Varanfal/ varanphal (Chakolya)

If you are like me who likes hot one pot meals you will love today's post. This is a great nutritious one pot meal, providing carbs, proteins, fat all in one bowl. Oh Yes, you need good fat to loose fat!

This is a typical maharashtrian dish(Maharashtra- the state where I grew up). Growing up, my mom never made this dish, because no one at my home used to like it. I remember I tasted it at one of my friends home, but didn't like it then. After I got married, my mother in law made this and I fell in love with Varanfal(also known as Chakolya).

As this dish needs a little bit more time than just pressure cooking a simple daal and rice, weeknight is not very ideal for me to cook varanfal. I usually reserve it for the weekend lunch, when all of us enjoy this delicious hot bowl.

Varanfal is nothing but a rolled out roti of whole wheat flour with some spices, cut into squares or diamonds and then dumped into hot dal. Dal is made up of some more different kind of spices and tomatoes. Basically you can visualize it as wheat dumplings in a daal soup. The key is not to roast the roti, just roll it and toss into the daal.

So let's get to the ingredients and then to it's method!

Ingredients-:

For the Dough-:

• Whole wheat flour
• turmeric powder
• Red chilly powder
• Ajwain seeds
• Salt

For the Daal-:

• Cumin seeds
• Mustard Seeds
• Methi seeds
• Curry leaves
• Green chillies
• Turmeric powder
• Chopped garlic
• tamarind pulp
• Jaggery
• Salt to taste
• Oil- peanut/ safflower
• Ghee

Method

• Pressure cook the toor daal and keep it ready
• Add spices for the dough in the whole wheat flour, add water and salt, kneed and keep aside.
• Put some oil or ghee in a big kadai/ pan.
• When oil gets hot add, cumin and mustard seeds and methi seeds
• As they splutter, add asafoetida, curry leaves and chopped garlic.
• Saute for about a minute or so, until the garlic gets nice golden color.
• Add green chillies and pour in the cooked daal that is kept aside.
• Add water and mix well.
• Add chopped tomatoes, red chilly powder, goda masala(kala masala) coriander powder and salt to taste
• Add tamarind paste and jaggery and mix well. Let the daal simmer on low heat.
• Roll the dough by dividing into small sized balls( about the size of a golf ball)

• Roll the ball very thin and then cut into diamond or square shape.

• Drop the squares into the cooking daal.

• After you add the squares/ dumplings adjust the water as desired. The mixture gets thicker as you continue to cook. Add more water, if you feel that it's getting lumpy.
• Mix well, cover and let it simmer for about 10 minutes. Let the dumplings get cooked well.
• Pour into your bowl and garnish with some chopped cilantro and a dollop of ghee on top.

Enjoy the delicious meal!!