Mingle it up

Hi Friends,

I am back with great, healthy & quick snack item - sooji dhokla. In a gujarati household, Dhokla is a very common food item. Dhoklas are steamed & most commonly served as an appetizer or tea time snack. They are soft, fluffy in texture & awesome in taste. They are very filling & healthy as well.

My mom makes lots of different kinds of dhoklas like

-Mixed Dal (Yellow Mung Dal, split mung dal, Channa Dal) Dhokla
-Khaman (Besan - Chickpea flour) Dhokla
-Rice Dhokla
-Sooji Dhokla

Today we will go over on how to make Sooji Dhokla
Serves 2-3 people

1 Cup Sooji (Cream of wheat)
1/2 Yogurt + 1/2 cup water
2 tsp of oil
1 tsp salt (to taste)
1/2 tsp of sugar
1 tsp ginger/chili paste (to taste)
1 tsp of Eno Fruit Salt Or 1 tsp of baking soda
1 tsp of Lemon juice
few sprigs of cilantro for garnishing.
1/2 tsp ajwain / Carrom seeds (optional)

Oil Tempering

2 tsp of oil
1/4 tsp of mustard seeds
1 /4 tsp of sesame seeds
1 green chili (slit lengthwise)
3-4 curry leaves

Step up used to steam the dhoklas

If you already have a Dhokla stand with the plates, then you are already set. If don’t have one no need to worry you can still make these spongy goodness without any problem.
All you need is a
-container with a lid
-a round plate that has some depth to it that fits in the container above.
-a small stand that can give the round plate an elevated platform when placed inside the container.

1. Take the container & fill about 1 inch of water in it or the amount which is lesser than the height of the small stand.
2. Place the stand in the container filled with water.
3. Place the greased round plate filled with Dhokla batter on top of the stand. Such that it is little high above the water level. Make sure that water should not enter the dhokla batter. Water is used to steam the dhoklas.
4. Cover the container with the lid & leave very small room for steam to escape the vessel.
5. You can use Pressure cooker with its lid as a container but make sure not to put its whistle while steaming the dhoklas.

I know it sounds like YoPlait but hey thats the intention. So many people eat these store bought flavored fruity yogurt for a snack or dessert and I was one of them :). My office refrigerator is loaded with these . But has anyone thought that making something similar at home can be easy and much more nutritious since you control everything that goes into it. But there is a catch here , the Yogurt you use & the amount of sweetness you put matters. Please visit my post on Yogurt Shopping if you haven’t read that.

My FruPlait is a heavenly medley of luscious greek yogurt, your choice of chopped fruits & granola or cereals.

I use 0% fat Greek Yogurt from Trader Joes or make my own (read below on how to make it) for this recipe. Greek Yogurt is just a fancy name for strained Yogurt. Straining removes its whey (liquid). Straining the yogurt results in thicker & creamier consistency. Greek yogurt has twice the protein content compared to normal yogurt per serving. However normal full-fat Greek Yogurt is heavier on fat than plain full-fat yogurt. No worries we use the fat free one. So read on…

This recipe serves 1-2

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup of 0% fat Greek yogurt. If you can’t find it in the store, just hang the regular non-fat yogurt in a muslin cloth for 3-4 hours. You can also use normal yogurt just that the texture of Fruplait won’t be that creamy & thick. But it will taste quite good nonetheless.

• 1/2 cup cut Strawberries + Sweet Ripe Mangoes. You can use any fruits you like. Since its summer I like to use sweet ripe Mango(my husband’s favorite). If mangoes are not available you can use bananas, blueberries etc

• 1 tsp of powdered/icing sugar (I use Splenda) + 1 tsp of honey. If you don’t want to use Honey, you can always use 1 more tsp of sugar instead.

• 3-4 tbsp of Honey Bunches of Oats with Almonds. You can also use Granola, crumbled oatmeal cookies..basically anything you like to give the sweet crunch.

Directions

1. Finely cut the fruits & add 1 tsp of icing sugar in it. Mix it well so that sugar is coated to every fruit piece
2. In a bowl whip up the yogurt with 1 tsp of honey.
3. Take your serving cup - add half of your fruit mixture. Top that with 1/2 of your yogurt mixture & sprinkle some cereals.
4. Repeat this layer “fruit - yogurt - cereals” one more time and its done.