Methi Palak Paratha

Methi Palak Paratha

Methi Paratha and Palak Paratha are favorites at home. But I had not tried a combination before. I got this recipe for vinicooksveg and folks at home loved it. Only I did not add Fennel seeds and lemon juice and also decreased the quantity of coriander leaves. She has used yoghurt to knead the dough but I just added about 3 tbsp of yoghurt and used water to knead the dough. I don’t think she used hing, you can skip it too but at my place nothing can be prepared without hing.

Again this is tasty, healthy and easy to make and a great breakfast option.

Hail the greens!

Ingredients:

Methi/Fenugreek leaves(chopped) – 1 bunch medium
Palak/Spinach(chopped) – 1 bunch medium
Coriander leaves(chopped) – a few(you can increase the measure to 1 cup if you wish)
Whole wheat flour – 3 bowls
Chick pea flour/besan – 3 tbsp
Cumin seeds – 2 tsp
Asafoetida/ Hing – pinch
Ginger paste – 1 tsp (I used fresh ginger)
Garlic – 4 pods
Green chilli – 4 medium
Yoghurt – 3 tbsp
Coriander powder – 1 tsp
Garam Masala – 2 tsps
Water – to knead the dough
Salt – to taste
Oil – 2 tsp to knead the dough, 2 tsp for green leaves & the rest to fry the parathas.

Method:

• Grind the ginger, garlic and green chilli with salt to make a paste

Green Chilli, ginger & garlic paste with salt

• Heat oil in a pan and add the cumin seeds to it. As the seeds splutter, add hing and the green chilli paste and sauté for a minute.

Saute the paste and cumin seeds

• Now add the chopped greens.

Greens added

• Saute for a minute and add the coriander powder and garam masala powder. Saute for another two minutes. Remove from the heat and let it cool.
• Now to the wheat flour add the chick pea flour, salt, yoghurt and greens mix.

Flour to be mixed

• Knead the dough and let it rest for 20-25 mins.

Dough for Methi-Palak Paratha

• Take a ball sized dough and roll it out using a rolling-pin. You can use any of the folding methods to fold the paratha. I made a triangle and rolled them out.

Rolled out

• Put it on a hot tawa and fry the paratha from both sides.

On Tawa

• Once fried, serve it hot with any of the paratha accompaniments. We had it the North Karnataka style. Add ತುಪ್ಪ(ghee) and ಪುಟಾಣಿ ಹಿಂಡಿ/ಚಟ್ನೀ( chutney), roll the paratha and gobble it up.

Add ghee and chutney

Rolled Paratha

Happy Weekend! 🙂

Palak Paratha/ Spinach Paratha – recipe

Palak Lachcha Paratha

The first time I thought of this dish was on the Irish festival Saint Patrick’s day. To say that we don’t celebrate it here even would mean that people know of this. But my Facebook wall was flooded with green pictures from my friends staying in North-America. Rivers colored green, people wearing green and even rivers dyed green. I wanted something green too. I couldn’t dye a river nearby but surely I could cook something green. Who better than Sanjeev Kapoor for a recipe. His recipe calls for only salt and ajwain but I have added a few more ingredients of my own to get a different taste in paratha. Hope you like it.

Goes without saying, it is healthy, wholesome and green :P. I have paired it with green coconut chutney to suit the green theme. You can have it with pickles, sabzi, curds or just a thick layer of butter. Also, the method used here for folding the parathas makes it a lachcha paratha. You can use any style you prefer.

This requires you to make blanch the palak/spinach. Blanching enhances the color and the flavor of the spinach and also makes it soft. After blanching, grind and make a paste of the spinach.

Ingredients :

Spinach/Palak – 1 small bunch
Whole wheat flour – 2 cups
Cumin seeds – 2 tsp
Ajwain/carom seeds – 2 tsp
Red chilli powder – 1 tsp
Till/ White sesame seeds – 1 tsp(optional)
Garam masala powder – 1 tsp
Salt – to taste
Milk – to knead the dough

Method:

• Blanch and grind the Spinach to make a paste.
• Add all the dry ingredients with the dough and mix them well. Later add the Spinach paste to it and mix.

