Luchiলুচি
⏱ Prep 25m🍳 Cook 20m🍽 Serves 4🌿 Vegan
Video: Sanjeev Kapoor Khazana (YouTube)
Luchi is the deep-fried, puffed flatbread that anchors Bengali breakfasts and festive spreads alike. Made from refined wheat flour and fried in hot oil until it balloons into a golden dome, it is the everyday luxury of the Bengali table — simple to make, impossible to eat just one. Serve immediately with alur dom or chholar dal; it deflates as it cools and must be eaten straight from the kadai.
📍 Make it in Plano
This recipe is the same everywhere — but where you buy the ingredients and eat the dish is local to you.
Finding Desi spots near Plano…
Ingredients
- ▪Maida (refined wheat flour)2 cups
- ▪Salt½ tsp
- ▪Sugar½ tsp
- ▪Ghee (or neutral oil)2 tbsp
- ▪Lukewarm water½ cup, adjust as needed
- ▪Oilfor deep frying (500ml in a kadai)
🌍 Cooking abroad? Substitutions
- Maida is all-purpose flour — the names are interchangeable. If you're in the UK, plain flour works identically.
- Ghee adds a nutty depth; swap with refined oil (sunflower, canola) for a neutral-flavoured, vegan luchi.
- Suji (semolina, 1 tbsp added per cup of maida) gives a slightly crisper luchi favoured in some households — worth trying once you have the basic technique.
Method
- 1Combine maida, salt, and sugar in a mixing bowl. Add ghee and rub it in with your fingertips until the flour resembles coarse sand — this fat coating is what makes the luchi stay tender.
- 2Add lukewarm water a little at a time, kneading into a smooth, stiff dough. Luchi dough should be firmer than chapati dough; a soft dough won't puff. Knead for 5 minutes until the surface is silky.
- 3Divide into 12–14 equal balls. Cover with a damp cloth and rest for 15 minutes.
- 4Roll each ball into a disc 4–5 inches across on a very lightly oiled surface — use oil rather than dry flour so the frying oil stays clean.
- 5Heat oil in a kadai or deep pot to 180°C (350°F). Test by dropping a tiny piece of dough: it should rise to the surface within 2 seconds.
- 6Slide one luchi into the oil and immediately press gently with a slotted spoon to keep it submerged — this pressure causes the steam to inflate it. Fry 20–25 seconds per side until pale golden, not brown.
- 7Drain on paper towels and serve within a minute. Fry the remaining luchis in batches; keep them covered loosely with a kitchen cloth to stay puffed a little longer.
A Desi.Net original recipe · part of our Indian Cuisine library. Confirm details and adjust to taste.