In a Maharashtrian home, you can tell a festival is coming from the smell alone. Chana dal bubbling away in the morning, gul melting into it, and then that warm whiff of elaichi and jaifal that fills the whole building. Someone is making puran. By lunch there will be a stack of polis wrapped in a cloth, and a pot of katachi aamti on the side.
Puranpoli is the sanasudicha goad ghaas - the sweet bite that tells you it is a festival day.
What goes into our puranpoli 🌾
The puran (the filling) is simple, and that is why it has to be done right:
- Chana dal, cooked soft and then mashed smooth
- Gul (jaggery) for sweetness - no sugar
- Elaichi powder and jaifal (nutmeg) for that familiar festival fragrance
- Fresh adrak (ginger), finely shredded, for a gentle warmth that cuts through the sweetness
The puran is cooked down until it holds together, then stuffed into a soft wheat dough and rolled thin by hand, so the filling reaches right to the edges. Each poli goes on the tava and comes off with a few golden spots, and gets a spoon of pure ghee on top.
How we eat it at home 🍽️
There is no one right way, and every family will tell you theirs is the best. These are the two that never leave our table:
1. Puranpoli with gulavni. Gulavni is a thin, sweet milk made of milk, gul and water. You tear a piece of hot puranpoli and dip it in, or pour the gulavni over the top and let it soak in. Soft, warm and very comforting.
2. Puranpoli with katachi aamti. When the chana dal is cooked for the puran, the water it was boiled in (the kat) is never thrown away. It becomes katachi aamti: a thin, tangy, spicy dal made with that kat, a little chana dal, coconut and goda masala. The spicy aamti next to the sweet poli is the whole point. One bite of each, back and forth.
For the full festival thali, the katachi aamti is poured over a mound of Indrayani rice - the soft, slightly sticky, fragrant rice from the Maval region near Pune. Puranpoli, gulavni, aamti-bhaat and a little ghee. That is a meal people remember.
Or keep it simple: just puranpoli and katachi aamti, nothing else. Nobody will complain.
When puranpoli is made 🪔
Puranpoli is the naivedya on the big days of the Maharashtrian year:
- Gudi Padwa, the Marathi new year
- Holi, when puranpoli is offered to the Holi fire before the family eats
- Pujas, weddings and family functions, and any day an important guest is coming home
Because it takes a good part of the day to make properly, it was always the dish that said “today is special”.
Puranpoli across India 🇮🇳
Almost every region has its own version of a sweet stuffed flatbread, and each one is different:
- In Maharashtra, it is chana dal and gul, with elaichi and jaifal, as above.
- In Gujarat, vedmi is often made with tur dal.
- In Karnataka, holige or obbattu is the same idea, sometimes with coconut in the filling.
- In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, it is bobbatlu.
- Up north, in UP, it is mostly made salty: salt goes into the dal filling in place of the jaggery, so it is a savoury poli rather than a sweet one.
Same idea, different kitchens. Ours is the Maharashtrian one, the way it has always been made at home.
Keeping and reheating
Puranpoli is a fresh food. It is best eaten the same day, and keeps for 24-36 hours. If you are not eating it the same day, keep it in the fridge. To reheat, warm it on a tava on low heat with a little ghee on both sides - it softens right back up.
Ordering puranpoli 📦
We make puranpoli fresh to order, in packs of 5. If you want it for a festival, a puja or guests on a particular day, tell us a few days ahead so it reaches you fresh. Make the katachi aamti at home, warm the gulavni, and the festival thali is ready.