West Indian
Dhokla (Steamed Fermented Rice-Lentil Cake)
Dhokla (Steamed Fermented Rice-Lentil Cake) is West Indian home cooking, eaten at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. On the plate it is the dish at the centre and the condiment. Below is what usually sits beside it, what it does and does not contain, and what else to cook once you have made it.
Ingredients
- 1 cup rice
- 1/2 cup split chana dal
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/4 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp ginger-green chili paste
- 1 tsp eno fruit salt
- 3 tbsp oil
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 2 green chilies
- 8 curry leaves
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 2 tbsp chopped cilantro
- 1 tsp salt
How to cook it
- Soak the rice and chana dal together for 4 to 5 hours, then drain and grind to a smooth, thick batter with a little water.
- Cover the batter and let it ferment in a warm place for 6 to 8 hours, or overnight, until it turns light and faintly tangy.
- Stir the turmeric, ginger-green chili paste, and salt into the fermented batter.
- Grease a steaming tin, stir the eno into the batter until frothy, then pour it in right away and steam for 15 to 18 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Let the cake cool a little, then cut it into squares while still in the tin.
- Heat the oil in a small pan, let the mustard seeds, green chilies, and curry leaves sizzle, then stir in the sugar and a splash of water and pour the hot tempering evenly over the dhokla squares.
- Scatter with cilantro and serve warm or at room temperature.
Serve it with
A West Indian dinner is a plate rather than a single dish. These are the courses that normally sit beside Dhokla (Steamed Fermented Rice-Lentil Cake), read from the same composition Dinejot builds a real meal from.
-
The cooked vegetable
-
What it is eaten with
-
Something cool and fresh
Safe at your table
Dinejot tracks ten allergens and tags every one of them by hand. Dhokla (Steamed Fermented Rice-Lentil Cake) carries none of them. That is a checked answer rather than an ingredient list nobody read.
| Allergen | In this dish | Cook this instead |
|---|---|---|
| Peanuts | No | |
| Tree nuts | No | |
| Dairy | No | |
| Gluten | No | |
| Shellfish | No | |
| Eggs | No | |
| Soy | No | |
| Fish | No | |
| Sesame | No | |
| Coconut | No |
These tags are set by a person rather than inferred from an ingredient list, and they describe the recipe as written here. Read the labels on whatever you actually buy.
What it brings to the plate
Bands, not numbers. Dinejot does not weigh anybody's food, so it says light, moderate or hearty and stops there. This dish was read and set by hand.
- Calorie band
- Light
- Protein
- Medium
- Protein quality
- Partial
- Food groups it covers
- Grains and Pulses
- How this was set
- Hand audited
When to cook it
Dhokla (Steamed Fermented Rice-Lentil Cake) takes about 40 minutes from a cold stove to the table, and the cooking itself is a fair bit of work. It is eaten at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Nothing in the calendar rules it out, so it is a year round dish.
Watch someone make it
Nothing loads from YouTube until you press play. Until then this is one still image, which is why the page opens as quickly as it does.
More to cook
Cooked from the same things
Other dishes built on rice and chana dal.
From the same kitchens
More cooking from West India.
Does the same job on the plate
Swap any of these in when you want a meal the same shape.
Cook this with your whole family
Dinejot plans breakfast, lunch and dinner as whole plates, built around the cooking you call home and filtered for the allergies at your table.
Meal suggestions support your goals. They are not medical advice. Please ask your doctor about your family's health needs.