Spelt Flour and Lentil Paratha/Flat Bread

Spicy, savory, aromatic and soul filling. You cannot complain if it is healthy too. Flat bread or rotis and parathas are my all time favorite. Am not really a rice eater, I prefer bread/ roti/naan/ paratha to rice, any day. Coming from a person who is from the south of India, this is unusual. Brought up in the north of the country, my palette is heavily influenced by the northern cuisine. But, I cannot give up my dosa, similarly, I cannot give up on parathas or rotis.  A dollop of ghee, is a perfect accompaniment.  I keep trying out different recipes of parathas and have never been really disappointed. Among all the wild and not so wild experiments in my kitchen, this one is a favorite. Here to stay, repeated many times in the Jois household and each time getting better. It has the goodness of grains n lentils. A meal in itself, when served with some raita or daal. Simple, easy and great for week nights. 

I shared this recipe with a very good friend of mine and she asked me "what is spelt flour ?" I am sure most of you are aware of this wonder flour.  If not... Well, I really did not know that it is older than wheat and I do believe it is a distant cousin to wheat. Easier to digest, and lesser gluten, so can still be substituted for wheat in baking, it needs a little more kneading for the gluten to get working than wheat. Also, a better nutritional profile.  Am not a nutritionist, this is just from my reading. Forget about the nutritional profile, am telling the taste profile is awesome, I could tell it is a bit nuttier than wheat, needs less water to kneed into a dough and is absolutely great tasting. So am not complaining ! 

1/2 cup spelt flour

1/2 cup wheat flour 

or just 1 cup spelt

1/2 cup Ragi/Finger Millet  flour

1/2 cup Jowar/Millo flour 

1/2 cup cooked (with very less water) moong/green gram 

Spice blend 

1/2 tsp cumin

1-2 tbsp sesame and red chili powder

salt to taste

chopped spinach 

Water to kneed

 1 tsp oil 

Roast the moong/mung and cook in water, discard the excess water. Make sure it is a bread crumb consistency. Mash it a bit and let it cool. 

Mix the flour, spice blends, spinach, moong and make a dough. Make sure you add the oil to soften the dough mix. 

Make small balls with hands, roll them with rolling pin ( don't make it too thin). Roast over a heated pan on  both sides and add ghee and roast again, serve hot with raita or curry. 

You can store the dough in an air tight container for upto a day, probably longer if there was no spinach... am not sure.