Recipes | Two Easy & Healthy Indian Flat Breads with Broccoli and Lentils (2024)

Home is where the heart is….my heart belongs to Chennai, the place where I got married and have been living since 1996. I have wholeheartedly accepted the city and have accustomed to the traditions, climatic conditions and the food here.

But even after spending a good 17 years in Chennai I feel that a part of my heart still lives in Udaipur. The place where I grew up, studied and spent the most beautiful years of my life with family and friends.

And why not, if one is the place of my birth than the other made me a complete woman! I take it as a special privilege of belonging to the two different cities at once.

A trip to hometown is on anvil and with each passing daymy heart is pumping faster and faster. Of late my kitchen is attuned to cooking more of flat breads and curries with the faint hope that my rice loving children get adapted to the food in Rajasthan.

The Lentil flat breadis a regular on our breakfast table at mom’s house and is a favorite travel and picnic food. Foiled lentilbreadsand a few ready-to-use tomato sauce makes anyjourneya fun. In Rajasthan the recipe is called ‘Pithi wala parathas’ and is slightly different from the version I make at my home. In Pithi wala parathas lots of spices are added to the soaked and ground lentil mix which is then filled inside the flat bread as a stuffing and deep fried.

But the following Lentil flat bread recipe is simple and quite easy to cook without the extra work of grinding, making a filling or deep frying the parathas.

1. Cheesy Broccoli flat breads

Ingredients;

(makes 5-6)

• 1 cup wholewheat flour
• ½ cup warm water
• ½ tsp salt
• Oil to shallow fry

Filling;

• 1 cup grated Broccoli
• 1 large potato
• ½ cup grated cheese (processed/cottage)
• 2 green chillies
• Salt and crushed black pepper as desired

Method; Add flour, salt and warm water in a large vessel and knead it to make a soft chappati dough. Add a few tsps. of oil or butter to get extra softness in the chapattis.

Make 6-7 balls from the dough, dust them with dry flour and keep aside.

Boil and mash potato. Wash the Broccoli and grate it finely. Chop green chilies finely and add to the grated Broccoli.

Add salt, crushed pepper and mix all the ingredients well.

Take a ball of dough and flatten it to make a small circle. Place about 2 tablespoons of Broccoli filling in the center. Bring all the corners of the circles to close it. Make sure to seal all the edges.

For a kid friendly variation, add a tbsp. of grated cheese as shown in the picture and make the parathas.

Dust the filled Broccoli dough balls with flour and roll it into a large circle. Sprinkle dry flour during the process to avoid the flat bread getting struck on the board.

Heat a griddle and place the Broccoli flat bread on it. Drizzle a tsp. of vegetable oil and let it cook for 2-3 minutes on medium heat. Flip to the other side and repeat the process.

Serve the CheesyBroccoli flat bread with fresh curd raita, green chutney or tomato sauce.

2. Lentil Flat Breads

Ingredients;

(make 10-12)

• 2 cups wholewheat flour
• 1 cup soaked green gram
• 1 cup warm water
• 2 tbsp. vegetable oil/butter
• 2 greenchilies
• 2 tbsp. fresh coriander leaves
• 1 tsp. garam masala (optional)
• Salt as desired
• Oil to shallow fry

Method; Wash and soak split whole green gram (moong daal) for an hour. Chop green chillies finely.

Take a large bowl, add flour, chopped green chillies, soaked and drained green gram, salt, garam masala, coriander leaves, water and mix well to make a soft dough.

Make small balls from the dough and dust them with dry flour.

Roll each ball with a rolling pin into a thin circular shaped chapatti. Heat a tawa, place the lentil flat bread on it and drizzle a ½ tsp. of oil around it. Flip to the other side and repeat the same.

3. Quick SundriedCherry tomato Chutney

To sun dry the cherry tomatoes, wash and wipe the tomatoes and slice them into two. Place all the tomatoes in a large plate with cut side up. Sprinkle a generousamountof rock salt or table salt, Olive oil and herbs if you wish.

Keep the plate in direct sunlight for a few days till the tomatoes dry completely.

Aquick sun-driedcherry tomato sauce is a yummyaccompanimentto theseflatbreads. The recipe is quite easy to make. Grind a handful of sun-dried cherry tomatoes, a little Olive oil, salt & pepper to taste and you get a colourful sauce ready. In thechutneyabove I added a roasted red bell pepper also.

Serve these hot lentil flat breads with fresh yogurt, tomato sauce or chutney.CheesyBroccoliparathas(flat breads) andMoong daal parathas(Lentil flat breads) with sun-driedcherry tomato chutney always bring smile on the faces of my children and hubby alike.

Notes;

1. Saute the grated Broccoli in a tbsp. of oil for a few minutes before making the filling to remove the raw taste and to get e better filling which binds well.
2. Drain the green gram well before adding to the filling to avoid soggy dough.
3. You can replace the split whole greengramwith any other lentil of your choice. Bengal gram,pigeonpea, massor daal (red lentil) or even soaked and mashed chickpeas make a delicious and healthy filling for this recipe.
4. Replace half ofthewhole wheat flour with all purposeflour(maida) for a mush softer and light flat breads or parathas.
5. You can avoid adding potato in the Broccoli flat bread if you wish, potato in the recipe helps binding the stuffing well.

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