What is Dhokla?

This is a truly ridiculous question to ask to any Indian. And if you happen to ask this to a Gujarati, you may be served a volley of choicest abuses at you for your ignorance or they may just make you taste the best Dhokla ever. But for the uninitiated, Dhokla is a popular Gujarati vegetarian culinary dish. It’s a fluffy savoury steamed cake made from besan. The Gujarati Khaman Dhokla recipe is not just simple to make, but extremely nutritious as well.

Hence, it is one of the favorite snacks of the calorie conscious people across India. I’ve always loved Dhokla, but a few months when I was following my dietician’s plans to manage my weight, she suggested that I can include this as a tea time snack. I was super happy as it was a welcome break from the monotonous and usually tasteless evening snacks.

What is the difference between Dhokla and Khaman Dhokla?

Do you know the difference between Dhokla and Khaman also called Nylon Khaman? Both are quite similar in terms of preparation, but the traditional Dhokla is white in color because it is prepared from rice and gram and sooji while Khaman Dhokla is yellow in color because the main ingredient is chickpea flour or besan. Also Khaman is more spongy and watery. Traditionally this dish takes 5-6 hours preparation time, but this recipe will help you to make Gujarati Khaman Dhokla in approximately 40 minutes! Isn’t it cool

How to make Gujarati Khaman Dhokla?

Follow this easy step by step Gujarati Dhokla recipe with pictures for soft and fluffy dhokla at home.

Gujarati Khaman Dhokla Recipe

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes

Dhokla is a popular Gujarati vegetarian culinary dish. It’s a fluffy savoury steamed cake made from besan and tempered with sweet and salted water with mustard seeds. It is also known as Nylon Khaman Dhokla

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Ingredients

• Besan or Chickpea gram flour – 2 bowls (small katori)
• Lemon – 2
• Grated Ginger – ½ tsp
• Salt – ½ tsp or as per taste
• Eno – ½ tsp
• Oil – 2 tsp
• Slit Green Chillies – 4 to 5
• Mustard Seeds – 1 tsp
• Sugar – 3 tbsp
• Curry Leaves – 8 to 10
• Coriander leaves – 1 tbsp (for garnish)
• Grated Coconut – 2-3 tbsp (for garnish)

Instructions

Take two small bowls of besan/gram flour in a mixing bowl. Slowly add water to it and first make a thick consistent paste of it. Adding water slowly reduces the formation of lumps in the batter.

Approximately 1 ¼ small bowl of water should be added in the entire mixture to ensure the accurate consistency of the batter. Now add juice of two lemons, 1 tsp of oil, ¼ tsp of grated ginger and salt as per taste. Mix the mixture for 5 minutes till it becomes soft and fluffy and keep at for rest for about 5-7 minutes.

Meanwhile we need to arrange a steamer, for that you can take a deep pan like kadhai and add 2-3 cups of water to it for steaming. Put one stand to the bottom of kadhai where we can keep the plate/tin in which we will cook the batter. Close the lid of the kadhai and light the flame.

Grease a thali or a deep plate with one tsp of oil evenly.

Finally when everything is ready, add ¾ tsp of Eno to the batter and mix it in the batter. Pour this batter in the greased plate and place it inside the kadhai/ pan carefully.

Cover the pan and allow the dhokla to steam for 20 minutes on medium flame. Check the if properly cooked with the help of a toothpick.

Allow the up turned dhokla cake to cool and take it out of the plate on another plate by tapping it. Now we need to put the tempering (sweet water) on the back side of the dhokla as it has more pores which makes the dhokla more juicy.

For tempering, heat one tsp oil in a pan and add mustard seeds, green chillies and curry leaves to it. Saute it for 2- 3 seconds and add 2 small bowls of water. Add 3 tbsp sugar and allow it to boil for a minute.

Pour this sweet water all over the dhokla pieces, garnish it with grated coconut and coriander leaves.

Notes

• The traditional recipe is made by soaking, grinding and fermenting chana daal. But for the an instant Gujarati Dhokla recipe, I’ve used chickpea flour or besan.
• Waiting for the batter to rise after adding Eno is essential as it will result in fluffy and porous dhokla.
• You can also use Baking soda instead of Eno.

Recommended Products

I recommend products that will help you make the recipe in the best way possible.

• 
  Stand for steaming purpose
• 
  Dhokla Cooker Plate

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

6

Serving Size:

4
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 160

Nutrition Information for Gujarati Khaman Dhokla Recipe

Ingredient	Serving	Calories
Gram Flour or Besan	20.44 g	82
Salt	.34 g	0
Ginger paste	.71 g	1
Oil	3.11 g	28
Lemon Juice	1.69 g	1
Eno fruit salt	.51 g	1
Mustard seeds	.23 g	1
Sugar	.50 g	20
Coconut	5.22 g	26
Total		160 Kcal

I hope you enjoyed this quick and easy recipe. Do let me know in comments how it turned out for you. You can enjoy this special Gujarati snack with tea, or as breakfast.

I usually serve a combination of Dhokla and Samosas as namkeen snack and top it up with Bengali Rasgulla as dessert to my guests who visit home after lunch hours and want to leave before dinner.

Gujarati cuisine is full of culinary gems, and Khaman Dhokla is just one of them. I will try to add more pearls from the cuisine of the tastiest state in India soon 🙂