Finally a dal recipe from Central India. :-) Today I am going a share a famous recipe from Madhya Pradesh. It is the Dal Bafla – the not-so-distant cousin of Dal Baati. We prepare the bafla (baked wheat rolls) and dal separately and then assemble them. Check out the detailed recipe with stepwise pictures below. Earlier this year, I posted dal baati at IMC as part of the Toka Chef recipe. And when I was reading about the dal baati, I came across this dal bafla which is quite popular in Indore/Malwa regions of Madhya Pradesh and also litti from Bihar. When I was writing down my recipe list for this marathon, I didn’t think any further; I just wrote this dal bafla for MP. So what’s the difference between baati and bafla? For baati, we prepare the dough and bake them directly whereas for bafla we first boil them and then the baking. So baflas are comparatively softer than baatis. Also, dal baatis are commonly served with panchmeldal whereas for baflas the dal can be as simple as below. The Bihari litti is different from this baati and bafla. It’s a stuffed ball served with potato brinjal gravy.
Dal bafla by itself is a filling meal. And if you add some veggies to the dal, you can make it into a balanced meal. As I included wheat and ghee, I cannot claim this as gluten-free and vegan, but I made this as no onion no garlic. I took the base recipe from here. I am yet to try these baflas with other gluten-free flours. You can replace ghee with oil or vegan butter. But I need to agree that, ghee does add a unique flavor to this dal. So here comes the detailed Dal Bafla recipe.
Instant Pot Dal Bafla
Recap:
2015 | Day 14 – Apple Sauce 2016 | Day 14 – Fruit and Vegetable chaat 2017 | day 14 – Instant Pot Dal Bafla
Instant Pot Dal Bafla:
A traditional recipe from Madhya Pradesh This dish comprises bafla, the baked wheat balls, and the delicious dal. Usually, the cooked wheat balls are crumbled and served with dal and ghee on top.
Ingredients:
For the Bafla:
Wheat Flour – ¾ cup Juwar Flour – ¼ cup Water for mixing the flour – ½ cup + 1tbsp Water for boiling – 6 cups Salt – ¼ tsp + ½ tsp Turmeric Powder – 1.4 tsp Cumin – ½ tsp Ghee – 1 tbsp Carom seeds – ½ tsp
For the Dal:
Toor dal – ½ cup Salt – ¾ tsp Turmeric Powder – ½ tsp Water – 1.5 cups
For Tempering:
Ghee – 1 tbsp + as required for serving Red chili Powder – ½ tsp Mustard Seeds – ½ tsp Cumin – 1 tsp Hing – ½ tsp
You can prepare the bafla first, and while you are baking it, you can make the dal. As I used, IP for both, I had to wait till the baflas are boiled. But if you are not using IP, you can prepare them all simultaneously.
Preparing the Instant Pot Dal Bafla:
If using Instant Pot, add 6 cups of water into the pot and add ¼ tsp of salt and ¼ tsp of turmeric powder and kept in sauté mode for the water to boil. (It took me approximately 10 minutes) Else, bring 6 cups of water with ¼ tsp of turmeric and ¼ tsp of salt to boil in a wide vessel.
Meanwhile, you can prepare the dough for the bafla. In a mixing bowl, combine the wheat flour, Juwar flour, ½ tsp of salt, ½ tsp of cumin seeds, ½ tsp of carom seeds and ghee. Now add water little by little and mix the ingredients to form a nice dough. I used about ½ cups + 1 tbsp of water. Divide the dough into equal sized balls. I just divided them into four medium-sized balls like below. Roll them in your palms and make it smoother.
Once the water starts to boil, slowly drop these balls into the water and let them cook until they float to the surface. In IP it took me about 8 minutes.
Carefully remove those balls and let it dry for at least 10 minutes. Make sure you drain the excess water.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 deg F and also line a baking tray with parchment paper or aluminum foil.
Place the bafla in the baking tray and bake for about 30 to 35 minutes until they are crisp and firm like below. Make sure you turn once in between. I baked for 32 minutes. While the baking is happening, you can prepare the dal. After baking, allow the bafla to cool before assembling.
Preparing the Dal:
Pressure Cooker Method:
Add the washed toor dal, salt, turmeric powder and 1.5 cups of water in a pressure pan or cooker and cook for up to 3 to 4 whistles. Let the pressure drop and mash the dal nicely.
Instant Pot Method:
Add the washed toor dal, salt, turmeric powder and 1.5 cups of water to the instant pot (make sure you rinse it once after boiling the bafla) and set it manual mode and cook for 12 minutes. Let the pressure release naturally and mash the dal nicely.
Tempering the Dal:
In a separate tempering pan, heat the ghee. Once the ghee is hot, reduce the heat and add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, hing and red chili powder. Make sure you cook this over a low flame to prevent the red chili powder from burning. Keep mixing this tempering and as the mustard seeds start to crackle, add it to the dal and mix it well.
How I served the Bafla:
There are multiple ways to serve the bafla, but this is how I served. Usually, they don’t add the bafla directly to the dal, but I just added two like how we do for the south Indian lentil sambar / paruppu Kuzhambu.
Take the bafla in a serving bowl and crush them. Drizzle some ghee. I added about one tsp of melted ghee. Then add a ladle full of dal on top. Garnish it with cilantro and serve hot.
Notes:
Make sure you drain the excess water off the baflas before baking. You can bake a higher temperature for lesser minutes. All we need is nice brown, firm bafla. So adjust the temperature and timing as per your preference. I went with simple dal version, but you can make your dal in your style be it with onion and garlic or with mixed dals. You can replace ¼ of Juwar flour with any favorite flour of your choice, or you can prepare the bafla entirely with wheat flour.
Enjoying Instant Pot Dal Bafla? You will love these, too:
Green Tomato Kootu | Raw Tomato Gravy with Coconut Ellu Urundai | Nut Free Sesame Seed Balls | 2 in 1 recipe Rice – Veggie – Cheese balls No Knead Wheat Bread Dates And Tamarind Chutney For Chaat
Have you made this recipe?
If you’ve made this Instant Pot Dal Bafla, please let me know on Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube or Twitter – I will be delighted to hear from you!
📖 Recipe