Ingredients for palak paratha

• Use milk to knead the dough. And let it settle for 20-25 mins.

Dough

• Pinch a ball-sized dough and flatten it and start rolling it out using a rolling-pin

Ready to be rolled out

Rolled out

• Once rolled out now sprinkle a bit of flour and oil on the paratha. And start to fold it in the Japanese fan style. Then fold it to make it round. Sorry I couldn’t describe it any better. Please see the pics to get an idea.

Folding the paratha

Japanese Fan

Fold it to make it round

Lachcha paratha – Ready to be rolled out

• Now roll it out again using a rolling-pin. I couldn’t get the round shape. Swalpa adjust maadi(Please adjust). Knowing I couldn’t get a circle even with a compass in hand, I keep my expectations low w.r.t the shape 😛

Rolled out

• Put the paratha on a hot tawa.

Paratha on tawa

• Fry the parathas with oil/ghee by flipping and frying on both sides. Once done, take it out and serve hot 🙂

Palak Lachcha Paratha

Spring/Green Onion Paratha – Recipe

One of the best things about paratha is the variety. One paratha place in my area has 99 different types on their menu. You can have it plain, stuff it with one of your favorite veggie, or two veggies or mix them all and call it a mix-veg paratha 🙂 Have also posted beetroot paratha previously. This is one of the many varieties you should try out some time. A spring onion or a green onion paratha.

Spring Onion Paratha

Ingredients required:

Finely chopped spring onion(green part) – 1 cup
Finely chopped Onion – 1/2 cup
Wheat atta – 1 and 1/2 cup
Besan/Chickpeas flour – 2 tbsp
Chilli powder – 1 tsp
Garam masala powder – 1 tsp
Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
Salt – to taste
Moong dal(soaked for about 2 hours) [optional] – 1/2 cup
oil – 1 tbsp to knead the dough
Ghee – to fry the parathas
water – to knead the dough

Ingredients for Spring paratha before kneading

Method
Mix all the above ingredients and knead it into a soft dough with the same consistency as Chapathi dough. And let it rest for about 30 mins.

Spring Paratha dough

Pinch out required quantity of the dough to make a small ball. Dust the pinched out ball in wheat flour and roll it out using a rolling-pin to a round shape(or at least nearly round as in my case 🙂 ) . Then sprinkle some flour on it and lightly coat it with ghee/oil.

Pinch some dough to make a small ball and dust it with wheat flour

Roll it out a little to a round shape( at least nearly round)

Fold it twice to make a triangle.

Spring paratha triangle

Now roll it out to make a nice paratha.

Paratha rolled out

Heat a tawa and when heated put the rolled out paratha on the tawa and add ghee on one side. When done flip and apply ghee to the other side as well.

Spring Paratha on the tava

Once it is done properly on both the sides take it out and serve it hot with curds or pickle or tomato ketch and some potato chips as I did.

Spring Paratha – ready to serve

Happy Eating! 🙂

Channa/Chole Masala – Recipe

If you ever find somebody who doesn’t eat Indian food, make them taste a Punjabi dish and you have a convert. Punjabi cuisine is food from the Punjab region of northwestern India and eastern Pakistan. Punjabis are large-hearted, and known to live life to the fullest. Their food reflects this attitude too.

Channa/Chole Masala

One of the world-famous Punjabi dishes happens to be Channa Masala/Chole Masala. This is usually teamed with Batura but you can also eat it with any Indian bread like roti, naan or kulcha. Tried it out at home and it came out wonderfully. We had it with whole-wheat paratha. Just sharing my experience and the recipe here.

