Paratha (Indian flat bread roasted with oil) is my all time favorite in all three meals of the day. And if it is spicy lachhedar podina paratha (Layered flatbread with fresh mint leaves) with a mix of wheat flour and gram flour, I can have it daily in breakfast with Kairie ki loungi (raw mango dish) or Raw Mango Chutney with Jaggery. Even though now I have significantly controlled my food cravings and breakfast is always very healthy, I will come jumping with joy if you are inviting me over breakfast to have spicy lachhedar podina paratha!!
Usually plain paratha or stuffed paratha is prepared with wheat flour. But lachhedar paratha is prepared with maida (white flour) as maida is very elastic making it easier to create multiple layers. But I hardly use maida for my daily meals. It is always wheat flour rotis for lunch and dinner. So I decided to prepare lachhedar paratha also with wheat flour. Along with wheat flour I added gram flour too. Gram flour turned paratha crisp and it enhanced the taste.
There are a few more recipes on different parathas in the blog. You can take a look:
Aaloo ka Paratha (wheat flour flat bread with spicy potato stuffing)
Mooli ka paratha (wheat flour flat bread stuffed with spicy radish)
Methi ke parathe
Ingredients :
80 gm gram flour (besan)
80 gm wheat flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp red chilli powder
1/8 tsp asafoetida (hing)
Fresh mint leaves chopped 1 /4 cup(optional)
1 tsp cumin/carom seeds
3/4 cup Water ( reduce or add if required)
Dry wheat flour for dusting
Oil for roasting paratha
Process :
Take wheat flour, gram flour, salt, carom/cumin seeds, red chilli powder and chopped mint leaves in a broad vessel and prepare soft dough with the help of water .
Take a small portion of dough (50-60 gm) and smear it in dry flour and roll that between your palms in round shape. With the help of rolling pin, roll it evenly from all sides. If required, use dry flour while rolling.
Brush it up with oil.
Spread wheat flour all over it.
Carefully fold it into pleats, press them gently and again spread some dry flour around and roll it.
If you are using white flour, then at this point, we will stretch it vertically, but as wheat flour doesn’t have that elasticity we will straight away roll it in a round shape.
Again apply some dry flour and roll evenly with the help of the rolling pin to get a round shape.
Heat griddle (tava in Hindi) and place the paratha on it. Flip to the other side when tiny bubbles start appearing from one side. Follow the same for other side too.
When paratha is roasted nicely from both the sides, take it off from tava and serve hot crisp lachhedar paratha with curd, pickle or any chutney.
If you want to try lachhedar paratha without podina, then just don’t add mint leaves and follow the same process. See those layers – aren’t you dying to try!!
