Soft and Spongy, Khaman Dhokla is a very popular Indian street food. To make dhokla, gram flour and yogurt batter is steamed, tempered with mustard seeds and curry leaves and then cut into cakes.
Why should you be making dhokla at home when you get such tasty ones right outside?
This was my sister’s reaction when I called her to ask how long she steams her dhoklas for! 🙂
Ever since moving to Vadodara, I have been enamoured by Gujarati food and more so by the snacks like khandvi, dhokla, thepla, dhabeli etc and the dry snacks called farsan.
Every street corner is lined with hawkers selling delicious dishes not just from Gujarat but from all over the country! There is Bombay pav bhaji; madras idli and well we even go across the border with ‘Chinese bhel’! 🙂 So whenever there is a craving, all one needs to do is step out of the house and take a turn!
But this time I wanted to make dhoklas at home largely because Sikander loves dhoklas and I don’t trust the street shop for too much of hygiene. Even if hygiene is taken care of, as we often go to a reputed shop, they use a lot more oil than actually required because more oil means softer dhoklas that can be kept for longer. But if one is eating them immediately there isn’t any need for much oil.
I don’t know whether it’s correct to call it khaman dhokla; because Gujaratis just call it Khaman and everybody else calls it Dhokla. But well that’s the name!
Khaman Dhokla
Ingredients (1cup = 240ml; 1tbsp = 15ml; 1tsp = 5ml)
- 1 cup gram flour (besan, can also use chickpea flour)
- 2 tbsp fine semolina (sooji/ rava)
- 3 tsp sugar
- 2 tsp fresh ginger paste
- 1 tbsp lime juice
- salt to taste
- ½ cup yogurt
- 2 tsp fruit salt (ENO)
- Oil for greasing
Ingredients for tempering
- 1 tbsp oil
- ½ tsp mustard seeds (rai)
- 2 green chilies chopped
- 1 pinch asafoetida (hing)
- 4-5 curry leaves (kadi patta)
Instructions
- Beat yogurt with 1/4 cup water.
- Mix together all the ingredients (except for fruit salt) for the khaman dhokla in a bowl. Add the beaten yogurt and water mixture to make a thick batter. Add a little more water if required. The batter should just be able to flow down the spoon but not be very thin.
- Let the batter stand for 15-20 mins.
- Grease a small 6″ tin with oil.
- Now add the fruit salt (or ENO) on top of the batter. Add 2 tbsp of water on the fruit salt. It will immediately form bubbles. Mix it well and pour the batter into the greased tin.
- Steam in a water bath on gas for about 10-12 minutes. Or in a microwave for 4-5 minutes. You can also use an idli maker for making dhoklas. Once the dhoklas are done, remove from the steamer and keep aside.
For the tempering
- Heat oil in a small pan. Once the oil is hot, add asafoetida and mustard seeds. When the seeds crackle, add green chillies and curry chiliesSauté for a few seconds and remove from heat.
- Add 2 tbsp water to the tempering. Mix well and pour evenly on top of the prepared dhoklas.
- Cut the dhoklas into equal pieces and serve with green chutney.
Hi Ashima,
After two unsuccessful attempts by my wife at Khaman Dhokala (recipes from some other sources), I decided to give it a try with your recipe. It turned out very delicious & spongy. I don’t think I am ever going to buy Dhokala from the market again.
A big thanks!
Cheers,
Mayur
Hey Mayur!!!
I’m so happy! 🙂 Thanks for sharing.. I love it when friends try my recipes and with success 🙂 Makes the writing and sharing part of cooking so much more worthwhile! 🙂
Cheers!
Ashima
Hi Ashima,
Your recipe looks great. I want to give it a try but I don’t have eno.Can I replace it with baking soda and citric acid. If yes, what is the amount to be added.
Thanks,
Priyal
Hey Priyal,
Thank you so much 🙂
Yes you can! Eno (fruit salt) is 60% baking soda and 40% citric acid. In the recipe you can approximate it with 1.25tsp baking soda and 1/4th tsp citric acid.
Hope that helps, would love to hear how were your dhoklas.
love,
ashima
Hi Ashima,
Thanks for your reply. I tried the recipe,the Khaman I prepared turned out to be excellent and yummy. Wow,All credits to you:-) . This was my 4th attempt and the best one. Earlier,I tried some other recipes of Khaman that are available on Internet and the outcome was miserable. So, I was ferreting out more and it is really fortuitous that I found this recipe.
Bingo!! I appreciate your hard work.
Thanks,
Priyal
That is such an amazing sharing Priyal! 🙂 Thank you so much..
love,
ashima
Hi Ashima,
I visited your other websites. I really appreciate your work. I am also working on starting a personal blog, but with tones of information on the internet, its a bit confusing. Can you please provide me your email id to help me out to find the right resource and solve my confusion. I know how busy you could be, but I will try to take the least of your time. It would be great help seriously.
Thanks,
Priyal
Hey Priyal,
Sure. I am usually not very busy 🙂 Just that I am travelling these days so my connectivity is limited. Thank you for sharing your appreciation. Really means a lot.
I have sent you an email on the same email id you have given in the comments. I would be very happy if I could help you in anyway!
All the best,
love,
ashima
Hi – I’m new to your website and decided to check this recipe for dhokla, I am surprised that there is no besan mentioned in the recipe and there is no turmeric either, so how did you get the yellow colour? Also, if we are using only 2 Tbsp Sooji, isn’t the liquid content a bit much. Please help…
Thank you so much Vindya for pointing this out!! There indeed is besan in this recipe! In fact, it is the main ingredient. I have a feeling that a few lines from the top of the post go deleting during some edits 😮
I have updated the recipe to correct the error. Thank you again for letting me know!
Can we skip sugar in this recipe and shall I use that as breakfast?
Hello Sushma,
You can reduce the amount of sugar or use a natural sugar like jaggery. A little bit of sweetness is part of Dhokla’s taste but if you wish to skip, they will still cook fine. Dhokla is both a breakfast as well as a tiffin snack so go ahead! 🙂