Palak Lacha Paratha

What do you generally make with fresh palak (spinach) leaves? 

I had some fresh garden grown spinach and had used for making stir-fry, dal palak , palak poori and so on. The tricolour paratha that I tried with spinach was also good to try, but I wanted to try with chopped spinach leaves alone and not the purée version, so gave this a try. This is a simple and easy to make recipe compare to the puréed version and tastes delicious, especially the lacha style layered with ghee. The puréed style is good if you want to sneak in for kids. Check this out !!.

Preparation time ~ 10 minutes

Cooking time ~ 15 minutes

Serves ~ 8-9 parathas

Author ~ Julie

Ingredients

wheat flour 2 + 1/4 cups

spinach(palak) 2 cups

ginger paste 1/2 tsp

chilly flakes 1 tsp

cumin seeds 1/4 tsp

salt 1/2 tsp

oil (any neutral) 2 tsp

ghee to smear

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Method

• Wash the spinach leaves, cut & discard the stems. Use only the leaves. Chop the leaves, keep aside.
• In another bowl, add wheat flour, salt, cumin seeds, chilly flakes, chopped spinach and oil.
• Add water little by little and knead a tight dough, as spinach tends to leave out water.Rest for 20 minutes.
• After 20 minutes, pinch out 8 lemon size equal balls. Dip in dry flour and roll out the chapathis.
• METHOD 1: Smear ghee on the paratha, and then fold in three like a letter fold. Then roll the paratha tight. Cut in the center to divide in separate layers. Dip in dry flour again and re roll the parathas.
• METHOD 2: Smear ghee on the parathas and sprinkle flour on top. Start folding in zigzag pattern and then roll the pattern tight, tuck the ends. Roll again by dusting flour in the shape of parathas.
• Similarly, make all the parathas and heat a pan.
• When hot, slide each of the parathas. When the sides turn colour, flip the sides. Gently press the parathas using a spatula to cook evenly. Drizzle oil/ghee on both surfaces, remove when fully cooked.
• Similarly, cook all the parathas. Finally, stack all the parathas together and beat the sides to separate out the layers.
• Enjoy with a simple onion raitha or pickle.

NOTES

* Always keep the 1/4 cup wheat flour extra, as spinach may leave out water, and you may need to add more flour.

* You can use chopped green chillies or green chilli paste instead of red chilli flakes