Vegetable and Potato Chapati Bread

Vegetable chapati also known as paratha is One of the most popular Indian bread recipes from Punjab, India. “An Indian bread which is eaten for breakfast with spiced yogurts and pickle or served for a special dinner with any curry.

To make the stuffing:

• First boil potatoes and vegetables.
• Mash the veg and potatoes with a potato masher. There should be no lumps or small pieces in it.
• Now in a frying pan add 2tbsp oil add the chopped garlic, ginger, green chilies, turmeric, garam masala , red chili powder, and salt and lemon juice.
• Mix in the mashed veg and potato’s very well. Check the taste and add more salt or red chili powder as per your taste. 

Kneading dough:

• In another bowl or pan, take whole wheat flour. 
• Make a well in the center. Add ½ tsp salt, 1 tsp oil and about half of the water.
• Bring the mixture together and knead into a smooth soft dough. 
• Cover and keep the dough aside for 20 to 30 minutes.

Rolling and stuffing veg chapati – method 1:

• Pinch two small balls from the dough. Flatten them and dust with whole wheat flour.
• With a rolling pin, roll them into about 4 to 5 inches diameter rounds . Try making both the rounds of the same size.
• On one of the rolled dough circle, place the potato stuffing in the center and keep about 1 inch empty space from the sides.
• Gently place the second circle on top.
• Press and seal the edges with your fingertips.
• Dust some flour on the stuffed chapati and roll into a round of about 7 to 8 inches in diameter.

Rolling and stuffing chapati – method 2:

• Pinch a medium ball dough. Roll and flatten it. Dust with some flour and roll it in a circle of about 5 to 5.5 inches in diameter.
• Place the potato stuffing in the center, keeping about 2 to 2.5 inches space from the sides.
• Take the edge and start pleating as well as bringing the pleats in the center.
• Join the pleats together. The pleats have to be joined well, as otherwise there will be gaps while rolling and the filling comes out. 
• In case you do see the filling, then just take a small piece of dough and cover the gap. Roll to smoothen out the small piece of dough.
• Press the pleats from center.
• Sprinkle some flour with a rolling pin, roll them into a round of about 7 to 8 inches in diameter.

Making veg chapati:

• On a hot pancake pan or use flat frying pan. place the rolled chapati.
• The pan should be hot and not at a low temperature. Cooking at a low flame will harden them. Veg Chapati ideally are crisp as well as soft.
• When the base is partly cooked, flip.
• Spread some ghee or oil on the partly cooked part.
• Flip again and this time this side has to be cooked more than the previous side. You will see brown spots on the chapati
• Spread some ghee/ oil on this side too. A well-made and well-roasted chapati will puff up.
• Flip again once or twice till both the sides of veg chapati are cooked properly. You should see crisp brown spots on the paratha. 
• You can also Press the edges with a spatula or spoon, so that they are fried well. As some time, the chapati edges are not cooked well. 
• Make all veg chapati this way and stack them up in a roti basket or plate.
• You can also serve the veg chapati directly from the pan straight in the serving plate. Serve some extra butter on the side, along with mango pickle or lemon pickle or some yogurt.

Notes

• Adding oil or ghee while kneading the dough makes the dough soft.
• The veg stuffing mixture can be made according to your taste and liking. You can also add roasted cumin seeds powder (jeera powder), rock salt, coriander powder.
• To the stuffing, you can also add other boiled and mashed veggies like peas, carrot, french beans, also grated cheese and paneer, to make it more nutritious and you have your mix for the veg chapati
• Always cut the onions, chillies, coriander leaves very finely. Also, the aloo should be mashed very well. There should not be any lumps or small pieces in it. This is so, so that, the chapati’s do not break while rolling.
• To vegan version, roast the chapati’s with oil instead of ghee. Also use oil while needing the dough.