Welcome to Afghan Dastarkhwan: Eating healthy on a budget in the United States!
Bolani Recipe
Now that you have learned about food budgets and other saving strategies let’s discover a food story from Zohra who shared with us what simple meal she made when she first arrived in the U.S. from Afghanistan.
When Zohra first came to the U.S. she and her family lived in a city, and didn’t know many Afghans.
She had to find something she could easily cook with the ingredients they had and she needed to make something for her husband to take to work. For one year, she ended up making a lot of Bolani! Zohra started by giving her husband four Bolani to take to work, but soon he was coming home and saying that he didn’t have enough. She was surprised to hear this because Bolani is a lot of food. It turned out that his co-workers also liked his Bolani. Soon Zohra was making 6 a day and he would constantly ask for more. Zohra remembers her first year in America to be the year of Bolani. To this day Zohra and her husband hear from those friends - who say, “We are missing Bolani”.
Bolani is such a great food because you can make it with anything you wish - meat, squash, zucchini, potato, and children love it too. If you want to avoid oil because of health reasons you can also bake it in the oven instead of frying it. Zohra’s advice for Afghans coming to America is to cook food at home as it will be cheaper and healthier.
Zohra now makes bread, mantu, pizza, yogurt and curd at home. She doesn't order from places and saves a lot of money. She buys some things like rice from Costco, vegetables from Aldi or Lidl, and spices and meat from Walmart or International Supermarkets and Halal meat from Afghan shops.
This is all great advice from Zohra. Cooking at home with fresh ingredients is healthier and cheaper.
Time to cook!
Let’s learn Zohra’s recipe for Bolani.
Number of Serving: 5
Cooking Time: 1.5 Hrs
Ingredients:
1. 4 cups of All Purpose Flour
2. Salt as needed
3. 4-5 tablespoons of vegetable oil for frying
4. 1 egg
5. 3 boiled potatoes
6. 1 tomato
7. 1 Bunch of coriander (called cilantro in the US)
8. 1 bunch of green onions
9. 1 small bag of spinach
10. Black pepper
11. Green chili peppers ( for spice)
12. Coriander seed
13. Water - enough to keep the dough soft, not hard (approximately 1 cup of water for 3 cups of flour.)
Instructions:
1. Let’s start with dough: Add flour, salt, egg, and enough water to make the dough, make sure it’s not too runny or too dry.
2. For the filling: cut all the above vegetables and herbs into small pieces.
3. Mash the potato separately.
4. Then add ground black pepper, salt, ground coriander seed, sliced green pepper based on your taste preference. (The pepper and coriander seed you can grind up ahead of time into a powder.)
5. Mix all the vegetables and spices together and add into the mashed potatoes.
6. Cut the dough into small pieces and roll into small balls with a rolling pin.
7. Roll the ball into a thin circle.
8. Then add three tablespoons of the filling ingredients in the half side of the circle dough
9. Then fold the other half side onto the ingredients and seal the Bolani.
10. Turn on the heat and use a flat pan.
11. Add Oil and fry the Bolani one by one, until golden, then serve.
12. For oven baking, lay on a non stick parchment paper in an oven safe baking tray
13. Bake until golden ( 240 degrees Fahrenheit 10 mins).
Some people like their Bolani with all of these vegetables, but others prefer not to add tomatoes or spicy green peppers. It is up to you and your family. You can add as much spice as you like as well.
Don’t forget to share with your friends!
Be sure and watch all the videos in our video series on eating healthy on a budget in the US.
28 авг 2024
