Opputtu Paruppu Poli Puran Poli Recipe

Opputtu Paruppu Poli or lentil stuffed sweet flatbread is an authentic sweet from India called by several names from various states with slight variation in this recipe. We call this as “Opputtu” in Tamil and this is so close to Maharashtrian Puran Poli (it differs from this recipe by saffron, fennel, ginger or nutmeg powder in the filling and generous ghee while cooking or slathered after cooking poli) and Andhra Bobbattu / Bobbatlu and Kannada Bele Obbattu / Holige.

My athai (dad’s elder sister) is a great cook, I think I never talked about

her in any of my previous posts. She is one of my great inspiration in cooking and when she visits us, we know that there will be some sweet and other snacks which will be there in our home for another few days to munch or norukku theeni in Tamil. She plans and make a quite long stay during each visit and helps mom and chithis in their cooking. Needless to say that she is very affectionate and care provider and she is still the same and our relationship is strong as always.

Jump To

How to Cook Dal in cooker

Opputtu Ingredients

Outer Dough Preparation

Dal Jaggery Filling

How to Stuff and Flat Step By Step Instructions

Complete Video Recipe

Printable Recipe Card

How to Eat this Sweet

Troubleshooting Tips

During her stay she prepares us (naming only few), basic sambar podi, murukku , thattu vadai , thengaai mittai (coconut burfi), idiyappam /sandhagai and opputtu. With my childhood memories of watching her cooking skills and especially flattening opputtu or thattu vadai, today I am here with this authentic opputtu.

Last but not least, recently I got a craving for opputtu and while checking my pantry I figured it out that I didn’t have enough jaggery to make. When my neighbor called me in the phone for a regular chat I told her about it. Few minutes later while we were still in the call she asked me to come out and check. She kept lot of Jaggery cubes/Achu Vellam (in Tamil, refer picture below) in our front porch. I honestly loved her gesture and immediately I made the opputtu and shared them this yummy sweet as a token of love.

After a very long gap ( I don’t remember when I made it lastly) while making it, I recorded the video recipe (refer video at the end) and I was happy that it turned out perfect. Also my neighbor and family liked my opputtu and she is waiting for this video recipe to try at home. Do try this for the upcoming festivals or to feast your guests and let me know how it turns out…

What is Jaggery?

Jaggery (pronounced as jag-uh-reey) is a unrefined sugar that is used commonly in India is made from sugar cane juice. This Jaggery comes in different shapes and even in Powder form which I use mostly and even in baking recipes. You can use any kind of unrefined sugar for this recipe.

Key Points To Nail Opputtu

• Perfect Outer Layer
• Rightly cooked Dal
• Perfect consistency Filling/stuffing
• Flattening the Poli

How to Cook Dal in Pressure Cooker

• Soak chana dal (Pic 1) for 15 minutes.
• Rinse the dal thrice (Pic 2) and add fresh water.
• Pressure cook it for 2 hisses.
• Once the pressure goes off, immediately drain the excess water and allow to cool.
• Meanwhile prepare the outer dough.

How to Cook Dal in Instant Pot

• In Instant Pot inner pot I added a cup water.
• Place trivet (optional), then place the pot filled with dal and water (Pic 3).
• Cover the Pot In Pot (PIP) like shown in Pic 4.

• Pressure cook in High for 5 minutes.
• Release the pressure after 12 minutes (Pic 5), when you press between fingers its cooked well (In Tamil we say paruppu nalla malarthirukanum, Pic 5) yet not too mushy (pic 6).
• Immediately drain the excess water for that use strainer like shown in Pic 7.
• Let them cool completely (Pic 8) meanwhile prepare the outer dough for Poli.

If you try this Opputtu Recipe, please don't forget to rate and comment your feedback at the bottom of the post. Also if you have any questions do feel free to leave a comment for the same and I will try to answer it asap. Make sure to follow me on Instagram for day to day menu ideas , instant recipes, healthy bakes and garden tips! Follow me on YouTube for clear video tutorials with Recipe Cards especially on baking recipes or Pinterest for healthy snack ideas and Facebook for recipe updates!

Opputtu Ingredients

Chana Dal – 1 Cup
Organic Jaggery/Dark brown Sugar – 3/4th Cup
Organic All Purpose Flour/ Wheat Flour – 1 Cup
Turmeric Powder – 1/8tsp
Salt – A Pinch
Grated Coconut – 1/4-1/3 Cup
Oil/Ghee – 1 Tbsp and more while rolling and cooking Poli

How to Prepare Outer Dough

• Mix all purpose flour/wheat flour, salt, turmeric powder and oil or ghee in a mixing bowl (Pic 1).
• Sprinkle little water (Pic 2) and make as chapati dough (Pic 3).
• The dough while mixing if its too sticky apply oil to palm and do mix it.
• The video at the bottom of this post helps well with detailed and clear explanation.

