- Country of origin
- 🇲🇺 Mauritius
- Category
- Street Food
- Difficulty
- ●●○ Medium
- Preparation
- 40 min (+ resting)
- Cooking
- 20 min
- Servings
- 4 servings (8 flatbreads)
Nutrition, per serving
Calculated from the raw ingredient quantities in the recipe below, divided by four servings (eight flatbreads).
Split peas are the real nutritional story here: 16 g of fiber per serving, an unusually high figure for a flatbread, plus 23 g of protein — both from the legume filling rather than the flour dough, which contributes mostly starch and very little fat overall (just 7 g per serving, before the rougail and curry it’s traditionally rolled around).
History
Dholl puri is a thin flatbread stuffed with pre-cooked, roasted, and ground yellow split peas, a specialty of Mauritius inherited from the significant 19th-century Indian immigration that deeply shaped Mauritian gastronomy.
Sold as street food across the island, often wrapped around rougail (a spiced tomato condiment) and curry, dholl puri has become one of the symbols of Mauritian street food, eaten as breakfast as much as a full meal on the go, at midday or in the evening.
Ingredients — serves 4 (8 flatbreads)
- 400 g (14 oz) flour
- 200 g (7 oz) yellow split peas
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 1 pinch baking powder
- Salt
- Oil for cooking
- Rougail and curry, to serve
Dholl puri, step by step
- Cook the split peas in water until tender, then drain thoroughly.
- Dry-roast the cooked split peas in a pan to remove moisture, then grind them with the turmeric.
- Prepare a soft dough with the flour, baking powder, salt, and water.
- Divide the dough into balls, fill each with ground split peas, then roll out each stuffed ball thinly.
- Cook each flatbread on a lightly oiled hot griddle, flipping several times.
- Serve hot, wrapped around rougail and curry, Mauritian style.
Cooking method
Technique: filling worked into the dough before rolling rather than added after cooking, for an evenly flavored flatbread.
Traditional equipment: flat griddle (tawa), Mauritian street market.
Signs of doneness: the flatbread should stay soft and lightly golden in spots, without drying out during cooking.
Economic context
Flour and split peas are both inexpensive pantry staples, which is exactly why dholl puri works as a street food sold cheaply and constantly across Mauritius — closer to a quick breakfast bought on the way to work than to a dish anyone plans a special trip for.
Source: World Bank / FAO, Food Prices for Nutrition database (Cost and Affordability of a Healthy Diet) v4.0, 2024 data, CC BY 4.0, DOI 10.57966/41AN-KY81. Retrieved 29 July 2026. This figure describes the cost of a healthy diet in Mauritius generally — it is not a costing of this specific recipe.
Who this dish suits
Fits well with
- Diets emphasizing plant-based fiber and protein from legumes
- High-carbohydrate, active eating patterns
Worth knowing
- Contains gluten from the wheat flour dough
- Traditionally rolled around rougail and curry, which add fat, sodium and calories not counted in the figures above
- Naturally low in saturated fat, since the base recipe uses no dairy or animal fat
What about you?
In your opinion, where’s the best place or restaurant to enjoy great dholl puri?