Cauliflower paratha

Hey peeps. Been a long break wrt blogging for me! For those of you who know me know that this cute little boy of mine, Athu (well technically Prakash & Priyanka’s :)), was here in Dubai for a month. Athu, Priyanka & my amma were my New Year gift :). What just started off as ‘Hey, why don’t you guys come over to Dubai?’ turned into serious plans and we genuinely overcame all the obstacles (oh, they were plenty of them). Till they landed here, we were not sure if they were gonna pull off the trip. But now I am happy to report, they came, they conquered (well all our hearts as always) and they went (safely)!

While I was determined to keep the blogging going, it was practically becoming very tiring for me to keep up with it. So I let go off that. But just as with anything else, once you take a break, to jump back into it takes a bit longer than it should! 🙂

When Athu & co were here, we did a lot of touristy things, we cooked a lot of fancy and regular items. One of the things that I learnt from Priyanka was the art of making parathas. I am surely not an expert as yet but I have learnt those small but gorgeous tips and techniques. And oh, I love how simple her seasoning to the paratha stuffing is but how tasty they turn out. This cauliflower paratha right here has been an eye opener to me since the way I make cauliflower paratha involves cooking the stuffing before hand, let it cool and then using the stuffing. However, her way needs no cooking and I was pretty skeptical about how the taste would turn out but my oh my, it was soooooo good. I tried it once again after she left & I am very happy to report that it tasted as good as when she did and I did the folding/ pleating alright too (well, not as beautifully as hers but with good practise, I am pretty sure I will get there).

However, before I jump into the recipe as with every blog prelude of mine I want to document something personal (this one is more for you girls Tash & Sam). The 1 month that Athu was here, I barely did any parenting work. Well, I still bathed/ fed Adya but the whole ‘play/ learn’ thing happened solely by/ through Athu. As always while Athu taught a lot of amazing as well as good to learn/ know things, my mind always seems to remember the naughty kinda stuff :). Athu started finding the words ‘potty’, ‘susu’ funny from a few years back and those words still crack him up. Well all I can say is Athu now has company in this (I swear I meant Adyant). Below is both of them singing & showing off their ‘Potty dance, do the potty dance.. bum bum bum bum’.

Athu was calling me ‘athai’ aka bua/ aunt the week 1 and 2 that he was here. So Adyant was calling me ‘Sowmya athai’ too. Week 3, 4 and 5, Athu was calling me ‘Chithi’ (since he saw another niece/ nephew call me that) and I became ‘Chithi’ to Adyant too :). I found it so cute that Adyant copied everything that Athu did. And oh, I also became ‘Sowmya Rasamundar’ at some point to Athu (and so obv to Adyant too). Athu, Adya, amma, Priyanka and I pretty much slept in the same room for almost the whole of the trip and I just loved it! Amidst all the chaos happening all over eve now, I am genuinely glad and grateful we could pull of this trip and we have made these forever memories now.

ok bye, now on to the recipe!

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Cauliflower paratha

Prep Time

20 mins

Cook Time

40 mins

Resting Time

30 mins

 

Course: Breakfast, Main Course

Cuisine: Indian

Servings: 20 parathas

Ingredients

Paratha/ Chapathi dough

• 5 cups atta/ whole wheat flour
• 2.5 cups water

Cauliflower stuffing

• 3 stacked cups grated cauliflower
• 2 tsp chaat masala
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 1 tsp kashmiri chilli powder
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 stacked tsp grated ginger
• 3 nos green chillies finely chopped
• a handful finely chopped coriander leaves

Instructions

Paratha/ Chapathi dough

1. In a wide big bowl, add 5c chapathi atta/ whole wheat flour.

2. Add 2c room temperature water and start kneading.

3. Add more water if required. We required 2.5c water totally.

4. Knead into a smooth pliable dough (not a wet dough).

5. Coat the outer surface of the dough with water (oil would work too) and cover the vessel with a wet cloth.

6. Set the dough aside to rest for 20-30 minutes (proceed to prep cauliflower stuffing meanwhile).

Cauliflower stuffing

1. Prep work – Clean & Wash cauliflower florets, green chillies, ginger and coriander leaves. Either do this ahead so the veggies dry or pat dry with a kitchen towel.

2. Chop the green chillies and coriander leaves finely. Grate the ginger.

3. Pulse/ grate cauliflower florets. We have a veggie chopper and we used that to pulse the florets in batches.

4. Add the pulsed/ grated cauliflower into a medium sized bowl.

5. To this add 2t chaat masala, 1t garam masala, 1t kashmiri chilli powder, 1t turmeric powder, grated ginger, green chillies and coriander leaves.

6. Mix everything together.

Paratha making

1. Pinch out some dough (roughly a clementine/ plum size) and make it into a ball.

2. Take the dough ball and gently makea cup shape using your fingers. Keep the edges thin and the center slightly thick.

3. Now place a good amount of stuffing (roughly 2-3T) of the filling and sprinkle some salt.

4. Fold the dough ball by making small pleats.

5. Keep folding/ pleating (in the process pushing the stuffing in with your thumb if it threatens to ooze out) and finally seal the stuffing.

6. Dust the stuffed dough with some dry atta/ wheat flour.

7. Roll out the paratha (don't make it very thin).

8. Place the paratha on a hot tawa/ skillet/ flat pan (hot pan is key to getting a nice puffed up paratha as well).

9. Flip after 15-20 seconds. Smear some ghee.

10. Flip the other side and smear some more ghee. Once both sides are well cooked/ you see enough golden spots, take it off the pan.

11. Serve hot hot parathas along side some butter, pickle and curd. Ahaaaa! total drool.

Recipe Notes

1. My friend Divya had a trick up her sleeve where she dusts the paratha in all purpose flour/ maida so as to not have the paratha tear while rolling it out. In case if any of you are having trouble while rolling the paratha out, you could try that. 
2. Priyanka doesn’t salt the dough but the subsequent times that I have been making these parathas, I have been salting the dough as well. 
3. You can obviously make the parathas spicier or less spicy based on your taste buds. When I am making the parathas just for me and Adya, I totally skip the red chilli powder as well as the green chillies. 
4. While you can obviously play around with the seasoning, trust me – this is the best combo I have come across so far :). 
5. Since the cauliflower can leak water, Priyanka’s suggestion is to salt/ add the chaat masala right before we actually make the parathas. very sensible suggestion. 
6. The pleating technique gets better as you practise. Don’t bother too much with it. 
7. You can make the dough the previous night and keep it in the fridge in an airtight container. 

Stepwise pictures

Paratha/ Chapathi dough

Cauliflower stuffing

Paratha making