to mix.
- Drizzle on the oil and use your fingers to rub the oil into the dough, like you would if you were making shortcrust pastry.
- Gently drizzle in water, a little bit at a time, and knead until a stiff dough forms. This is really important. A softer dough will yield sticky dhokli that clump together in the dal. Shape the dough into a ball. Cover the bowl and let the dough relax 30 minutes.
- After the dough has rested, divide it into three equal-sized balls. Flatten one of the balls and dust it and the surface liberally with flour. Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough into a 9-inch roti.
- Use a knife or pizza cutter to cut 1-inch diamond shapes or squares. Place the dumplings in a bowl and set them aside.
Make the dal
- Place the toor dal in a saucepan or pressure cooker. Add ¼ teaspoon turmeric and enough water to cover by an inch. Pressure cook for three whistles or cook for 20-30 minutes until the dal is very, very soft. Whisk the dal to puree it. Set aside.
Make tadka
- Heat oil in a pot or Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add mustard seeds and when they crackle, add asafetida, curry leaves, chopped green chili peppers, fenugreek seeds and ginger. Lower heat to medium and sauté for a minute.
- Add the tomatoes, mix, then add ground cumin, ground coriander, turmeric and cayenne. Mix, cover, and lower heat to medium-low.
- Let the tomatoes cook until they are a bit soft but not completely pulpy. You want some of the sweetness of the tomatoes to remain intact.
Make dal dhokli
- Add the cooked and pureed dal along with three cups water to the tomatoes. Stir in the jaggery. Bring the dal to a boil and add salt to taste. Cover the dal and let it simmer 10 minutes.
- One by one, add the dhokli into the dal. Don't dump them in all at once because they will stick together. Use a ladle to gently stir them in.
- Bring the dal back to a boil, cover and simmer for 15 more minutes. Stir gently a few times in between. Turn off the heat, garnish the dal dhokli with cilantro, and serve hot.
Nutrition Information
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My 5 top rules for perfect dal dhokli
- Use toor dal or tuvar dal (also called arhar dal, yellow lentils or split pigeon peas). Toor dal is the most versatile of all lentils used in Indian cuisine, which is the reason you'll find it used in most dals. It cooks up creamy and soft and you can easily whisk it into a puree. That's the texture you want for the dal dhokli.
- Add a bit of chickpea flour to the dumplings. This bumps up both the flavor and the nutritive value of the dal.
- Sweeten the pot. Jaggery, an unrefined Indian sugar, is added to dal dhokli to balance out the spicy and tangy flavors. This is a trick used in many Gujarati and Maharashtrian dishes, and so long as you don't overdo it, you won't taste the sugar in the dal. Just the pure deliciousness.
- Make the dal soupy. If the dal isn't watery enough the dumplings won't have anything to drink up and simmer in. The flour in the dumplings will also help thicken the dal up.
- Knead the dhokli dough stiff. A stiff dough will yield dhokli that won't clump together and will remain separate as they simmer in the dal.
How to make dal dhokli
1. Make the dhokli
Place the dhokli ingredients in a bowl: whole wheat flour, chickpea flour, cayenne, turmeric, carom seeds (ajwain) and salt. Whisk to mix.
Drizzle on the oil and use your fingers to rub the oil into the dough, like you would if you were making shortcrust pastry.
Gently drizzle in a little water at a time until a stiff dough forms. This is really important. A soft dough will yield sticky dhokli that clump together in the dal. Shape the dough into a ball. Cover the bowl and let the dough relax 30 minutes.
Divide the dough into three equal-sized pieces and roll them into balls.
Flatten a ball of the dough and dust it and the surface liberally with flour. Using a stiff dough and enough flour will ensure the dhokli don't stick together.
Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough into a 9-inch roti.
