Broccoli paratha

Broccoli is said to be very healthy and yet we eat them very less. I havent found broccoli in abundance in my childhood , now in cities yes but in small towns and villages its almost never seen in India. But as we found this veggie it has been our favourite and we started experimenting and including it with masala into Indian cuisine.

Broccoli rice for adults and porridge for babies Multi gran broccoli porridge and broccoli and carrot porridge are few noted here but Ive used extensively for my baby.

Another result of our experiments is broccoli paratha. Since we love paratha and try making multiple varieties wanted to try out of box veggies for it.The result is a delicious yet healthy paratha you could never leave.


Recipe: 

Ingredients:

Wheat flour - 1 cup for 4 parathass
salt - 1/2 tspn as per taste
chilli powder - 1 tspn
water for making dough
oil for frying.

for stuffing:

broccoli - 3/4
onion - 1 medium
cumin seeds - 1/4 tspn
garam masala - 1/4 tspn
coriander powder - 1/4 tspn
amchur - 1/8 tspn
chilli powder - 1/2 tspn
salt as needed - 1/4 tspn

Procedure:

• Take a large bowl and add wheat flour, salt, chilli powder. Make a small well in the flour pour water (around 1/4 cup) and knead it to form a soft dough. Add water as needed. the dough shoudnt be sticky.
• If more water is added then knead it for some time to absorb the water or add flour to balance it.
• cover the dough with a cloth and keep aside.
• Clean the broccoli and remove the florets and finely chop it. Or alternatively can grate the broccoli to get fine pieces.
• Chop onion finely .
• In a wok add 1 tbspn of oil and add cumin seeds.
• Add onions and salt and fry till translucent.
• Add broccoli and stir it and cook in low flame with closed lid for 10 minutes. Can alternatively fry it in high flame but make sure you are always there to prevent burning.
• add all the masala powders and mix well.Once cooked keep aside.

Preparing paratha 

• divide the dough into 4 balls.
• apply some wheat flour on one ball and flatten it into a small thick circle.
• take 2 spoons of filling broccoli and place it in the middle.
• Now close the corners to the center to form a ball.
• apply flour to it and flatten it into parathas.
• Prepare all the parathas and keep aside.
• Heat the griddle/tawa and put a paratha on it.
• cook it in medium flame till its roasted by flipping it.
• apply oil on both sides while flipping to taste better .

Parathas can be had with any pickle and curd/yoghurt.

Aloo parantha ( potato stuffed flatbread)

Ingredients:

Potatoes - 3
wheat flour - 2 cups
water - 1/2 cup
salt - 2 tspn
chilli powder - 1 tspn
coriander leaves - 1/4th cup

Procedure:

boil potatoes. Peel the potato skin and mash it well. finely chop coriander leaves and add them to the potato mash. add salt 1tspn, chilli powder and mix well till it forms a paste.

in a bowl add wheat flour and salt 1 tspn . make a well in the center and add water. make a dough out of it. The dough shudnt be too soft. add more water if required.

There are two ways of making parantha.

Method 1:

Take a big ball of dough and press around to form a bowl. put the potato mash in it and close it around. put this in dry flour and make parantha/circles out of it using rolling pin. The amount of mash to be stuffed depends on the size of the dough ball. This method is sometimes tricky as the stuffing comes out while rolling and if more amount is put inside difficult to roll. It also leads to inconsistency of stuff across the flat bread.
But if once got to know the technique of it this would be easy. This is the most used method.

Method 2:
An easy way

Take a big ball of dough and make two balls out of it. roll both the balls to get circles. place one circle on a plate and spread the mash evenly across the chapati.place another chapati/circle on it and close the edges by pressing them.
This is the easiest method to make aloo parantha but it takes more time to prepare.

Once the parantha is prepared put it on a griddle and cook it on both sides.
you can spread butter/ghee on the parantha for increased flavour.

Brinjal paratha

Ingredients:

Brinjal -3 small /big -1 (bharta brinjal)
coriander powder - 1tspn
salt - 1/2 tspn
chilli powder - 1 tspn
wheat flour - 2 cups
oil - 1 tbspn

Procedure :

If using a big brinjal roast it on fire directly. roll over so that every side is roasted properly. Peel out the skin and make a mash of it.

If small brinjals cut the brinjal into pieces. in a pour 1 tbspn of oil and add brinjal , 1/2 tspn pf salt and cook with closed lid for 10 mins. make a mash of it.

in the brinjal mash add coriander powder, salt(if not added), chilli powder and mix well.

Take a bowl and add wheat flour to it.add the brinjal mash to the flour and make a dough of it. Water might not be needed as the brinjal mixes with the flour well.

Make small balls of the dough and roll it with rolling pin to form a circle /parantha.

Take a flat pan and put parantha on it.let it fry for a minute and flip it . after a minute add 1/2 tspn of oil and spread on both sides and cook for another minute.press the corners to cook it well.

Carrot paratha

If you want to start eating healthy try reducing the rice and increase wheat rotis. Reducing carbs is one way to maintain your diet while you focus on exercises.
For those who arent big roti fans try making it interesting by adding healthy vegetables , and for those who love it another dish to your huge list.
Carrot paratha.. This isnt a stuffed paratha which makes it easy to prepare.
You can skip the oil in this recipe if you want and Its just mentioned oil.. you can choose what oil you want to use.. olive oil,canola oil, sunflower oil, groundnut oil... Canola oil is used in this recipe.

Ingredients::

Wheat flour - 1 cup
Carrot - 1
salt to taste
oil
water - 1/4 cup

Procedure::

Peel the carrot skin and grate it. Take a pan add 1 tspn of oil and fry the carrot till half cooked.

Take a bowl add wheat flour, 1/2 tspn salt(as per taste) and add the carrot. Add water slowly to form a dough. Knead the dough for 5 mins till soft. If its sticky try kneading it ,if dosent work add little flour and knead it. If too hard add little water and knead well. Add 1 tspn of oil and knead it for another 5 mins.

Make small balls of the dough and roll it with rolling pin to form a circle /chapathi.

Take a flat pan and place paratha on it.let it roast for a minute and flip it . after a minute add 1/2 tspn of oil and spread on both sides and roast for another minute.press the corners to cook it well.

Eat it with any side dish or curd/pickle

Lauki Thepla

Thanks to my Gujju friend Mital Patel, we were able to make and taste the mouthwatering Theplas :) ..tasty and filling breakfast/dinner recipe .. A must try!!

INGREDIENTS:

Wheat flour - 2 cups

Salt - 1 tsp

Red Chilli powder - 2 tsp

Turmeric - 1 pinch

curd - 2 tbsp

Cumin powder - 1 tsp

1 green chilli + bit of ginger (crushed)

asafoetadia - 1 pinch

(can add kasuri methi, coriander powder also)

Lauki/bottle gourd - 1

Oil

PROCEDURE:

Peel the bottle gourd, grate it and keep aside.  

Now mix the other dry ingredients (without curd). Add the curd and mix. You can add some more salt or chilli powder based on the taste of the mixture, if needed.

Now add the grated bottle gourd and knead the flour well to form a proper dough. Add 1 tbsp of oil and mix well.

Now flatten dough, like making Rotis (thin texture). 

Place it on a heated pan until it forms bubbles. Now turn the side and add a spoon of oil. Turn it again and add some more oil to make it right (brown spots are formed).

You can reduce the amount of oil, if desired.

Tasty Lauki Theplas are ready to be served with pickle.

Lacha paratha

Makes : 4 parathas

Ingredients

Whole Wheat Flour / Atta 2 cups
Salt 1/2 tsp
Oil 2 tbsp + to toast Paratha