• Leave it aside for 30 minutes to 1 hour (Pic 4).
• Meanwhile you can prepare the Opputtu / Poli Filling.
• Later, check the dough its gluten is activated (Pic 5) and when you expand it won’t tear apart(Pic 6).

How to Prepare Filling

• Dry roast the cardamom pods (skin is optional) until the seeds changes white in color (Pic 1).
• Once cooled powder with sugar (Pic 2, here I used raw cane sugar/Turbinado) to fine like shown in Pic 3.
• Also in the same mixie/mixer jar do shred fresh coconut pieces like shown in (Pic 4).
• Once the dal is cooled completely, grind them in the same jar to fine mixture (Pic 5).
• You can grind along with jaggery/sugar, if you are confident that the jaggery is free from impurities.
• Don’t make the filling so gooey, if so you can’t make balls out of it, just a little bit sticky poornam/filling is ok (Pic 6).
• The perfect filling holds the shape and at the same time its not dry.

• If grinding the jaggery powder with dal, mix them with roasted or unroasted grated coconut, cardamom powder and make even size round balls.
• Otherwise do grate or cut the necessary jaggery from the package (Pic 6).
• Melt them with little water and let it dissolve in medium flame (pic 7).
• Don’t add too much water.
• Once jaggery dissolved do filter the impurities (Pic 8).
• Clean the pan and again heat it up.
• Add butter or ghee, roast the fresh coconut (Pic 9) just for fraction of seconds until it attains nice aroma.
• Now add filtered jaggery syrup mix them well.
• Either way of preparing filling works for this recipe.

• Allow for a single boil, it thickens and yet it looks liquid at this time add dal.
• Mix until jaggery mixture incorporates well with dal mixture (Pic 12).
• Remove from flame when they are slightly gooey (Pic 13) also add powdered cardamom powder.

• Make even size balls (Pic 14), I got 60gms of 9 balls out of it.

How to Stuff and Flat Opputtu

• By this time the poli filling and outer layer are ready (Pic 16).
• DO use banana leaves or any wax or parchment paper to flat the poli.
• Take the outer dough spread it over non sticky surface, with rolling pin or using your palms to a thick layer (Pic 1).
• Keep the chana dal filling in center of that (Pic 1) and cover it (Pic 2).
• I stuff as much as I can then only poli tastes good with more filling.

• Seal the edges properly, make circle (Pic 3) and remove excess outer dough if there is any.
• Beginners I weigh the outer layer and filling for you peeps during my recent preparation.
• The outer layer weighed 35grams and the filling was 60 grams each ie almost double the weight of outer dough.
• Apply oil to palm and gently spread/flat the ball to very thin layer (as much possible Pic 4 below) over non sticky platform.
• The Poli I flattened (Pic 5) was exactly 5.5″ in diameter.
• Gently peel the banana leaf, repeat with remaining dough and stack them over parchment paper.

How to Cook Opputtu

• Heat dosa pan/griddle pan, when its hot brush the pan with little ghee/oil , I skipped since I felt the oil I used while flattening is enough.
• Gently add the poli like shown in Pic 1.
• Flip often and press the edges while cooking (Pic 2) with spatula or using damp cloth/paper towel.
• Cook evenly till getting light brown spots (Pic 3).

• It puffs like poori (Pic 4), once cooled it flattens to thin poli like shown in Picture 5 & 6.
• If you cook in very low flame the poli gets hard.

Video Recipe

How to Eat Opputtu

• It’s best to eat when they are hot and just out from hot pan.
• Customs vary from place to place serve hot with milk or slathered ghee.
• We usually have it/mash it with well ripen banana (shown at the end of the video) , that’s how we eat in our family and not sure how many do have that custom at home.
• Also this dal stuffed poli tastes great the very next day by keeping in refrigerator and eating it chill (I like it so).
• Just the dal filling tastes good with mashed banana.
• You can deep fry after stuffing the dal mixture inside outer layer, once stuffed and made the round shape do deep fry.
• With a little change in the outer layer, there is another traditional sweet recipe called suzhiyam or suzhiyam or pornalu which uses watery idli dosa batter or all purpose flour coating.

Troubleshooting Tips

1. I have used butter paper to stack the uncooked polis.
2. The Chana filling should not be very dry, it needs some moisture otherwise the poli balls will break while rolling/flattening with outer dough.
3. Do roll poli thin or thick polis according to your choice.
4. Can replace all purpose flour/maida with chapati flour but it won’t pass window pane test.
5. By chance if dal is over cooked and filling is gooey don’t worry, cook the filling in low-medium heat for few minutes until excess liquid evaporates.
6. While cooking do mix the filling often so it wont burn the bottom of pan.
7. If the filling becomes so dry do add few tsp of milk or leftover jaggery syrup to quick fix it.

Printable Recipe Card