Soft poori recipe or halwa puri recipe for breakfast or dinner to help you learn how to make Indian style easy and soft deep fried/puffed bread with wheat flour.
Poori or puri is a very popular Indian food enjoyed throughout India. Its basically a fried unleavened bread which is often enjoyed as a breakfast food, snack, street food and also popular as dinner food in India.
In fact, poori or puri is a delicious deep fried breakfast bread popular in the Indian subcontinent.
What Is Halwa Poori?
Halwa poori (or halva puri) is a popular dish served in many parts of India.
Basically, you serve poori with the dessert halwa and also other side dishes like chana masala.
Poori when served with halwa and chana masala or chole masala (may be accompanied by other dishes as well), is a fantastic combination and this is known as halwa poori in general.
That simply means a simple and delicious breakfast consisting of poori, halwa and chana masala and may be with other side dishes too.
This breakfast is easy to make if you know how to make soft poori, halwa and chana masala.
Keep in mind that when this dish is made for festivals like Navratri (halwa puri is a very popular dish served during the festival of Navratri), the chana masala is often made differently using kala chana or black chana ( the chickpeas with black or dark brown skin) and it is made without using onions or garlic or even masala as sukha kala chana or dry kala chana also known as kadala sundal.
You can also serve halwa puri for dinner or a slightly heavy evening snack as well, as this combinations is too delicious and often enjoyed for snack and dinner as well.
Halwa is a very popular Indian dessert which is made of flour, sugar, ghee etc as main ingredients and there are many kinds of halwas.
The halwa that is most commonly served for halwa poori breakfast is sooji halwa which is made of sooji (rava/semolina flour), ghee & sugar. But you may also serve other halwas like carrot halwa (gajar ka halwa), besan ka halwa etc as you may prefer.
You can also make halwa poori with luchi poori.
How To Make Soft Poori?
Making soft poori or puri is not that hard, in fact making soft pooris are easier than making soft chapathis 🙂 See my post here on how to make soft chapathis at home.
For a long time I thought that making soft puffed up pooris is even more difficult than making soft chapathis at home, and chapathi making was not easy for me either.
Poori or puri is the most common, basic and popular fried flatbread food item from the Indian subcontinent which is prepared without using yeast.
Bhatura is another very popular Indian flatbread which is deep fried as well, but its made mostly using all purpose flour and yeast.
We use wheat atta flour to make poori, I also used a little sooji flour (durum wheat flour) for even better texture.
Growing up in South India, dosa was more common in my home than chapathis though we love chapathis very much for dinner and breakfast.
However I did want to learn tips to make soft chapathis also, since we love chapathis for dinner at least a few times every week.
With some practice, I found workarounds to make soft chapathis at home easily.
And even then, I was thinking making pooris were more difficult than making chapathis at home.
Its only much later that I realized making soft poori is much easier than making chapathis as the cooking time for pooris is lesser than the cooking time for chapathis and also you do not have to rest the dough in advance, and also the rolling is way easier since the size of poori is smaller than that of chapathi.
If you follow the instructions and tips to make soft pooris, you can easily make delicious soft poori at home.
So here is how you can make simple, easy, delicious poori following this soft poori recipe.
Ingredients to make soft poori (halwa puri)
2 cups wheat atta flour (may need a little more as you knead)
salt as needed
3 tablespoons sooji flour
1 cup water (adjust as needed)
1 to 2 tablespoons oil
extra flour for dusting
Steps To Follow (The Process)
Preparing The Dough
In a bowl, mix together the dry ingredients first - wheat flour (Indian atta flour), salt and sooji flour.
Add the water and oil (its good if you can use warm or hot water), mix well with the flour and knead well to make a dough. If the dough is too sticky, you may add more wheat flour, but add little by little as needed to make the perfect dough.
If the mixture is dry and in case you are unable to make the dough (this is very unlikely), you may add very little oil or water (few drops will be enough) and knead again to make the dough.
If its turning too sticky, as I mentioned earlier, you will need to add more flour, little by little until you get the right consistency for the dough.
