Learn Varieties Of Innovative Dhokla Recipe For Healthy Snack

Dhokla is a traditional Indian snack that basically originated in Gujarat and later gained huge popularity all over the country. It is made of very few ingredients that provide healthy nutrients to the body. Hence, dhokla is a light food that fits perfectly into the diet of overweight people and even ill patients. Though rice and chickpeas are the basic ingredients for making Gujarati dhokla, this snack is modified by adding different other food materials to the batter prepared for making this steamed food. 

Healthy ingredients added for modifying a dhokla recipe 

Dhokla Recipe | Image Resource: wikipedia.org

Green Moong dal or green gram can be used instead of split chickpeas in preparing dhokla. The green gram is known to be rich in protein, Folic acid, antioxidants, and fibres. Folic acid helps in the growth of red blood cell count while antioxidants decrease the inflammation caused by free radicals in a human body. Hence, the mixture of ground green Moong dal with the paste of fresh fenugreek leaves and Bengal gram flour can lead to the preparation of very healthy and tasty moong dal dhokla. 

Besan or chickpea flour can be mixed with different healthy vegetables, like cabbage and green peas, along with homemade curd to steam unique dhokla. These green vegetables are boiled and mashed into a paste, for adding into the batter prepared for making dhokla. Besan contains a larger amount of protein than rice or wheat, for which it makes a healthier dhokla with more nutritional value. These green vegetables are rich sources of vitamin C, vitamin B-complex, some useful minerals and antioxidants. So besan dhokla is a unique variety that provides the required nutrition for a healthy body.

Khatta dhokla is a lightly sour-tasted snack that is quite a favourite item of many foodies. As the word ‘khatta’ means ‘sour’, its taste is credited to the procedure of overnight fermentation of the batter of ground rice and black gram or urad dal. Healthy bacteria are born due to this fermentation, which improve the digestive power by simplifying the complex nutrients. Thus, the body can gain nutrition much faster from all consumed foods. Moreover, a large amount of carbohydrates, protein, Calcium, Potassium, iron, and B-complex vitamins can be obtained from the ingredients used in this popular dhokla preparation. 

Semolina or rava, oats, and buckwheat are also used in making different other varieties of dhokla. Moreover, people garnish this food with cilantro leaves or coriander leaves, after tempering with lightly fried black mustard seeds and curry leaves. Sometimes, drops of lemon juice, fruit salt or other ingredients may be added to bring a change in the flavour of dhokla. As it is a steamed food and not fried, the nutrients of all food materials used in a dhokla recipe remain intact after cooking it. Hence, it is an ideal food for ill or aged people, who have problems in the digestion of foods.