traditional indian breakfast Archives

Mooli ka bharva paratha

Radish (mooli) is used as a vegetable for lunch or dinner, as salad and during breakfast as mooli ka bharva paratha ( wheat flour flat bread stuffed with spicy radish). Mostly people either like radish or they don’t like it at all. Nobody compromises to have it in any form.
Generally in India people use white radish. At my parent’s house during winter season just before lunch my mother or I used to pick fresh radish from our kitchen garden for salad. You just can’t beat the taste of home grown fresh vegetables!!

Winter season is the best time to enjoy hot food. Generally in North India plain paratha or bharva (stuffed) paratha is very common for breakfast. But at our house everyone used to be in a hurry to go to the school or college early in the morning so stuffed parathas were always prepared for dinner. Memories of having hot parathas in the kitchen with all family members is very nostalgic memory at my parent’s house.

I have a few more posts on stuffed parathas in the blog….

Aaloo ka Paratha (paratha with spicy potato stuffing)

Pyaaz ka paratha (Indian flat bread, stuffed with roasted onion)

Ingredients:

To prepare radish masala:

3 medium size radish, 2 chopped green chillies, grated ginger, 1 tsp oil, salt, red chilli powder, dry mango powder (amchoor), turmeric powder, asafoetida and garam masala.

For paratha:
Wheat flour dough, dry wheat flour and oil.

Process :

Wash, peel and grate radish.

Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan and add grated radish , chopped green chillies, grated ginger and all spices.

Mix it and cook radish till the water completely evaporates.

Prepare wheat flour dough and heat tava. Take a small portion from the dough, approximately 50 gm and make a round ball, apply some dry flour on it and roll it in a small round shape.

Place some radish masala (just about 35 to 40 gm) on it and seal it by pinching from all the sides.

Again apply some dry flour and roll this in a round shape carefully and evenly from all sides. Don’t put too much pressure while rolling.

Carefully place this on hot tava and when you notice tiny bubbles, flip it to other side and apply oil and follow the same for other side also.

If you have rolled paratha evenly, it will puff up beautifully.

Serve hot mooli ka bharva paratha with curd, chutney, butter or pickle!!

May 22, 2020April 22, 2022

Deeksha Pathak57 Comments

Moong ki daal ke cheele

Mostly people associate chilka moong daal with khichdi vaali daal. My mother used to prepare this lentil with spinach on sim heat of “mitti ka chulha” during winter. Later she used to add dhaba style desi ghee ka tadka. No matter how much I try, but I can never get that heavenly taste in my pressure cooker cooked daal.

During winter sometimes my mother used to prepare “cheele” (Indian style pancake with green lentils) with moong daal for dinner along with any green chutney or pickle. Moong daal cheela is a very popular snack during North Indian marriage feast. There they also add grated paneer to make it look like a part of marriage celebration feast. You can witness a long queue of people inside the shamiyana (place where marriage ceremony happens) to have hot moong ki daal ke cheele.

These cheele could be a part of any meal of the day – but generally they are prepared for breakfast. As lentils are very good for our health, this breakfast will be a good option for all age group members of the family.

Ingredients

Green split moong daal 2 cups
Water 4 cups
Salt, red chilli powder, asafoetida (hing), chopped green chillies and ginger.

Ingredients :

Wash and soak moong daal overnight or for three hours in the morning. It will puff up nicely after soaking.

Don’t throw away water and grind daal along with fresh ginger, green chillies, Asafoetida, red chilli powder and salt. Use very little quantity of the saved water while grinding. Grated daal should have dropping consistency, neither too thin nor too thick .

Heat tava, grease it with little quantity of oil.

Spread two small size spoons of batter on it.

Reduce the heat to medium. When it starts looking dry from the top, spread some oil around the edges of cheela. With the help of flat spatula, start scrubbing from the sides and turn it to the other side.

Apply oil on the roasted side of cheela and follow the same process for the other side too.

When cheela is properly roasted on both the sides, serve it hot with any chutney, pickle or sauce.

December 30, 2018August 18, 2019

Deeksha Pathak25 Comments

Besan ke cheele

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and my daughter Apoorva is always very curious to know that what good breakfast she is getting today. Kids generally don’t care whether it’s healthy or not – it should be tasty! It sounds funny but in my childhood during winter season my mother used to prepare some of the breakfast menu options for dinner. These included different types of stuffed parathas, very popular south Indian breakfast – dosa and different types of cheela (Indian style pancakes). The reason for converting breakfast menu as dinner was that early morning we all used to be in a hurry to go out to college, school or office and so no one had time to relish them sitting comfortably and enjoying the taste. So in the evening we all used to snuggle in the kitchen with whole day gossip and chit chat with hot stuffed parathas, or cheela.

Among all different types of cheelas, besan (gram flour) ka cheela is the most and simple dish to prepare. Just prepare a batter of gram flour with water and some spices, spread in small quantity on hot tava, roast it with some oil and it’s done!!! So, over a weekend, I decided to prepare this for lunch and Manish enjoyed it a lot along with his favorite butter milk.

Ingredients :

3 cups besan (gram flour)
1/4 cup finely chopped green coriander leaves
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1+1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1+1/2 tsp salt (adjust as per your taste)
4-5 finely chopped green chillies
1/8 tsp hing (asafoetida)
1/2 tsp carom seeds
Water to prepare batter

Process :

In a bowl take besan (gram flour) and add all ingredients except water. Mix everything well.

Now start adding water and keep mixing besan till you get a dropping-consistency batter. Remember, if batter is too thick, spreading it on tava would be difficult, and if it is too thin then taking out cheela from tava would be very difficult.

Now grease hot tava with little bit of oil.

As tava is hot now, turn the heat to sim and take one big size spoon full of batter and spread it on tava evenly. If you feel it’s less, take one or half more spoon of batter, spread it and increase heat to medium. Pour little bit of oil on the sides of the cheela and when it starts looking a little dry, scrape it from all the sides with the help of a flat spatula and turn it on to the other side.

Apply little bit of oil all over the roasted side of cheela and again turn it to the other side and apply oil there too.

After applying oil keep pressing it with spatula from all sides for even roasting.

When it is oiled and roasted from both the sides, serve hot with any chutney or sauce. Cheela tastes best when they are hot – cold ones become slightly dry. So serve them hot and relish!!