To Make The Poori
Once you make the dough (no need of resting time for making poori unlike in case of chapathis), make very small sized balls out of the dough.
Heat enough oil in a frying pan to make the pooris.
Take one dough ball, slightly press with your palms to flatten it, dust with flour on both sides (using the extra flour that we have) and then roll it thinly using a rolling pin by keeping it over a clean, flat surface.
Gently place the flattened dough in hot oil. Press the dough all over with a good quality spatula very gently without breaking the dough, as this helps with puffing of the poori. As the poori puffs up, use a spoon to pour some hot oil over the puffed top surface, which will help with the texture.
As one side of the poori is cooked, gently flip and cook the other side too.
Transfer the cooked poori to a serving dish or aluminium foil lined with paper towel, which will help absorb any excess oil it may have.
Similarly cook all the pooris until the dough is all finished.
Pictures From The Preparation Of Poori
The below picture shows the kneaded dough ready to be made into small balls and rolled to make pooris
The dough is divided into small balls and the first ball is rolled which will be fried to make poori
The poori got puffed up in the hot oil and the bottom side is getting cooked.
Poori is flipped and cooking the other side too!
Delicious hot pooris are ready to serve!
How To Serve Puri?
You can serve puri (poori) with any curry of your choice, though chana masala (or chole masala) and potato based side dishes are the most popular.
As I have mentioned in this post, puri with chana masala and halwa is often known as halwa puri, which is a very popular way to serve poori for breakfast or dinner.
Poori with potatoes like this potato curry for poori is known as poori masala.
To make poori masala, you can also serve poori with aloo ka bharta (mashed potato masala) or potato masala curry.
However, poori tastes delicious with most of the curry or side dishes for chapathi as well, like paneer curry, dal curry etc and you may also serve it with chutneys or yogurt or tomato onion raita & pickles as well.
In fact, this delicious fried bread goes well with almost any kind of curry or side dish that you like and they are delicious on its own too even without any side dishes!
Related blog posts:
bhatura recipe (fried Indian bread with yeast)
easy homemade naan bread recipe
Below you can get soft poori recipe or halwa puri recipe in detail.
Soft Poori (Halwa Puri) Deep Fried Flatbread
Ingredients
- 2 cups wheat atta flour (may need a little more as you knead)
- salt as needed
- 3 tablespoons sooji flour
- 1 cup water (adjust as needed)
- 1 to 2 tablespoons oil
- extra flour for dusting
Instructions
Preparing The Dough
- In a bowl, mix together the dry ingredients first - wheat flour (Indian atta flour), salt and sooji flour.
- Add the water and oil (its good if you can use warm or hot water), mix well with the flour and knead well to make a dough. If the dough is too sticky, you may add more wheat flour, but add little by little as needed to make the perfect dough. If the mixture is dry and in case you are unable to make the dough (this is very unlikely), you may add very little oil or water (few drops will be enough) and knead again to make the dough. If its turning too sticky, as I mentioned earlier, you will need to add more flour, little by little until you get the right consistency for the dough.
To Make The Poori
- Once you make the dough (no need of resting time for making poori unlike in case of chapathis), make very small sized balls out of the dough.
- Heat enough oil in a frying pan to make the pooris.
- Take one dough ball, slightly press with your palms to flatten it, dust with flour on both sides (using the extra flour that we have) and then roll it thinly using a rolling pin by keeping it over a clean, flat surface.
- Gently place the flattened dough in hot oil. Press the dough all over with a good quality spatula very gently without breaking the dough, as this helps with puffing of the poori. As the poori puffs up, use a spoon to pour some hot oil over the puffed top surface, which will help with the texture.
- As one side of the poori is cooked, gently flip and cook the other side too.
- Transfer the cooked poori to a serving dish or aluminium foil lined with paper towel, which will help absorb any excess oil it may have.
- Similarly cook all the pooris until the dough is all finished. Serve the poori hot with any of your favorite side dishes, some recommendations will be potato masala for poori, easy potato curry, chana masala (chole masala), tomato fry, onion tomato curry, onion fry etc along with some fresh yogurt or raita (salad with yogurt) and also halwa if you like halwa puri.
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