Desi.Net — Desi Lifestyle›🍲 Recipes›Sindhi›Dal Pakwan

Dal Pakwanدال پڪوان

⏱ Prep 20m🍳 Cook 45m🍽 Serves 4🌿 Vegan

Video: Your Food Lab (YouTube)

Dal pakwan is the Sunday breakfast that Sindhi households have built a ritual around — a celebration of contrasts between the crackling flatbread and the soft, tangy chana dal beneath it. The pakwan is rolled thin as a papad and fried until it blisters and snaps like a cracker, and the dal is kept deliberately whole and sour with dry mango powder. What makes the assembled plate special is the layering of toppings: a drizzle of dark tamarind chutney, a spoonful of green chilli chutney, and a scatter of raw onion that cuts through the richness. No Sindhi wedding or Sunday is complete without it.

📍 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

🌍 Cooking abroad? Substitutions
  • Dry mango powder (amchur): Available at all South Asian grocery stores and on online spice retailers. A squeeze of fresh lemon juice (about 1 tbsp) added at the end of cooking is a reasonable substitute for tartness, though the slightly fruity depth of amchur is unique.
  • Maida (plain flour): All-purpose flour works identically. For a slightly sturdier pakwan, replace up to one-third of the maida with whole wheat flour, though the colour will be darker and the texture less light.
  • Tamarind chutney: Ready-made tamarind-date chutney (sold as "imli chutney" at South Asian stores and many mainstream supermarkets) is what most Sindhi households now use. Making it from scratch — tamarind soaked in water with jaggery and ginger — takes 20 extra minutes but the flavour is noticeably fresher.

Method

  1. 1Soak the chana dal in plenty of cold water for at least 3-4 hours, or overnight. Drain well before cooking.
  2. 2Cook the chana dal: Place the drained dal in a pot with 2 cups of fresh water and the turmeric. Bring to a boil, skim off any foam, then reduce heat and cook partially covered for 30-35 minutes until the dal is just tender but each grain still holds its shape — not mushy. Drain off any excess water. While still warm, stir in the amchur, coriander powder, cumin powder, red chilli powder, and salt. Mix gently so the grains stay whole. Taste for tartness — Sindhi dal pakwan dal is meant to be noticeably sour from the amchur.
  3. 3Make the pakwan dough: Combine maida, semolina, cumin seeds, carom seeds, and salt in a bowl. Add 2 tbsp of oil and rub it in until the flour clumps when squeezed. Add cold water, a tablespoon at a time (roughly 70-80 ml), and knead into a firm, smooth dough — similar to puri dough but slightly stiffer. Cover with a damp cloth and rest for 20 minutes.
  4. 4Divide the dough into 10-12 equal balls. On a lightly floured surface, roll each ball into a thin circle about 15-16 cm in diameter and 2-3 mm thick — thinner than a roti but thicker than a papad. Prick the surface all over with a fork to prevent the pakwan from puffing unevenly during frying.
  5. 5Heat oil for deep-frying in a kadai or deep pan to 160-170°C — a piece of dough should rise steadily but not violently. Slide in a pakwan gently. It will sink, then begin to rise. Fry for 3-4 minutes, turning once, until both sides are a uniform pale gold and crisp throughout. Do not fry on high heat or the outside will colour before the inside dries out. Drain on a wire rack, not paper towels, to keep them crisp.
  6. 6Assemble just before eating: Place 1-2 pakwans on a plate. Spoon a generous amount of warm chana dal on top. Drizzle both chutneys over the dal. Finish with a scatter of chopped onion and fresh coriander.
  7. 7Serve the extra pakwans stacked on the side for dipping — they hold their crispness for about an hour at room temperature.

A Desi.Net original recipe · part of our Indian Cuisine library. Confirm details and adjust to taste.

Dal Pakwan Recipe — Sindhi (دال پڪوان)