Beetroot Poli | Beetroot Stuffed Indian Bread

Poli/Puran Poli, is a very delicious Indian flat bread with some sweet stuffing, often with lentils. Today am gonna discuss with you about the same kind, but with a little twist, I have used beetroots instead of lentils here for the stuffing. For the lentil/dal stuffed wheat polis click here. One particular day, I had some dough leftover after making pooris, the dough was so soft and fresh and I did not want to discard it nor refrigerate it. So thought of making some snack out of it, finally decided to make some poli and so I rushed to the pantry to grab the ingredients needed, but to my disappointment the lentil box was wiped empty. But still I was digging in my refrigerator to find some alternatives, and saw some beetroots lying unused there, immediately an idea knocked my head. I am a fussy eater even though I cook well I still eat only very little and mostly would avoid beetroots and other healthy veggies. So I would always try to hide the veggies under a tasty disguise, then I try to forget that I have added the veggie and only then I'll consume it. If you'd check my mini beetroot omelettes you would know. I know it sounds kiddish but that is what most of us do, I hope you agree with me. So after seeing those beetroots lying around, thought of substituting lentils with beetroots, I knew it would be delectably delicious. And just as I guessed it turned out awesome, I could not resist but had all the polis. The aroma, flavor and sweet filling was so good and it became my favorite too from then I would make it rarely when I have excess beetroots. As I added some ground cashews and some grated coconut along with beetroots in the stuffing, it tasted awesome and rich, also ghee added more flavor to the recipe and made it taste heavenly. This can be had as breakfast or as snack. Try this and am sure everyone in your family will love this. Even kids will love this and eat this without fuss, unless they know that it is made of beetroots. So now lets move on to see how I made these. 

INGREDIENTS

Makes 3 polis 
Total Preparation Time - 30 minutes 

1. Maida / All purpose flour - 1 cup (100 grams)
2. Beetroot - 1/2 of a beetroot (75 grams)
3. Grated / Shredded coconut - 10 spoons 
4. Boiled milk - 2 to 3 spoons 
5. Sugar - 8 to 10 spoons 
6. Salt - As per taste 
7. Cardamom powder - 1/4 spoon 
8. Cashews - 5 (ground into a fine paste) [optional] 
9. Ghee - 10 spoons or as needed

PREPARATION METHOD 

• Take a bowl add maida, salt and 1 spoon of ghee and mix well using your fingers. 
• Then sprinkle some warm water little by little and knead into a very soft dough. Now set this aside and prepare the filling. 
• Now take the beetroot, peel its skin using a peeler or knife. Then grate the beetroot using a grater or shredder. 
• Once done, heat a pan or kadai and add 4 spoons of ghee into it. 
• Then add the grated beetroot and saute well on low flame for 2 to 3 minutes. 
• Then when the beetroot gets almost cooked add the cardamom powder and stir well. 
• Now add sugar and keep stirring. After adding sugar some water will be let out, so keep stirring well until the water content reduces. 
• Now when the mixture seems dry add the grated coconut and stir well, then add 2 to 3 spoons of milk and mix well. Add the cashew paste (optional) and stir well. When the mixture seems well cooked and dry remove from flame and set aside until it cools down. 

• Now take the prepared dough and divide into three equal parts. Dust in some flour and roll into smooth balls and set aside. 
• Take a chapathi board / pastry board and dust some flour on it. Place a ball and press, roll into thick pooris using a pastry / chapati rolling pin.

• Take a spoon of the prepared beetroot mixture and place it in the center of the flattened dough and close. 

• Press again and flatten it using a pastry / chapati rolling pin gently. See that the stuffing does not come out. Do the same with the rest of the dough and beetroot mix and set aside. 

• Now heat a pan / tawa and place the poli on it, spread some ghee on one side and cook for a minute. Then flip using a flat ladle and smear the other side also with ghee, cook on medium heat until brown spots appear on both sides. Flip sides and check whether done do not keep for longer time on flame.
• Remove from flame and smear some ghee over the hot poli and serve!! Does not keep well for more than a day. 

TIP 1: You can reduce the amount of sugar according to your taste. Try to reduce the sugar level to keep it healthy. 

TIP 2: Never over cook the poli, if you do so it will become rubbery and hard. 

TIP 3: While making the beetroot mixture, you can add 4 cardamom pods (crushes) instead of cardamom powder, but remove the pods so that it does not hinder while flattening the poli. 

TIP 4: Be very gentle while rolling the poli after stuffing. The stuffing should not come out. Also take care not to over stuff the polis, this may cause the stuffing to come out. Do not roll the polis very thin.


TIP 5: You can also use oil, but ghee gives a nice aroma and flavor to the polis. 

 

Tasty, healthy and filling beetroot Poli is now ready!! Serve as snack or breakfast!! 

Tastes too yum try it and you'll know!!

Sending this recipe to Priya's event!

Related recipes

• Beetroot Poriyal (youtoocancookindianfood.blogspot.com)