Sweet Potato Poli

How long it takes: 1 hour

Number of servings: 10 polis

Called by different names in different cultures but relished by all cultures, I’m talking about the humble sweet potato/kananaga/genasu/ratalu in English, Konkani, Kannada and Marathi respectively. Unlike the more popular but cumbersome puran poli, this poli is delicious AND can be easily prepared at an hour’s notice. Readers of this blog have loved the recipe for sweet potato chips and I hope you will enjoy this poli with equal relish.

What you need to have:

1.  Cooked sweet potato pieces – 1 cup

2. Chopped jaggery – adjust according to the sweetness level of the sweet potatoes

3. Cardamom – 10

4. Poppy seeds – 2 Teaspoon

5. Fresh grated coconut – 2 Tablespoons

6. Pure ghee – 2 Tablespoons( as required)

Fresh Sweet Potatoes

Peeled and chopped sweet potato pieces

Other ingredients of stuffing

What you do with what you have:

1. Wash, peel and cut the sweet potatoes into cubes / bite size pieces (image-2)  and cook it in the cooker for about 20 minutes / until soft. If you cook the cut pieces in a vessel that is then placed in the cooker, you do not need water into the vessel and need to only use as much water as the pressure cooker itself needs for the cooking process. On cooling, grate the cooked sweet potato pieces and keep it aside.

Cooked sweet potato pieces waiting to be grated

2. Place a skillet on medium flame with 2 teaspoons of pure ghee.  When hot, add jaggery and grated coconut and grated sweet potato from step-1 to it and mix well into a chapati dough-like consistency. Switch off the flame and allow to cool.

3. In a spatula, dry roast poppy seeds, powder it on cooling and add it to the sweet potato stuffing.

The stuffing

4. Shape it into round balls and keep it aside.

The stuffing being shaped into round balls

Ingredients of the outer dough:

1. Wheat atta – 1 Cup

2. Cooking oil – 2 Tablespoons

3. Salt – As required

Ingredients of the outer dough

5. Sieve atta with salt and add water in steps to prepare a soft dough. Add drops of cooking oil while kneading and keep aside for around 20 minutes.  Pinch out the required quantity of the atta and knead it into round balls. Flatten and roll them inro 3″ circles and place the stuffing balls from step-3 into it. Fold the edges in such a way that it is closed well.

Dough, pinched out ball and the roti in which stuffing is placed

6. Close the edges and roll it on a thick plastic sheet and as shown in the image below.

Rolled out poli ready to be fried

7. Place a non-stick tawa on medium flame, spurt a little ghee on it and place the rolled roti on it.

Sweet Potato poli being fried

Sweet Potato poli being fried

8. Flip and roast it on the other side splashing a little pure ghee. Repeat the same process for the remaining polis. Enjoy it with pure ghee or plain.  It will remain fresh for about 3-4 days at room temperature else, can preserved in the refrigerator.

Poli being flipped and roasted

A closer view of poli

How long it takes: 1 hour

Number of servings: 10 polis

Good to remember:

 1. Two varieties of sweet potato are available.  One of them when cooked is a little hard and the other one turns very smooth and also will be light cream and pink in colour.  We can use any but it needs to be grated or crushed to make a smooth stuffing.

2. Quantity of jaggery depends upon the sweetness of the root.

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