I am a huge paratha person. Or should I say I have turned into one? Because I have! Living in Delhi for almost a decade has made me a paratha lover. And over all these years I have realized that making good parathas is an art.
When we hear someone say paratha, we usually think of beautifully thick bread, filled with delicious stuffing and served with generous dollops of butter and pickle. Nothing wrong with that. But parathas are of different kinds – and not necessarily always a stuffed one. Laccha paratha, for example, has no stuffing.
This whole wheat paneer paratha is not what you might think it is. It is a paratha at the end of the day but it is not made the usual way you would imagine. It is a light, delicious, thin and flaky paratha that you can easily make and digest. You can eat at least five of them, no kidding! This is because the paneer and masalas are not stuffed into the paratha, but rather mixed into the dough itself. Confused? Let me explain.
How is this paneer paratha unique?
I came across this technique during one of those days when the kitchen experimentations took over. I had paneer or cottage cheese along with whole wheat flour and I was too lazy to go through the laborious process of making a stuffed paneer paratha. So what I did instead was I crumbled the paneer, and added it to the flour and made a dough with some masalas. Pretty much like how you will add onions in an onion paratha. I experimented with this technique a lot more in the days to come, and the results were loved by not just me but everyone I have fed this paratha to.
You see this paratha dough is super soft, because of the addition of paneer crumbs and some cream in it. The dough is super soft, so be gentle. And the resulting parathas are thin, flaky and delicious!
So let’s get straight to the recipe without any delay:
Preparation time – 30 minutes
Cook time – 20 minutes
Serves – 3-4 people
Ingredients
- 200 g whole wheat flour (atta)
- 1 tbsp ghee
- 2 green chilies
- 200 g paneer (cottage cheese)
- 2 tsp Kashmiri red chili powder
- 50 g coriander leaves, finely chopped
- 2 tsp carrom seeds (ajwain)
- 1 tsp garam masala
- 2 tsp cumin powder (jeera)
- Salt to taste
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 tbsp cream or fresh malai
- 1 tbsp Kasuri methi or dried fenugreek leaves
Directions
- Grate the paneer and add it to the whole wheat flour in a mixing bowl. Mix the two together gently with your fingers, forming a light crumble.
- Add the ghee and mix it well with the flour.
- Mix the salt, carrom seeds, red chili powder, fenugreek seeds, chopped coriander leaves and garam masala to the flour and paneer mix. Combine everything well with your hands.
- Add water at room temperature, little by little, till a soft dough is formed. Add water in intervals, to ensure the dough doesn’t get too sticky. You will not need too much water because the cottage cheese will release some water into the dough as well.
- Once the dough is ready, rub it with some oil on all sides. Cover and keep it aside for 30 minutes.
- Make 3 cm rounds with the dough. Roll them out with a rolling pin into parathas. Don’t make them too thick or thin.
- You can make the design around the edges like in the picture. All you have to do is use a fork and press it on the uncooked paratha on all sides. How pretty is that?
- Heat a pan and put the paratha into it once hot. Let one side cook for a minute. Till them, layer the top side with ghee with a spoon. Spread the ghee on all sides evenly.
- Flip the paratha and repeat the same process on the other side. Flip till paratha is cooked from both sides. Do not burn or overcook.
- Enjoy hot and crispy with chole, raita, subzi or gobble them up just like that!
I hope you try this paneer paratha. For more such delightful food, follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.
Related recipe – Whole-wheat paneer puris
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| Prep Time | 20 minutes |
| Cook Time | 40 minutes |
| Servings |
people
|
- 200 grams whole wheat flour
- 200 grams cottage cheese or paneer scrambled
- 1.5 tsp salt (or to taste)
- 2 tsp Kashmiri red chili powder
- 50 gram coriander leaves finely chopped
- 2 tsp carrom seeds
- 2 tsp cumin powder
- 1 tbsp ghee (for the dough)
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 tbsp cream or fresh malai
- 2 green chillies finely chopped
- 1 tbsp dried fenugreek leaves or kasuri methi
- ghee for frying the paratha
Ingredients
|
|
- In a mixing bowl, add the whole wheat flour.
- Put the flour in a mixing bowl. Add the ghee and cream (or fresh malai) and mix it well with the flour using your hands.
- Add the scrambled paneer to the flour along with the rest of the ingredients and mix everything really well with your hands.
- Once everything is mixed well, add water at room temperature, little by little, till a dough is formed. The dough has to be supple.
- Now layer the dough with vegetable oil and set aside for atleast 30 minutes.
- Make round balls out of the dough. Flatten them with a rolling pin to make medium parathas.
- Take a fork and press it gently along the sides of the paratha till you see the shape in the picture.
- Heat a tawa and place the paratha on it once it's really hot. Cook one side and flip. Add a teaspoon of ghee with a spoon on the other side uniformly and flip. Repeat on the other side. Cook till all sides are perfectly cooked. Keep flipping otherwise it will burn or get too crunchy.
- Repeat with all the other dough balls. Serve hot with curd or pickle.
