Recipe
🥙 LUNCH
Dholl Puri
Feather-soft flatbreads with ground split peas hidden in the dough, folded around bean curry and chutney.
Mauritian · medium · serves 4
prep 40 min · cook 30 min
~641 cal · 19g protein · 106g carbs · 15g fat · 12g fiber · 7g sugars · 2g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Dholl puri is the street-food soul of Mauritius, a soft, pliable flatbread with a filling of ground yellow split peas worked right into the dough before it's rolled thin and griddled. It arrived with indentured laborers from India in the 19th century and evolved on the island into something distinctly Mauritian, sold by the thousands from roadside stalls in Port Louis.
What makes it a meal is the way it's served: two warm dholl puris are stacked, spread with a curry of butter beans or other beans, doused with rougaille tomato sauce and fiery pickled chili, then folded into a soft parcel you eat with your hands. The best vendors sell out by midday.
More than a snack, dholl puri is a point of national pride and a taste of the island's Indo-Mauritian heritage. It is the food of morning commutes, lunch breaks, and weekend markets, cheap, filling, and eaten across every community on the island.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian, vegan and dairy-, nut-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
1 cup yellow split peas
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp ground cumin
2.5 cups butter beans or red beans, cooked (for the cari gros pois)
2 tomatoes
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
1 tbsp ginger (for the curry)
2 sprigs thyme (for the curry)
1 bunch cilantro
1 green chili (for a quick chutney)
4 tbsp
Instructions
1
Boil the split peas with turmeric and cumin until just tender; drain well and grind to a fine, dry crumb.
2
Knead the flour with water, salt, and a spoon of oil into a soft dough. Rest 30 minutes.
3
Stuff each dough ball with a generous spoon of pea crumb, seal, and roll out gently into thin rounds.
4
Cook on a hot griddle, brushing lightly with oil, until soft and blistered, never crisp; they must fold like cloth.
5
Simmer the beans with tomato, onion, garlic, ginger, and thyme into a loose, almost soupy curry. Blitz cilantro and chili with salt for chutney.
6
Serve in pairs: two puris, curry down the middle, chutney over, folded and eaten immediately.
Port Louis street tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Port Louis. Dholl puri came ashore with the people who made it. Indian indentured labourers were landed from 1834 at the Aapravasi Ghat here in Port Louis, now a World Heritage site, and the flatbread they brought is stuffed with ground split peas, cooked dry without oil, and served in pairs with butter bean curry and rougaille.
🗺️
Mauritius. Mauritius had no indigenous population at all, so the melting-pot description is literal rather than decorative: everyone on the island descends from someone brought or arrived, whether enslaved from Africa and Madagascar, indentured from India, migrant from China, or colonial from France and Britain. The cooking is the record of that, four traditions using the same tomatoes, chillies and coriander.
🌍
Africa. Africa's fifty-four nations hold cuisines as different as Morocco's slow-cooked tagines and South Africa's open-fire braai, yet shared threads run through them: ancient grains like millet, sorghum, and teff; stews thickened with groundnut, okra, or palm; and fiery condiments from Tunisian harissa to Ethiopian berbere. Staple starches, fufu, injera, ugali, couscous, anchor communal meals often eaten by hand from a shared dish, where hospitality is a point of honor.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Mauritius
RougailleA Creole tomato stew of Mauritius, simmered with thyme, ginger, and curry leaf around fish or sausage.
Farata with Butter Bean CurryFlaky griddled flatbread (farata) served with a light butter-bean curry, a popular Mauritian breakfast.
Mine FriteWok-fried egg noodles tossed with chicken, prawns, and vegetables in a savory sauce, Mauritius's favorite street lunch.
Browse all Mauritius recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Griddle or flat pan, Blender, Rolling pin.
Storing it: Best the day it is made. Wrap well and refresh in a warm oven, or freeze and reheat straight from frozen.
Make it a Mauritius meal
AloudaDrink
NapolitaineDessert
RougailleDinner
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Frequently asked questions
What is Dholl Puri?
Feather-soft flatbreads with ground split peas hidden in the dough, folded around bean curry and chutney.
Where does Dholl Puri come from?
Dholl Puri is a Mauritian dish from Port Louis, Mauritius.
Can Dholl Puri be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Dholl Puri recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Dholl Puri safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Dholl Puri take to make?
About 70 minutes total (40 minutes prep, 30 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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