Easy Trinidad Pholourie Recipe with Split Peas Powder - We Trini Food (2024)

Pholourie is a seasoned, deep fried dough ball made with flour, split peas powder, turmeric and seasonings. It’s a popular street snack in T&T and can be considered vegan, although it contains yeast.

Pholourie is often served with chutneys and sauces including tamarind sauce. Some vendors also sell other street favorites like doubles, aloo pie, saheena and more.

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Pholourie ingredients

For this homemade recipe, you will need:

• all purpose flour
• split peas powder: or dhal flour adds a great texture and taste (get on Amazon).
• yeast: creates that airy, pillow soft texture.
• sugar: helps to activate the yeast.
• seasoning: like garlic, chadon beni, salt, and pepper.
• turmeric: gives that beautiful yellow color.
• water: for kneading and dipping hands before frying.
• oil: for frying

If you don’t want to make this recipe from scratch, you can buy pholourie mix. Simply add water, mix to form a smooth paste and start frying.

Instructional video

How to make pholourie from scratch

Knead

Step 1: Add the flour, split peas powder, yeast, turmeric, sugar, salt and pepper to a large bowl. Mix everything together.

Step 2: Blend the chadon beni and garlic together with some water until smooth. Add to the dry ingredients and start kneading. Also, add the water gradually and continue kneading.

Step 3: The batter should be very soft and slurry-like. Whip the batter to loosen any flour lumps in there. Lumps will burst in the hot oil and can burn you pretty badly (and make a mess too). So, be sure the batter is very smooth.

Leave to rest

Step 4: With the batter mixed well, cover and leave to rest for about 45 minutes. This gives the yeast time to activate.

Fry

Step 5: Place a large pot on the stove on medium heat. Leave to heat up for a few minutes before adding about two or three cups of vegetable oil. Allow to heat up for about five to ten minutes. The oil should be nice and hot when frying.

Step 6: My mother-in-law has a great technique for perfect pholourie. She does this by dipping her hand in a bowl of water before scooping up some batter. She closes her fingers to form a loose fist then turns her hand thumb side down over the oil. She usually squeezes her fingers to push the batter out of her hand through the space between her thumb and index finger. Doing this makes the pholourie rounded. (Check out the youtube video above for more).

Step 7: When enough batter is squeezed out she slides her thumb to her index finger so the pholourie drops into the hot oil. Repeat to fill the pot with pholourie. You can also use an oiled spoon to drop the batter but it will not be as rounded or smooth.

Step 8: In the oil, the pholourie sinks to the bottom but will eventually expand and float to the top. Turn after 3 or 4 minutes to ensure even browning.

Step 9: Remove after another three or four minutes and place in an airtight container lined with napkins or wax paper. Cover to trap the heat and keep the pholourie soft. For this recipe, you will have three or four batches to fry before you’re done.

Here’s a look at inside.

What to serve with pholourie

This fried snack is often served with sauces and chutneys. You can try my tamarind sauce recipe with it – that’s the sauce in the photo above. Mango chutney and pommecythere (golden apple) chutney are also popular dipping sauces.

Easy pholourie recipe