Khaman Dhokla Recipe | Khaman

Updated on July 24, 2023 by Raks Anand 129 Comments / Jump to Recipe

Khaman dhokla or simply khaman is an instant version steamed snack. Light, spongy and soft Gujarati Farsaan is a popular snack across India.

Perfect tea time snack, party pleaser and for get togethers. You can easily make, everyone will love it!

Check out my other Gujarati snacks in my website, khandvi recipe and Patra recipe. Goes well with this lip smacking easy green chutney.

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Ingredients
My notes
Top tips
Step by step images
Recipe card

Khaman Vs. Dhokla

Though I have named this as Dhokla commonly we know, in Gujarati households, Dhokla is something they make with fermented batter and cream in colour. This is called khaman, where we make it with besan and the instant version.

Very few people outside Gujarat know this difference. Also, khaman since instant version uses cooking soda giving it lighter texture.

Ingredients

Here are the ingredients needed:

Besan - Gram flour - is ground chana dal. It is technically different from chickpea flour which is ground chickpeas while besan is fine flour made out of chana dal (Which is in turn split chickpeas without skin)
Eno - fruit salt is added in the batter for fluffy and light texture.
Curd - Plain yogurt, reacts and gives airy tiny bubbles. Since this is not fermented batter, curd helps with taste too.
Lemon juice - Added for tart to balance taste and this reacts as well with the fruit salt or cooking soda.

See recipe card for full list with quantities.

My notes

I have used eno to prepare instant khaman dhokla, you can use the blue plain flavour or green lemon flavour. Lemon flavour works best. Please note lemon flavor is slightly sweet but it goes well in this recipe.

If you want to replace eno, replace eno with ½ teaspoon cooking soda (Sodium bicarbonate) for this recipe measurements. I recently made these again and took for a potluck, thought of updating with video on how to make dhokla.

Top tips

Make sure the fruit salt or sodium bicarbonate is a fresh stock. If it is not, then you may get a weird smell.
Do not over mix the batter.
After mixing, immediately steam, do not give standing time after mixing eno.
Place inside the steamer after water boils.
Add turmeric carefully or skip it completely.

So here’s the Khaman dhokla recipe which I made from the recipe book I have…

Step by step images

Prep

Firstly, crush ginger and green chilli to a paste.
Secondly, take a flat bottomed vessel, (I used the cooker container) grease it generously with oil.

Make batter

After that, take besan in a mixing bowl.
Then add the crushed ginger chilli, water, curd, lemon juice, turmeric, sugar and salt to it.

Mix well furthermore and keep aside.
After that, add the fruit salt to the besan mixture only at the time you are going to steam. Make sure to mix well.

Steam khaman

Then, cook this mixture for 10-12 minutes.
Insert a knife to check if its done. It should come out clean.
Keep for 5 minutes to cool down and then invert to a plate. Cut into squares.

Tempering

Heat oil in a tadka pan. Once hot, add mustard, let it splutter. Then, add asafoetida, chillies to it.

Then, spread it over the steamed khaman.

Optional step

Add ¼ cup water and 1 tablespoon sugar to the tadka, bring to a boil. After that, spread (pour) it over the dhokla.

And serve it with green chutney. I cut them into squares, you can even cut it like we cut Pizza...

My khaman dhokla were denser, bitter in taste, weird smelling. Why?

Most probably the fruit salt or sodium bicarbonate did not work in the recipe. Make sure to use fresh batch.
To test yours, add a generous pinch to lemon juice and see if it briskly bubbles. Otherwise, change the brand.
Take note, Eno and cooking soda are not same. So do not add 1 & ½ teaspoon of cooking soda in place of eno. It will definitely go bad.
Do not reduce curd, lemon juice in the recipe.

Recipe card

Print Pin

5 from 14 votes

Khaman Dhokla recipe

Khaman or Khaman Dhokla recipe, a healthy snack made with besan, which is way too easy and delicious too. Full video, step by step recipe.

Course Snack

Cuisine Indian

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 15

Servings 4

Equipments (Amazon Affiliate links)

Steamer

Cup measurements

Ingredients

1 cup Besan gram flour
½ cup Curd
½ cup Water
2 Green chilli
1 inch Ginger
1 teaspoon Sugar - 1 tsp
1 teaspoon Lemon juice - 1 tsp
1.5 teaspoon Eno fruit salt Refer notes
Salt
1 pinch Turmeric powder optional
2 tablespoon Coriander leaves
3 tablespoon Coconut Optional

To temper

2 teaspoon Oil - 2 teaspoon
½ teaspoon Mustard - ½ tsp
⅛ teaspoon Asafoetida

Optional

1 tablespoon Sugar
¼ cup water