Have You Tried Bafauri? A Bhojpuri-Style Healthy Pakoda From Chhattisgarh

Healthy pakoda is an oxymoron, right? The very idea of pakoda reminds us of fried food, loaded with oil and calories. Pakoda tastes delicious, but it also brings along a range of health problems, the most common one being weight gain. What do you do then? Give up on pakoda altogether? But that doesn’t look like a feasible solution. Instead, let’s try to make it a bit healthy for you. Sounds perfect? We found a recipe that can be a perfect option if you are planning to go all healthy while enjoying yummy pakodas. It’s bafauri, a Bhojpuri-style pakoda that includes the process of steaming. Read on.

About Bafauri – Bhojpuri-Style Pakoda From Chhattisgarh:

_{Crispy and tasty snack for evening. Photo Credit: pixabay}

The cuisine of Chhattisgarh has a rich history that goes back a thousand years or more. The food culture here has a resemblance to the cuisine of Madhya Pradesh and includes wide usage of local produce. It is flavourful and rustic and strikes a chord with us every single time. And the earthy flavour in each of the dishes gives the cuisine an upper hand. One such delicious option in Chhattisgarh is bafauri. It is basically a chana dal-based steamed snack that makes a perfect snack to pair with your cup of tea. It resembles dal vada but includes no oil or the process of frying. Besides, the dish is protein and fibre-enriched too, thanks to the chana dal used in the recipe. Protein and fibre make the dish healthy and easy to digest.

Bafauri Vs Dal Farra: Difference Between The Steamed Dal Snacks:

The ones who have tried the popular North Indian snack dal farra might confuse bafauri with the former. While we agree, both bafauri and dal farra are healthy snacks made of dal, but if you dive in deep, you would find some striking differences between the two. The first one being the origin – Bafauri is a dish from Chattisgarh, while dal farra has a North Indian origin. let’s find out.

1.Shape:

While bafauri has a round, uneven shape, dal farra looks like half puri. For the later, you need to prepare a small puri-like shape and then fold in half.

2.Ingredients:

While bafauri is made just with chana dal, dal farra is a mix of chana, urad and matar dal. Besides, dal farra also includes rice flour for the bind.

3.Preparation:

Bafauri is simply steamed and consumed with chutney. But if you look into the process of making dal farra, you would see the food is first steamed and then sauted for some time with curry leaves, hing and mustard seeds.

Healthy Pakoda Recipe: How To Make Bafauri From Chhattisgarh:

_{These are protein-rich pakodas. Photo Credit: pixabay}

The secret to making a perfect bafauri lies in the process of soaking the dal. Make sure you clean the dal well and soak it overnight to get a paste of the right consistency. To it, add masalas and onion and mix into a soft, liquid dough. Make sure, the dough is not very hard. This would make it tough to steam the pakodas evenly.

The best part is, you can go as creative as you want with the recipe. Include masalas and veggies of your choice to the recipe, as per your palate. We like the dish spicier; hence, we add enough green chillies to the mix. Finally, grease the steamer well and steam it well and enjoy hot. Click here for the detailed recipe. 

Serve the dish with the sides of the chutney of your choice. Quintessentially, we pair bafauri with imli ki chutney and dhania chutney to enjoy it as an evening snack. Try the unique pakoda recipe at home and let us know how you liked it.

For more such steamed snack recipes, click here.