Farali Dhokla: Soft, Spongy Steamed Millet Dhokla for Vrat

Fasting food during Navaratri often means fried sabudana vadas, potato chips and sweets. This farali dhokla from the Wholesome Living Through Food series, a collaboration between Yoga & You and Home Cooking, offers a lighter savoury option: a soft, spongy steamed dhokla made with barnyard millet and sabudana instead of the usual gram flour, finished with a crackling tempering of cumin, sesame and green chillies.

What makes it farali?

Farali (or phalahari) food is food eaten during a vrat, or fast. Many households avoid regular grains, pulses and common salt during Navaratri and use fasting-permitted ingredients instead. This dhokla uses:

• Barnyard millet (samo, sama rice or vrat ke chawal), a small, quick-cooking millet that's a traditional fasting grain
• Sabudana (sago pearls), which adds lightness and helps bind the batter
• Rock salt (sendha namak) instead of regular salt

Fasting customs vary widely by region and family. Some don't eat curd, sugar, chilli or raising agents during a fast. As the description to the video advises, check that every ingredient suits your own household's traditions.

How the dhokla comes together

The full ingredients and method are in the recipe card above. These points from the video help get a soft, spongy result:

• Roast the millet only lightly. Two minutes in a dry pan is enough. You don't want it to brown. Cool it completely before grinding.
• Grind both to a fine powder. Grind the millet and the sabudana separately, so both are fine and even.
• Aim for a dropping consistency. Mix the flours with sour curd, rock salt, sugar, oil and ginger-green chilli paste, then add water gradually (about a cup in all) until the batter drops off the spoon: thick, but not stiff.
• Rest, then aerate. Let the batter rest for about 20 minutes so the flours hydrate. Only then add the fruit salt (Eno), right before steaming. The batter fluffs up instantly, so get it into the steamer straight away. Baking soda works if you don't have fruit salt.
• Line the tray. A banana leaf (or butter paper) over the base of a perforated steamer tray keeps the batter from leaking and helps the dhokla release cleanly.
• Steam for 20 minutes, then cool to room temperature before cutting, so the pieces hold their shape.
• Temper generously. Cumin seeds, sesame seeds, slit green chillies and curry leaves in hot oil, poured over the cut pieces, add crunch and aroma.

Serving ideas

Serve farali dhokla fresh, with a fasting-friendly mint or coriander chutney. It makes a good tea-time snack during Navaratri and a welcome change from fried fasting foods. Outside fasting days, enjoy it as a light breakfast or lunchbox snack.

Make it your own

• Other millets: kodo or little millet can replace barnyard millet in a similar way. If you enjoy millet dishes, try our kodo millet upma or kodo millet pongal.
• Less tang: use fresher, less sour curd.
• No sugar: you can leave out the teaspoon of sugar. It balances the sourness of the curd but isn't essential.

For more on eating in a simple, yogic way, read sattvic eating: food for a yogic life.

A note on diet

Individual nutritional needs vary. If you're fasting for health reasons or have diabetes or another medical condition, talk to your doctor about how to fast safely. Sabudana is mostly starch, so this dhokla is best enjoyed as part of a balanced fasting menu.