Alu Palak paratha | Aloo spinach paratha |Stuffed Indian flatbread

This is one of my favourite Paratha recipe. As you know, I make Parathas every weekend for our Sunday brunch. Mostly I do simple aalu pyaz Paratha but every alternate week I try and try to keep it varied and healthier. And so, I prepare Paratha adding more vegetables than just potato. Though I love potatoes, and since for the stuffing potatoes are first boiled and then used, the starch is already halved. So they are no threat to a person struggling to keep her diet plans intact. But then, they still are starchy to an extent, and adding in other vegetables only enhance the taste, not ruin it. Check out my post on how to make your Parathas healthy and perfect each time, for more ideas on the same. 

So I add shredded carrots, broccoli, coriander leaves, mint etc.  to the dough or stuffing to achieve my goal of eating more green vegetables. This time, I added spinach to the stuffing and it tasted so good I myself couldn’t believe it. Usually  I avoid adding spinach to the stuffing since it release a lot of water making it difficult to handle. So this one does require a bit of patience. I have tried to explain the procedure below, for how to prepare perfect dry stuffing for this Paratha. I hope that will help you, if not- please do leave a feedback and I will try to resolve the issue you have. 

More Parathas – Green peas Paratha | Paalak Paneer Paratha | Paneer Dhaniya Paratha | Mooli ka Paratha 

This is a vegan recipe, and I like to keep it that way. But if you like, you may add some yogurt or Ghee to the dough to make it more pliable. As for this one, I have added a little bit of oil which I usually I don’t add  at all. But like I said, spinach releases water and if your dough is not strong enough to hold it, the paratha will tear apart while rolling. And hence, only for this one I have added a bit of oil to  the dough 

What you need?

• 4-5 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 tbsp cooking oil ( I used groundnut oil, to get  a bit of nutty flavour in)
• Warm water to knead – as required
• A pinch of salt 

For the stuffing:

• 2 cups packed spinach leaves, rinsed well
• 4-5 medium seized potatoes, boiled and peeled
• 1 small onion, chopped very small
• A small piece of ginger, grated or minced finely
• 1 green chili – chopped very small or minced finely
• ¼ tsp carom seeds – ajwain
• ½ tsp garam masala
• ½ tsp red chili powder
• ¼ tsp cumin powder
• A pinch of black pepper (optional)
• Salt to taste 

Preparation and notes:-

• You will need to plan a little but ahead of time for this Paratha. So you rinse the spinach leaves well and squeeze the water out. Now, keep them in a microwaveable dish and run them for 5 minutes. These will be wilted (shrunk in size). Alternatively, you may boil 1 cup of water in a pan and simmer the leaves for 5 minutes, covered to wilt them. Keep them aside to cool off a bit

• Once they are cool enough to be handled by bare hands, squeeze out all the water from them. You may reserve this water for later use or even mix in the same dough while kneading. Keep the spinach lump aside. You may need to repeat the process of squeezing water again 2-3 times since spinach leaves have tendency to retain moisture and release water. So repeat this process twice or thrice until you are sure that its all dry now.

• For potatoes – make sure that you boil and peel the potatoes at least an hour ago before preparing the Parathas. The potatoes should be at the room temperature for you to start making the stuffing. Otherwise, the steam contained in the potatoes will make them moist and your stuffing won’t get dry. So boil and peel the potatoes, roughly break them and keep aside in a mixing bowl while you knead the dough and wilt the spinach etc.

• Knead the dough, using warm water and salt and oil/ghee. The dough should not be very tight or too loose, check out the post on how to get perfect stuffed Parathas for more tips on kneading the Paratha dough.

How to make?

• Prepare the stuffing mixing potatoes, spices and wilted spinach lump. Before mixing everything make sure to check the water in spinach one last time, squeeze whatever remaining moisture is there and then mix with the stuffing
• Heat the tawa (griddle). Pinch a small dough ball, roll it a bit and spoon the stuffing inside. Bring the edges together to bind it and then roll back again dusting with some dry flour.
• Spread on the tawa, and roast from both sides using little oil on medium gas level. Once its cooked properly, transfer to a serving plate and serve with pickle and raita.

• To make your breakfast even healthier, pair the Paratha with Vegetables Raita like Brinjal raita (eggplant/aubergine), Mooli Raita (Indian radish) or Ladyfinger raita  (Okra/bhindi)

More Notes:

• Do not keep stuffing aside for too long, since onion and spinach will release the water and make it moist. Ideally prepare it just before you start rolling the Parathas, or max an hour beforehand
• You may skip the oil or ghee from the dough, I usually never add it any of my Parathas. But like I said, I was afraid spinach might spit out some moisture and it would damage the dough cover so I added it in the dough.
• Since spinach is not an easily digestible vegetable, I have added cumin powder, ginger and carom seeds to the stuffing so to enhance the digestive properties of the same. you may also add a pinch of fennel seeds powder to the stuffing which helps in better digestibility and enhances the taste as well.   

Check out some more Indian breakfast recipes

If you are interested in more healthy Paratha recipes, try this Sattu ka Paratha which is a protein packed flour made of Chana daal. Very popular in the state of Bihar and U.P.