Dal dhokli
Preparation Time
30 minutes
Cooking Time
40 minutes
Difficulty Level
moderate
Meal Type
Lunch
Serves 4
Key Ingredients
- Toor dal (arhar)
About This Recipe
Dal dhokli is a bowl where the dumpling and the dal cook together: strips of kneaded wheat dough poach in a simmering toor dal until soft, and the flour they shed thickens the dal around them. It is a one-pot meal that always arrives complete in the bowl — the dal, the dumpling and the jaggery sweetness together.
The dhokli dough is chapati dough with ajwain and turmeric, kneaded tight and rested before rolling, then cut into diamonds. It has to hold its shape through the simmer, so a tight dough matters; a soft, loose one melts into the pot. The dal is the classic khatta-meetha toor dal, soured with tamarind and balanced with jaggery, with groundnuts in the tempering for bite.
The toor dal carries the dish: a well-cooked dal thickens the pot on its own, so the flour stays a flavouring rather than a thickener. A cousin made from gram flour instead of wheat, the besan dhokli recipe, gives the same meal a chickpea dumpling. Eat it as a soup or ladle it over rice, and find more of the dal's dishes in the toor dal recipes roundup.
Ingredient List
Serving Size:
1x
2x
3x
Dal
- Toor dal (arhar) — 1/2 cup
- Water (3 cups to cook the dal, 1 cup for the simmer) — 4 cups
- Salt — 1 1/2 tsp
- Jaggery powder — 1 tbsp
- Tamarind pulp — 10 g
- Green chilli, slit — 2 pieces
- Ginger, grated — 1 tsp
Dhokli dough
- Turmeric Powder — 1/2 tsp
- Whole wheat flour (sharbati atta) — 1 cup
- Ajwain — 1/2 tsp
- Groundnut oil (for the dough) — 1 tbsp
- Water for kneading — 1/4 cup
Tempering
- Ghee (for the tempering) — 1 tbsp
- Mustard Seeds — 1 tsp
- Curry Leaves — 8 leaves
- Groundnuts — 20 g
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Serving Suggestions
Serve hot in a deep bowl with a spoon of ghee on top and eat it as a thick soup; steamed rice alongside turns it into a full lunch. A squeeze of lemon lifts the sweet-sour dal, and a bowl of curd cools the chilli. Leftover dhokli stays good for up to two days in the fridge and drinks up more liquid as it sits, so add a splash of hot water when you reheat it.
Tips for Cooking Dal dhokli
Knead the dough tight and rest it; a soft dough turns to paste in the simmer. Drop the dhokli only into a boiling dal, a few at a time, and stir once with a light hand so they neither stick nor tear. The flour thickens the pot as it cools, so take the dal off the flame a little looser than you want it at the table.
Chef’s Note
The flour the dhokli shed while cooking is what thickens the dal, so resist adding more — the pot sets as it cools. A bowl comes to about 293 kcal with 9.9 g of protein and 6.3 g of fibre, the fibre from the dal, the whole wheat flour and the groundnuts.
Per serving (approx.): 293 kcal, protein 9.9 g, carbs 39 g, fat 10 g, fibre 6.3 g. Computed from IFCT 2017 / USDA values for the listed quantities. Measures: 1 cup = 240 ml, 1 tbsp = 15 ml, 1 tsp = 5 ml.
Happy Cooking
!!
ByCOWBERRY
Jun 26, 2026
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