Bolani is an Afghani appetizer. It is thin flat bread stuffed with leeks and pan fried until golden brown and crispy.  It is so incredibly tasty, but yet so under the radar. To pronounce the name properly just say Bow- Law- Knee. 🙂

In today’s world majority of us can name at least 4 dishes if not more when it comes to most popular cuisines, such as Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Tai, Mexican, etc.  However, there are still some ethnic dishes that are not mainstream or well known. Afghani Cuisine is being one of them.

For me bolani brings back a lot of memories. Most of my childhood memories are with my grandma in the kitchen and cooking for all of us. Me playing with all my cousins, and getting in to trouble.  As a child, I was a very loud and adventurous kid, someone who could never stay still in one spot.  A complete opposite of myself today, who is very shy and quite.

Bolanies can be stuffed with different variety of mixings, such as potatoes, squash, or lentils.  Sometimes when I am making leek bolani, I add kale and spinach to increase the nutritional values even more.

Ingredients for dough:

• 3 cups of all-purpose flour (or more depending on how many bolanies you make)
• salt
• 2-3 tablespoon of Olive oil or vegetable oil
• Boiling hot water (add water in small amount at the time until you reach the desired consistency for the dough)

Ingredients for filling:

• One bunch of Leeks (well washed and chopped into small pieces. Check my Instagram for a short video on how to cut and wash leeks-@roya_today)
• One bunch of spinach (well washed and chopped into small pieces)
• 2 cups of chopped kale (well washed and chopped into small pieces)
• One bunch of cilantro (well washed and chopped into small pieces)
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• 2 table spoon of olive oil to lightly cook the greens before stuffing it

How to make the dough:

To make the dough, mix salt, flour and 2-3 tablespoon of oil together, add the hot water little at the time and mix using a spoon.  Once the dough feels cooler to touch knead the dough with your hands. Add more water if needed. The dough should be just perfect.  Not very soft and not very hard either.  Add one tablespoon of oil in the bowl and code the side of the bowl and the dough. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rest for at least 30 minutes.

How to prepare the vegetables:

Cut and wash all the greens and combine them together.  In a big pan add all the greens with two tablespoon of oil and let everything to cook for 5-10 minutes. Have the heat on medium high and try not to overcook. Just until the greens are a little softer and all excess water is evaporated. Spill out any access liquid to prevent overcooking.

Take golf ball size of dough and roll it out in to a small size pita. Add 2-3 tablespoon of leek mixture and spread it on the flatten dough and fold it in half, press the edges to seal it.

Once all edges are sealed, press it with your hand to make it flat. The traditional bolanies are shaped like half-moon.

Using vegetable oil, pan fry bolanies over medium heat until both sides are golden brown and crispy 3-5 minutes each side.

If you wish to avoid making the dough from scratch, you can easily use egg roll sheets.  You can find egg roll sheets or dough at any Asian store or T&T market.  Just spread leek mixture lightly on the half the sheet and fold the other half on top. You can fold it into triangles or rectangle shapes.

Bolanies can be enjoyed by itself or with chutney or yogurt.