Steamed & Tempered · Fermented Rice Cake
Dhokla
Photo: Nitish Mehta / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
The dish's written history goes back at least five centuries: a 1520 Gujarati text, Varanaka Samuchaya, contains one of the earliest known mentions of dhokla.
A batter of ground rice and split chickpeas is left to ferment for hours, then steamed into a spongy cake and cut into squares, finished with a sizzling tempering of mustard seeds, curry leaves, and green chili poured on top. Snack stalls across Gujarat sell it warm by the plate, alongside green chutney.
Why it's made this way: The dish's roots stretch back centuries in Gujarati texts, and its fermented-batter, steam-and-temper method has stayed essentially unchanged long enough to become one of the most eaten snacks in cities like Ahmedabad.
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