Sprouts stuffed parathas

Few days ago, Priya and I were discussing the Pillsbury multigrain atta, after she mentioned in a post about powdering whole barley and storing them for future use. She suggested that it is more economical that way than buying the commercially available ones. That is true, especially in countries where Indian grocery stores have to depend on arrival of stock. The price tag goes up as their stock depletes. I have saved the instruction manual +cookbook that came with my first Sumeet mixie. There is a whole section there about grinding whole grains to powders that you may store. So I set out to make my own multi grain atta.

To whole wheat flour, I added home powdered soya beans, barley, and oats each in 1/8th of the volume of the whole wheat flour and started using that for chappathis. They are not only fibre rich but taste good too.

I had soaked green gram for no particular reason and by the next morning they had small sprouts showing up. So I let them sprout fully. I had planned to use them in a curry to go with chappathis, when on an impulse I just decided to make them as stuffed parathas. The resultant product is what this recipe is about!

Ingredients:

For the dough:

2 cups multi grain atta or just whole wheat flour

Salt to taste

3 teaspoons cooking oil

Water as required to mix in a soft dough

For the filling:

1 cup green gram sprouted

1 medium onion chopped finely

2 green chillis crushed almost to pulp

1"piece of ginger minced

Salt to taste1 teaspoon oil

Other ingredient:

Oil for cooking the parathas

Method:

Put together all ingredients for the dough in a bowl and knead to a soft and pliable dough adding sufficient water.

Knead well and let the dough rest covered for 20 minutes.

Once sprouted, do not cook the beans totally. This may cause loss of nutrieants. Hence steam the gram until it can be coarsely mashed.

Heat the 1 teaspoon oil in a pan. Add the crushed chillis and the ginger. Saute' for few minutes.

Add the onion and saute until they are soft and transparent.

Add the salt and the coarse green gram. Toss the mix until it is almost dry but you can hold it in a shape if pressed in the palm.

Remove from the fire.

Allow to cool and make equal potions of this filling.

Pinch out big size portions of the dough, roll a small circular disc.

Place one ball of the filling in the centre. Pull the edges inwards to cover the dough well.

Flatten this and gently roll out 1/2" thick circles, taking care not to tear the dough.

Repeat with the rest of the dough and filling.

Place the griddle on heat. Once the optimum heat has been reached, place the rolled out paratha and cook adding few drops of oil. Once the under side has been cooked, flip to the other and cook until both sides are well done.

Thus proceed to make the entire parathas.

Serve with pickle and yoghurt or with any favourite side dish.

I would love to send these sprouts stuffed protein rich parathas to the 33rd edition of Susan's MLLA hosted this March at Ammalu's Kitchen.