Wednesday, May 29, 2013

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. 





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18 comments:

  1. Tasty flatbreads! Those healthy paratha would go perfectly well with a daahl curry.

    Cheers,

    Rosa

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  2. very tempting and mouthwatering recipe....

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  3. Looks delicious. A great alternative to gluten free bread.

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  4. I am the same way and prefer bread to rice. Honestly all Indian breads are delicious. Spelt flour has become my preferred over wheat flour, the taste is wonderful. I love your paratha recipe. Thanks for sharing:)

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  5. I also prefer breads over rice, and all Indian breads taste wonderful to me. Spelt is a great flour and now I prefer it to wheat. Thanks for sharing your delicious paratha recipe.

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  6. That's an amazing healthy recipe and I loved the mirchi on top.

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  7. I have no experience with spelt flour. Will try. Brought multigrain flour from the Indian store and hopefully it will be better than only wheat flour.

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  8. yummy and healthy recipe.. I never used spelt flour...

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  9. Healthy and delicious looking!!!

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  10. Amazing use of variety flours for this paratha. Bet it's so tasty and earthy :)

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  11. These look gorgeous, cooked and uncooked. I like the idea of the spelt flour but have never heard of the Jowar flour. My husband did find ghee the other day though.

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  12. Ive never had lentil parathas. Such a healthy dish!

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  13. I love that you used different types of flours to create the parathas. They sound and look delicious.

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  14. First time here and I am glad I am here.You have an amazing blog and lovely presentation!

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  15. where do you get these kinds of flours? are they all readily available in India? we've recently discovered parathas and would love to try this recipe.

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  16. i need whatever info u have all on ur page thank you for sharing

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  17. In any Indian shops, spelt flour in woolworths

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hugs!
simi

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