Kerala
Gajar Paratha
- Duration: 20 minutes
- Serves: 2 to 5 people
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Spice Level: Medium
Authenticity Slice
Make sure that the wheat dough is neither too tight nor too soft. Also, always cook the carrots before using them as stuffing, or their natural water content will make the dough soggy and impossible to roll into paronthas.
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Trivia Tadka
Gajar Paratha is a nutritious take on the regular ‘paratha’, and as the name suggests, is made of grated carrots and whole wheat flour. Roasted cumin powder and coriander leaves give it a lovely flavour, and have helped make it a favourite among Keralite foodies. It is believed that this paratha originated in Vedic times, when it used to be offered to the fire god during yagnas. Back then, these parathas used to be stuffed with powdered lentils or chopped vegetables. The carrot stuffing came along as an innovation in the 16th century.
Ingredients
- Wheat flour (atta) (1 cup)
- Carrot (gajar), grated (1½ cups)
- Coriander leaves (hara dhania), chopped (1 cup)
- Green chillies (hari mirch), finely chopped (1 )
- MTR Jeera Cumin Powder (½ tsp)
- MTR Dhaniya Coriander Powder (½ tsp)
- MTR Lal Mirch Red Chilli Powder (¼ tsp)
- MTR Garam Masala Powder (½ tsp)
- Carom seeds (ajwain) (¼ tsp)
- MTR Haldi Turmeric Powder (¼ tsp)
- Salt (to taste)
- Oil/ ghee (3 tbsp)
Method
- Take the wheat flour, salt and a tsp of oil in a paraat (flat, round plate with high edges) and mix well. Make a soft dough by using a little water and by kneading all the ingredients with your palm. Cover this dough and keep aside for 10 minutes.
- Heat 1 tsp of oil in a pan. Add in the ajwain and fry for a few seconds.
- Next, add in the grated carrot and stir-fry for a couple of minutes, or till the raw vegetable smell has disappeared. Add in the MTR Dhaniya/Coriander Powder, the MTR Jeera/Cumin Powder, the MTR Garam Masala Powder, the MTR Haldi/Turmeric Powder, green chillies, salt and the MTR Lal Mirch/Red Chilli Powder to this and mix well. Sprinkle in a little water and cover with a lid.
- Keep cooking till the carrots have turned soft.
- Open the lid and sauté till the mix has become dry.
- Add in the coriander leaves and stir well. Let the mix cool. Next, make lemon-sized balls of the dough and roll them into circles of roughly 1-inch diameter. Gently stuff these circles with the carrot mixture and seal them up well from all sides. Using a rolling pin, flatten out each of these dough pockets into thin parathas.
- Heat a tawa, and place a paratha on it. Sprinkle oil on both sides of the paratha and cook till brown spots begin to appear on its skin.
- Serve hot with raita and/or pickle.