Use a knife or pizza cutter to cut 1-inch diamond shapes or squares. Some cooks create round dumplings by cutting the flour with a tiny cookie cutter or a bottle cap and making an indentation in the center with the thumb. Yet others break off little pieces of dough and form them into discs. I find the method I used above the quickest.
Place the cut dumplings in a bowl and set them aside. You can dust them with just a tiny bit of flour, if you like, to keep them from sticking, the way you would if you were making fresh pasta.
2. Make the dal
Do this while the dough for the dumpling is resting and before you roll out the dough and cut the dhokli.
Rinse the toor dal and place in a saucepan or pressure cooker. Add ¼ teaspoon turmeric and enough water to cover by an inch. Pressure cook for three whistles or cook for 20-30 minutes until the dal is very, very soft.
Whisk the dal to puree it. Set aside.
Heat oil in a pot or Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add mustard seeds and when they crackle, add asafetida, curry leaves, chopped green chili peppers, fenugreek seeds and ginger. Lower heat to medium and sauté for a minute.
Add the tomatoes, mix, then add ground cumin, ground coriander, ¼ teaspoon turmeric and cayenne. Mix, cover, and lower heat to medium-low.
Let the tomatoes cook until they are soft but not completely broken down into a pulp. This will retain the sweetness of the tomatoes.
Add the cooked and pureed dal along with three cups water. Stir in the jaggery. Bring the dal to a boil and add salt to taste. Cover the dal and let it simmer 10 minutes.
3. Add dhokli to the dal
One by one, add the dhokli into the dal. Don't dump them in all at once because they will stick together. Use a ladle to gently stir them in.
Bring the dal back to a boil, cover and simmer for 15 more minutes. Stir gently a few times in between. Turn off the heat, garnish the dal dhokli with cilantro, and serve hot.
Variations
- Sauté a handful of peanuts with the curry leaves and ginger, or add them to the toor dal when you cook it. Many Gujarati recipes include peanuts but I didn't add them because I wanted to keep this recipe nut-free.
- For more spice, stir in a teaspoon of garam masala before adding the dhokli to the pot.
Serve
The best way to eat dal dhokli is to slurp it right out of the bowl with a spoon. In Gujarat you might add a drizzle of ghee but the dal is so flavorful, you don't need the ghee.
You can also serve dal dhokli with Indian pickles, like this lime pickle, and poppadum. A vegetable side is not necessary but if you want one, serve a dry curry like cauliflower sabzi.
Dal dhokli FAQs
Toor dal is key to the wonderful flavor and creamy texture of this dish. At a pinch, use pink lentils or masoor dal, but the texture will change. You can also use a mix of toor dal and moong dal, the way I do in my Dal Palak recipe.
You can make the dal and the dhokli dough up to two days ahead. Reheat the dal, roll out, cut and add the dhokli, and cook before serving. Don't store cut dhokli because they will stick to each other.
Add a cup of finely chopped vegetables to the pot along with the tomatoes. Use a cup of either chopped green beans, carrots or zucchini, or green peas.
Store the dal dhokli in the fridge for up to four days. The dal will thicken further as it stands. To reheat, place in a saucepan on the stove, add a bit of water, and turn the stove to low heat. As the dal heats up, use a spatula or ladle to gently stir the dhokli and separate them.
More dal recipes
This dal dhokli is part of my occasional series on India's regional dals. You might also enjoy these recipes for Sindhi sai bhaji, Konkani dalitoy and Parsi dhansak.
Aparna says
What a splendid n satisfying meal this was! I had always wanted to make something like this with dumplings, and this came out perfectly - not too spicy or sweet!...the dumplings were cooked just right. Vaishali, thank you for sharing these simple, yet yummy recipes!
Vaishali says
So happy you loved it, Aparna! ❤️
Jigna says
This looks just like the dal dhokli I ate growing up. I still remember the taste of the one my mom made and I never dared try because it looked too hard. I can’t wait to try this out. Thanks for the easy recipe.
Vaishali says
Hope you try it Jigna!