Puran Poli on Holi

Holi Hai

My son asked me, Papa why do we celebrate Holi. I for once had to think and then gave him one reason. This is the onset of spring "phagun". The Spring brings lot of colour into our life and hence it is celebrated as a festival of colours. Did you know, This is only one reason however I got to know that there are other reasons for celebrating this festival.
Destruction of Holika. She is a mythological chaterctor, sister of Hiranyakashyapu. To punish his son Prahalad who was worshiping lord Narayan or Vishnu, Hiranyakashyapu asked his sister Holika to hold Prahalad and sit on the fire. (Holika had the boon that the fire cannot burn her), however when she sat along with Prahalad on her lap, Holika was burnt down to ashes and Prahalad came out unhurt.
The other reason is the Raaslila, where in Lord Krishna performed dance along with the Gopis in Brindavan and hence colours are used to display happyness.


Well this is why Holi, now let’s see how we celebrate holi. Holi has always been associated with Colours and lots of sweets. Yes and in some places the Bhang. On this day people will go to their friend's and relative's houses with colours (Gulaal and other water based colours) and apply on each other. Every house has some or the other sweet ready to serve the visitors. The most common of them are the laddos and Puran poli.


Puran poli is one of my favourite sweets, one reason is that my mom makes the best puran poli.
Puran poli is mostly sweet of Maharashtra, Andhra and Karnataka. it is combination Roti and Puran. Puran is made from boiling the chick peas (the Chana dal) till they are soft. After draining the water, add adequate jaggery and mix it well. My Mom uses the stone roll to grind the ingredients into soft paste (prefer not to use the mixer grinder). You can also add cardamom seeds for aroma.
On the other had prepare dough of wheat atta and maida mix. Maida gives some elasticity for the rotis (as per mom). Now, take a silver foil, apply ghee and start making small rotis with the Puran filling. Shallow fry these rotis on the tawa and serve hot along with another serving of ghee on it.








Yummy, mummy you are great.

So this Holi, lets celebrate with non-toxic colours and yummy puran poli