Whats Cooking

inspiring to cook n bake

DISH NAME : PALAK PARATHA (SPINACH STUFFED INDIAN BREAD)

  • Origin : INDIA
  • Category : CONTINENTAL AND INDIAN BREADS
Preparation Time : 15 minutes
Cooking Time : 30 minutes
  • PRINT

Description

Spinach is a green coloured leafy vegetable. There are 3 main types of spinach, savoy, smooth leaf and baby spinach.
Savoy has crisp,wrinkled,curly leaves. Smooth-leaf has flat, unwrinkled, spade-shaped leaves.Baby spinach is great for use in salads as it has a sweeter taste.
Spinach was popularised by Popeye, the famous cartoon character. There is a story behind the love for spinach by Popeye. It seems that in 1870 German chemist Erich von Wolf ascertained the amount of iron in spinach as 3.5 milligrams. But while scribbling it in his notes, he accidentally left out the decimal point and wrote that spinach had 35 milligrams of iron per 100-gram serving. This fact wasn't corrected until almost seventy years later. This claim of iron content in Spinach was noticed by the studio that created the cartoon character Popeye. So they brought out the theory that Popeye got his strength from eating iron rich Spinach.
Carom seeds helps in digestion.

Note

1) You can reduce the quantity of ghee, but usually parathas taste with a good amount of ghee.
2) Step 5, folding of paratha is optional. Folding gives a little crisipness and flakiness.

  No.s 
Quantity Name
PALAK PARATHA
2  CupsWhole wheat flour
1.5  CupsSpinach, finely chopped
  Salt to taste
0.5  Tsp.Turmeric powder
1  Tsp.Carrom seeds
2  Tsp.Green chillies finely chopped
5  Tbsp.Ghee (clarified butter)

Method

1) Wash spinach and drain water.
2) Then mix all the ingredients together except ghee.
3) Keep aside for about 15 minutes, so that all the moisture from spinach will make the flour wet. Only then add water and knead to a soft dough. Rest the dough for about 20 minutes.
4) Take lemon sized balls of dough and roll out into chapathis (need not be as thin as a chapathy).
5) Then fold into half and then fold again into a quarter/ triangle. Then roll out again to form a chapathy. This step is entirely optional.
6) Heat a tawa/ pan, smear with a little oil. Put paratha, cook one side till half done. Turn to the other side. Add ghee on top. Then turn again and add ghee. Cook till the paratha is a good brown color with brown spots.

Serving Suggestions

Serve hot with raita( curd based vegetable salad)