PALAK PANEER PARATHA Recipe

We have parathas atleast once a week, as both of us are very fond of it .Stuffed parathas with home made North Indian style Mirch Achaar or Mango Achaar,cut onions and a bowl of dahi serves as a perfect meal for us.When it comes to filling, I usually experiment with various vegetables,lentils and greens-the filling options are actually endless.Though I prepare them often, they would not make it to the blog as I mostly prepare them for dinner.When I prepared this paratha last week for dinner, I made some extra portions so that I can have the same for lunch and also can post it in my blog.

Paneer paratha is quite common among many households and this paratha is bit different from the usual parathas,as the dough is mixed with spinach puree and the filling used here is very similar to the regular paneer paratha.

 

Rolling a perfect paratha needs some practice,it took me time to understand the technique to get the perfect paratha.Many follow the standard process of rolling paratha - like rolling the dough to a small chapati and then stuff it and seal the edges and roll again.I would not say it is a wrong method but according to me if the filling is spread all over the paratha upto the edges and also if a perfect pocket is formed(if the paratha puffs up) then I would say it is a perfect paratha.I have tried to explain the process of making paratha in detail with the step wise procedure which gives a perfect paratha with uniformly spread filling and also have perfect pocket.

Palak Paneer Paratha Recipe:
(makes 6 parathas)

Ingredients:

for dough:

1 1/2 cups Wheat flour

2 cups Spinach

1/2" Ginger

2-3 Green chillies

Salt to taste

2 tsp Oil

Water,to mix

for filling:

1 cup grated fresh Paneer

2-3 Green chillies,finely chopped

1 tsp grated Ginger

2 tbsp chopped Coriander

1 tsp Amchur(dried mango) powder

1 tsp roasted Cumin powder

Salt to taste

Wheat flour,for rolling

Ghee and Oil,to roast parathas

Method:

to make dough: 

• Bring water to a boil in a big vessel and add salt to it.
• Add spinach,green chillies and blanch the greens for 2 minutes.Strain the spinach and run cold water over it.Cool it completely.
• Grind spinach with green chillies,ginger to a fine paste.
• Add the ground spinach mixture to the wheat flour and add required salt and 1 tsp oil and mix well.
• Add little water(if needed) and knead it into a smooth and soft dough.The dough should be slightly softer than the regular chapati dough for parathas as it will not only make easy to stuff the filling it will help in easy and even rolling of parathas.
• Apply oil on top of the dough and cover it and keep it aside for at least half an hour.

to make filling:

• Grate the paneer and put it in to the bowl.
• Add finely chopped green chillies,grated ginger,chopped coriander and mix well.
• Add amchur powder,salt and cumin powder and mix well and keep it ready.

to make paratha:

• Pinch the dough and take a big size lemon sized dough and place the dough in your left hand palm.
• Dip your right hand fingers in the flour and try to make a cup shape(which can hold 3-4 tbsp filling) out of the dough by moving your fingers pressing with the thumb in the center.Take care that the edges should be slightly thinner and in the center it should be thick.

• Fill the cup with 3-4 tbsp filling and seal the two sides of the dough(it would look like Karanji now) and gently press the corners to get a big round ball out of it.See the pictures for better idea.

• If you stuff the filling in the dough in this way you will get evenly filled paratha and it also forms like pocket.If you find all the above process bit difficult,you can easily roll a 3" circle out of the dough and place the filling in the center and pleat the dough and seal it by gathering the dough around the edges.

• Slightly flatten the dough(stuffed with filling) with hands and dip it in the wheat flour and gently roll it to a 6" disc of 1/2" thickness.You should not apply more pressure while rolling,so roll it gently.

• Flip it on to a hot tawa and fry it until you see bubbles.
• Turn it and apply oil/ghee and fry and then turn and apply oil/ghee on the other side.

• Fry the parathas on both sides until you get crisp brown patches on both sides.

Serve them piping hot with Aam ka Achar/Mirch ka Achaar,curd/masala dahi and sliced onions.

Notes:

1. You can skip spinach puree while making dough and make it plain for Paneer Paratha.
2. You can even mix various greens along with palak like methi,dill along with palak while making puree for the dough in the recipe
3. Aloo can also be stuffed instead of paneer in the dough to make Palak Aloo Paratha,it tastes nice too.

This picture is to show you how the filling is evenly distributed till the edges and also have a perfect pocket.