My mom who was a teacher made us plain “parathas” every morning. By every morning, I mean every morning, weekdays or weekends, Summer or Winter. It was something she also had as a child, every day. She told us about how she and her seven siblings, had a paratha every day after school. Then they waited for her dad, my “nana” to come home from work to have dinner. Sometimes she would make a couple of parathas after she was done making roti for the dinner, and eat it with us, while we were fining our dinner.

There has never been an occasion where I have to make parathas and have not thought about my, never. The smell that fills the house when the paratha starts to brown in oil, when cooked on low heat, always takes me back to how we had them before leaving for school.
Time flies, now that I have kids of my own, it seems like it was only a few days back when would roll the parathas and run to catch the school van.
I don’t make the parathas every day, but whenever we do it just never tastes the way my mom’s parathas tasted. After all these years when I go back and visit her, she makes them and of course, they taste and look the same as they did years ago.

Parathas come in many shapes and flavors. Plain paratha, basically is a wheat flatbread that is made by rolling, folding, and rolling out the dough balls again into a circle or a square. The thing that makes it delicious and different than a roti is the oil that is brushed on the flattened dough before are layers of oil in it that make it flaky and crispy

.

‘aloo’ is the Urdu word for potato

There are 2 main elements in making the aloo parathas.

The Dough
The dough is prepared with whole wheat flour called (atta). The same kind of flour is used to make chapati/roti, naan, parathas, and puri.
The Mashed Potato Mixture
‘aloo’ is the Urdu word for potato and ‘paratha’ is a layered flatbread. So, aloo paratha literally means potato-stuffed flatbread, two comforting ingredients in one sounds delicious!

So many Flavors…

There are a variety of stuffing that can be used in place of potatoes, like chicken qeema, or spinach and cheese even Nutella so you are free to stuff it with anything of your choice.

Aloo Paratha

  • Servings: 6
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

Ingredients

  • For the Paratha Dough:
  • 2 cups whole wheat flour 2 cups
  • 1 cup Flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3 tbsp oil
  • 1 cup Lukewarm water to knead ( you might need more or less depending n the humidity level)
  • For the Potato Filling:
  • 4 large Potatoes
  • 1 tbsp Lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon Roasted cumin seeds (powdered)
  • 1 teaspoon Roasted coriander seeds (powdered)
  • 1/4 teaspoon Turmeric powder
  • 2 teaspoons Red chili powder
  • 1 teaspoon Salt, or to taste
  • 1 Onion, medium-sized
  • 2 Green chilies
  • 1/2 cup Coriander leaves, chopped
  • 1/4 cup Mint leaves, chopped
  • 1/2 cup oil

Directions

  1. For paratha dough:
  2. Mix whole wheat flour, plain flour, salt, and oil in the mixer bowl. ( or any large bowl)
  3. Knead the dough with lukewarm water.
  4. Cover the dough and set it aside for 30 minutes.
  5. Make the filling
  6. Boil the potatoes, remove the skin, and mash them with a fork.
  7. Chop green chilies, coriander, mint leaves, and finely chopped onions.
  8. Mix the mashed potatoes, chopped green chilies, coriander leaves, mint leaves, onions, lemon juice, cumin seeds, turmeric powder, red chili powder, and salt in a bowl.
  9. Start making parathas by rolling small balls out of dough.
  10. Spread each ball into the size of a tea saucer.
  11. Then place 1/4 cup of the the potatoes mixture on it.
  12. Bring the edges together to cover the potato mixture completely, press edges nicely, and seal it.
  13. first flatten the potato stufffed dough with your hands and then flatten it using a rolling pin
  14. Heat a 10-inch skillet or a frying pan, Place the paratha on the skillet and cook until lightly golden on one side then flip and cook the other side.
  15. eat it just like that or serve hot with raita, chutney, Qeema, and/or achar.

A dough that is soft will make even parathas, with same thickness all over.

Always cook on medium heat, not too low not too high.

Mash the potatoes so there are no chunks left, with a fork but do not use a food processor.

Don’t overfill the Paratha with Aloo Masala, as the stuffing will come out when you roll the parathas.

Use dry flour to as dusting, so the the paratha wont stick to the surface.

Oil spray can be used on the pan, to keep the calories in check.