Daal waalaa parantha (Fried Indian Flatbread with Split Bengal Gram filling)

Paranthas are my favourite breakfast and there are so many types of paranthas.  Today’s recipe is daal waalaa parantha which is a parantha filled with Split Bengal Gram.  When I was young I used to call it lentils for the horse, a reference to the fact that in India it is fed to horses because of its nutritive value.  It is a good source of calcium, iron and dietary fibre.  So here’s the recipe.

Ingredients:

1 Cup             Wheat flour

50 gms          Split Bengal Gram (Chaney ki daal)

1 pinch          Asafoetida (hing)

1 Tsp  Salt

1 pinch          chilli powder

1 pinch          garam masala

1 small          Onion/ Shallot (finely cut)

1 or 2            Green chillies (finely cut)

Water

Ghee (clarified butter) or Oil

Procedure:

Knead flour so that when you make a hole in it with your finger, it doesn’t stick to your finger.

Filling

Take split Bengal gram, add water and boil it with asafoetida.

Take it off the fire when it’s well done and dry all water.  Mix and crush the Bengal gram, so that it becomes a sort of dry paste.

Add salt, red chilli powder and garam masala and mix well.

Add onions and green chillies.  Mix well.  Keep it aside.

Paranthas

Take a small part of it and roll it into a small ball and ensure that there’s no crack in the ball.

Roll this ball in dry flour and flatten it.

Use rolling-pin and flatten the circle further till it is around 4-5 inches in diameter.

Take 1 Tea spoon of the filling and put it on the flattened dough.

Take all ends and close it in the dough.

Roll it in some dry flour and flatten it upside down i.e. the folded end should face the plate.

Use rolling pin to further flatten it and make it into a bigger circle.

Put the girdle on fire.

When it is hot, put the flattened dough on the girdle.

Once it is cooked on one side (it will become somewhat yellowish brown), turn it over and put oil on the cooked side.

After some time, turn it over again and if the other side is cooked oil it as well otherwise turn it back till it is cooked.  Once it is cooked, turn it over and oil the other side (that you’ve not oiled earlier).

After around 1 minute turn it over and let it cook for some time.

Serve it with pickle or/and vegetables or/and plain yoghurt and/or raita and/or dahi pakodiyan and/or Tomato chutney.

I hope that you loved this healthy meal as much as I do.  Enjoy your meal!

Tikona Parantha

We've already made square paranthas but just for a change, you may think of changing the shape... So today, I'm sharing the way I make triangular parantha.  You can make simple paranthas or  namak-ajwain waaley paranthas, ingredients remain the same only the shape changes.

BTW did you know that you can also have paranthas with warm tea or pickle or both.  It's simple and delicious.  Another delicious way to have paranthas is to eat them with home-made butter.  Just yummy!

Namak-ajwain wala parantha ((Fried flat Indian Bread with bishop weed)

As I’ve already explained how much I love paranthas and a bit of history, I won’t go into the whole story all over again.  Paranthas have several varieties and today I’m going to share one with ajwain or bishop’s weed as it is called in the Anglophone world.  I’ve already discussed the benefits of this medicinal plant in Masala Puri recipe.

Ingredients:

1 Cup    Wheat flour

1 Tsp     Ajwain (bishop’s weed)

1 Tsp     Salt

Water

Ghee (clarified butter) or Oil


Procedure:

Mix ajwain and salt.

Knead flour so that when you make a hole in it with your finger, it doesn’t stick to your finger.

Take a small part of it and roll it into a small ball and ensure that there’s no crack in the ball.

Roll this ball in dry flour and flatten it.

Use rolling-pin and flatten the circle further till it is around 4-5 inches in diameter.

Take ½ tea spoon oil and oil the flattened dough.

Sprinkle the ajwain and salt mix on it.

Fold it four times as shown in images.

Roll it in some dry flour and flatten it upside down i.e. the last fold should face the plate.

Use rolling pin to further flatten it and make it into a bigger square.

Put the girdle on fire.

When it is hot, put the flattened square dough on the girdle.

Once it is cooked on one side (it will become somewhat yellowish brown), turn it over and put oil on the cooked side.

After some time, turn it over again and if the other side is cooked oil it as well otherwise turn it back till it is cooked.  Once it is cooked, turn it over and oil the other side (that you’ve not oiled earlier).

After around 1 minute turn it over and let it cook for some time.

Serve it with pickle or/and vegetables or/and plain yoghurt and/or raita and/or dahipakodiyan.

I hope that you loved it as much as I do.  Enjoy your meal!

Parantha (Simple fried flat Indian Bread)

Like many north-Indians I grew up having paranthas in breakfast.  I can have these at any time of the day and there are so many varieties.  You can understand the place that paranthas have in the lives of Indians from the fact that there is actually a whole road in Delhi that is named after this delicacy and photographs of many Indian and Pakistani dignitaries decorate the walls of these small restaurants.  It is called Paranthey wali Gali (literally the road of paranthas).

One of these days, I’ll take you down that road and tell you more about it but today, I’m going to treat you to a yummy parantha… one of the simplest types of paranthas.

Ingredients:

1 Cup    Wheat flour

Water

Ghee (clarified butter) or Oil

Procedure:

Knead flour so that when you make a hole in it with your finger, it doesn’t stick to your finger.

Take a small part of it and roll it into a small ball and ensure that there’s no crack in the ball.

Roll this ball in dry flour and flatten it.

Use rolling-pin and flatten the circle further till it is around 4-5 inches in diameter.

Take ½ tea spoon oil and oil the flattened dough.

Fold it four times as shown in images.

Roll it in some dry flour and flatten it upside down i.e. the last fold should face the plate.

Use rolling pin to further flatten it and make it into a bigger square.

Put the girdle on fire.

When it is hot, put the flattened square dough on the girdle.

Once it is cooked on one side (it will become somewhat yellowish brown), turn it over and put oil on the cooked side.

After some time, turn it over again and if the other side is cooked oil it as well otherwise turn it back till it is cooked.  Once it is cooked, turn it over and oil the other side (that you’ve not oiled earlier).

After around 1 minute turn it over and let it cook for some time.

Serve it with pickle or/and vegetables or/and plain yoghurt and/or raita and/or dahipakodiyan.

I hope that you loved it as much as I do.  Enjoy your meal!