Stuffed Broccoli Paratha

I love stuffed parathas and I will never be bored of having a paratha, in fact I bet there would be no desi, who does not like stuffed parathas. Broccoli is not an Indian dish vegetable but with all the good nutrients and health benefits, we Indians would be happy to borrow it into our meals. I went one step ahead and instead of making the western version of steamed, stir-fries and soups, made a stuffed paratha out of it. I hope broccoli was happy with it's new Indian avatar. I have no idea whether broccoli was happy but my husband and I, we were definitely two happy souls after having it.

Broccoli is definitely the healthiest of all the veggies in the market. In States, it is also easily available throughout the year. So there is no excuse for not including it in your meal. Broccoli has many health benefits, it is high in calcium, fibre, vitamin C (helping iron absorption), folic acid (good for women) and potassium (useful for hypertension). Furthermore it has sulforaphane and  indol-3 carbinol, both are anti-cancer agents. Having cancer in the family makes us see this benefit more. Since his mom is going through lymphoma now, hubby has to have a good diet to ensure good health in future. Broccoli is also known to control aging signs in the body because of its benefits. Now that I am interested in, with me hitting thirty this year :(

While making these parathas I used a method which I came across in the blog, Veggie Foodist. It is a life saver, time saver for me. I thank Bharti for this unique method of making parathas, which is quicker and also gives you a paratha with uniform filling. I managed to make parathas the traditional way, but always struggled getting the filling evenly distributed. This method works like a charm in having your filling evenly distributed and also it is just a one fold and roll method. I am not going back to the traditional method and am able to enjoy more parathas now. I only changed the shape of my parathas so I got triangular parathas rather than football shaped ones.

If you roll the dough circular and fold, you will get football shaped parathas

If you roll your dough oblong then you will get triangular parathas

Frankly I do not mind the shape till the end result is yummy.

Ingredients:

For the dough:

• 4 cups whole wheat flour
• Salt to taste
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1and 1/2 cup warm water 

For the stuffing:

• 3-4 heads of broccoli
• 1-2 green chillies
• 1/2 inch piece ginger
• 1/2 onion chopped fine
• 1/2 tsp garam masala
• 1/2 tsp dry mango powder (aamchur)
• salt to taste
• 2 tsp oil

Directions:

For the dough:

• Mix salt and flour well. 
• Add 1 cup water first and start mixing. Then carefully add more water only if needed, say 1/4 cup at a time till you feel that the mix has enough water to knead it into a dough. If you add more water than needed and the dough is sticky add little flour and knead. Similarly if you feel the dough is dry add a tablespoons of water, to get it right.
• Now add 1 tbsp oil and knead it into smooth dough. If you have a food processor use it by all means. Keep aside for half an hour.

For the stuffing:

• Cut broccoli florets into small pieces and blend it with green chillies and ginger, without water. A food processor does this job well but if you do not have it, like me, then you just have to spend some time in chopping everything up into small pieces and then blend it.

Blended broccoli, ginger and chili mixture

• Add salt, garam masala and aamchur powder to the broccoli mixture.
• In a deep nonstick pan, heat oil, saute onions till soft and add the broccoli mixture
• Keep stirring occasionally. I think 3-5 minutes on heat is good enough for the moisture to escape from the mixture and cook it, as it will again get cooked when you are making parathas. Let it cool.

The final broccoli stuffing

Making parathas:

• Divide the dough into plum sized balls, also divide the broccoli mixture into equal or a tad smaller balls.
• Roll the dough longish like a naan, use flour to prevent sticking. Place the stuffing on one half of the rolled dough, not in the center like the traditional way, leaving space on the edges.

• Now fold the unfilled half over the filled one and seal the edges with your finger.

• Start rolling it till you get a flat paratha, applying even pressure all over, gently to retain filling
• You will get triangular parathas, which you then place on a hot griddle and cook on both sides applying oil on each side and flip as needed, till you get nice brown spots on both sides.
• Serve hot with yogurt and it is a complete meal, veggie, whole grain and protein.
• Enjoy!