Parathas are thick home cooked bread made from whole wheat flour. The wheat flour is kneaded into a smooth dough.Whole wheat breads are a staple food in North India. You can find popular types of paratha across the world. For eg. now there is the Kerala porotta (in Southern India), in Malaysia you will get something similar called faratas, palata in Burma, in Singapore as the roti prata! The dough for this dish is similar to the roti (although roti dough needs more water & is softer in consistency). It is different from the roti as it is a layered flatbread and sometimes stuffings like mince meat or vegetables are used for stuffing this dish.
Plain parathas are layered and crispy and flaky, delicious made with oil, ghee or butter. They are heavier than rotis and contains more calories. Rotis are plain bread while this is a layered bread.
Here I have given a recipe for the simple non stuffed plain paratha. I have shown in the video 3 different ways plain parathas are made – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5oFPX8OoKM
Parathas are served with Indian curries. Aloo-Gobi, Bhindi Fry, Baingan Masala are some of the vegetarian favoured. A personal favourite is Matar Paneer https://relishdelish.ca/recipes/matar-paneer/ They are also eaten with tea as a snack.
Ingredients
Instructions
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For the paratha dough:
- Take the wheat flour onto a large plate or bowl, add salt, 1 tsp. oil & mix well.
- In the centre of the bowl, dig a small hole and add enough water, little by little (about 3/4 cup) to make a dough. Knead the flour into a dough. Rub a little oil or ghee all around and keep covered for about 20 minutes. For making paratha:
- Divide the dough into 12 equal portions & roll each into a smooth ball.
- Heat a griddle/tava or pan (prefarably non stick) and keep it on medium heat. Triangular Shaped Paratha:
- Take a ball of dough and with the help of a rolling pin, roll it out into a medium circle, dusting a little flour while you roll. Brush a little ghee or oil on this round, fold it into a semi circle & then adding a little ghee/oil, fold it into a triangle. Dusting a little flour, roll this out into a bigger paratha. Square Shaped Paratha:
- Take a ball of dough and with the help of a rolling pin, roll it out into a medium circle, dusting a little flour while you roll. Brush a little ghee or oil on this round and then fold it over both sides like an envelope, brush with more ghee on this layer and then fold it on both sides again till you get a small square. Now gently roll out this square into a bigger squared paratha. To make parathas
- Place the rolled paratha on a heated tawa/griddle and cook on medium flame. When you see tiny bubbles rising on the surface, turn it over.
- Spread ½ teaspoon oil/melted ghee around its edge on both sides with the help of spatula and cook for a minute each side. Repeat flip and cook process until light brown spots appear on both sides.
- Serve parathas with some curry of your choice or with yogurt.