Batura

The recipe requires channa masala powder which can be brought from stores. I didn’t have the masala powder neither did I have amchoor powder and Pomegranate seeds to make it at home so I used Garam Masala powder + Coriander powder + cumin powder instead. And tamarind paste + lemon juice instead of amchoor and pomegranate for tanginess. The result turned out to be pretty good so I think I can repeat the process whenever I don’t have the channa masala powder

The main ingredient here is the channa/chickpeas which needs to be soaked overnight or upto 6-8 hours.

The Channa soaked over-night

Pressure cook the Channa. You can also add a tsp of tea powder/ 1 tea bag in the cooker to get the nice dark color. You need not throw away the water after draining. You can use the same while cooking. My drained water looked like this.

Water drained after cooking the chole.

Ingredients:

Calcutta Channa/Chole/Chickpeas – 200 gms
Onion(finely chopped) – 2 medium
Tomato(finely chopped) – 3 medium
Green Chilli(finely chopped) – 2-3
Garam Masala – 1 & 1/2 tbsp
Coriander powder – 1/2 tbsp
Cumin powder – 1 tsp
Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
Turmeric powder – 1 tsp
Hing/Asafoetida – a pinch(optional) – Hing is an essential ingredient in our kitchen
ginger garlic paste – 1 tbsp
lime – 1/2 medium
Salt – to taste
Oil – for tadka
Fresh Coriander leaves/Cilantro – for garnishing

Method:

Heat oil in a deep sauce-pan and add cumin seeds. Once they splutter, add hing and ginger-garlic paste and sauté. Add Onion and green chilli and sauté till the onion turns golden brown.

Tadka with onion

Now add turmeric and tomatoes. Let the tomatoes cook nicely. And then add salt and all the other dry powders to it. Saute for a minute.

Tomatoes added

Now add the channa to the above and mix. Later add the drained water to the mixture. Add tamarind paste and lime. Cover it and let it cook for 5-6 minutes. Once it is cooked take it out in a serving bowl, garnish with fresh coriander leaves and a dollop of cream.

Channa Masala – ready to eat

Tips: Make sure your channa is cooked properly in the cooker. If it is half done you wont be able to cook it properly later.
You can also garnish with chopped onion and a wedge of lime as it traditionally done.

Happy Eating!

Beetroot Paratha

Just a few months back cooking used to be my Bête Noire but lately I have started to fall in love with it. The more I cook, the more I love it. The best part is creating stuff everyday. Being creative to make the same old dishes more appealing and getting them right every time. Fortunately for me, I have my Mom(who just loves cooking) to help me out with new recipes and lend her experience.

Here is one of the recipes that I tried. As I was talking a few friends here I realized not many knew this recipe so I am posting it here. It is simple, easy, looks great, very healthy and great fun to prepare and eat. My Dad who hates beetroot also loved these parathas.

Yummy Beetroot Paratha

Ingredients:

1 medium-sized grated Beetroot
2 cups wheat flour
1 tsp Red chilli powder
1/4 tsp Ajwain seeds (ಅಜಮೋದ/ಓಮಾ)
1/2 tsp cumin seeds (ಜೀರಿಗೆ)
1/2 tsp white sesame seeds/till seeds ( ಬಿಳಿ ಯೆಳ್ಳು)
1/2 tsp garam masala(optional)
salt to taste
water – to knead the dough

Method:

Mix all the ingredients above and knead to make dough with the same consistency as chapathi dough

Dough

Let the dough settle for about 30 minutes
Take small balls of dough and roll it out to make nice round parathas
How you fold is entirely up to you so have fun with the shape of your Parathas! Below are the pictures of how I have done it.

Sprinkle some oil and flour on rolled paratha and cut it as shown

fold it to make a cone

fold it to make a cone

Cone ready

Cone pressed and ready to be rolled out

Once rolled, put on a hot tawa and fry till evenly browned and well cooked.
Serve hot and enjoy with curds, pickle and fried green chilli 🙂
Hope you have making and eating this dish!