Pudina Lachha Paratha / Layered Mint Paratha

Pudina Lachha Paratha is a healthy and delicious Indian flatbread. It is basically a crisp, flaky layered whole wheat flatbread flavored with mint and few other spices. Here in this paratha i have added fresh mint leaves in the dough and also used dried mint in the layers. This flavorful mint paratha can be served as a meal with any pickle, dal, curry or raita of your choice at breakfast, lunch or dinner.

What is a flatbread ?

A bread that is flattened by thoroughly rolling out a dough made of flour, water and salt is called a flatbread. Flatbreads may be leavened (pita bread) or unleavened (paratha, chapati). Flatbread can be made thick or thin and can be baked in an oven, or cooked on a hot griddle.

Indian Flatbread:

Indian breads are a wide variety of crepes and flatbreads that form an integral part of Indian Cuisine. Most of the flatbreads from Northern India are unleavened and made primarily from milled flour, usually atta or maida and water. Some flatbreads like paratha may be stuffed with vegetables and layered with ghee or butter. In the Indian states of Maharashtra and Karnataka, breads are also made from millet like, Sorghum (jowar), pearl millet (bajra), finger millet (ragi) and is called bhakri or rotla. In Southern India and the west coast, most flatbreads are made from peeled and split black lentils (urad dal) and rice. popular varieties include dosa, appam, uttapam, rice roti and ragi roti.

What is a Lachha Paratha?

Lachha paratha or Lachedar paratha is a popular paratha variety from North India, made from wheat flour. Lachha paratha is also referred to as Paratwala paratha in Punjabi as "parat" means layer and layers can be seen on the paratha when it is cooked. Lachha paratha can be made plain or flavored with herbs and spices. The dough ball made from wheat flour, salt and water is rolled out as a thin sheet on which ghee is smeared. Small pleats are made of this thin sheet, this pleated dough is then rolled tightly like a pinwheel, and again rolled out slightly thick using a rolling pin. This rolled out dough is then cooked on a heated griddle with ghee until golden brown from both sides. Beautiful layers can be seen on this paratha on cooking.

What goes into my Pudina Lachha Paratha?

The main ingredient of this lachha paratha is whole wheat flour. As the name suggests this lachha paratha has refreshing flavors of mint or pudina. I have used both fresh mint leaves from my Kitchen garden and the homemade dried mint powder to flavor the paratha. Finely chopped fresh mint leaves are added to the dough and the dried mint powder is used along with ghee in the layers of the paratha. Apart from mint, i have used minced garlic, carom seeds and red chili powder to season the paratha dough. I have used milk to knead the flour. You may use water if you wish. Milk keeps the paratha soft from within even though they may appear flaky and crisp from outside.

Related Event:

We are having Flat Bread Fiesta as our theme for the 241st week on our Facebook gourmet group, Foodie Monday Blog Hop. This theme was suggested by me taking into consideration the importance of flatbreads in Indian Cuisine and also the limited resources we all are having in our Kitchen pantries owing to Covid19 Lockdown, curfew and restricted movements in India and many countries of the world. Do not forget to check out the creations by my fellow bloggers on this theme. 

                                          

Preparation Time: 40 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Serves: 8

Ingredients: Measurements used 1 cup =240ml

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/4 teaspoon carom seeds/ajwain
• 1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
• 1 teaspoon red chili powder
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic (optional)
• 2-3 tablespoon finely chopped fresh mint leaves
• 3/4 cup milk or as required to knead a soft dough
• 1 tablespoon oil
• Salt to taste
• 2 tablespoon dried mint powder
• 1/4 cup ghee

Method:

1. In a mixing bowl take whole wheat flour.  Add chopped mint leaves, carom seeds, turmeric powder, red chili powder, minced garlic( if using), and salt to taste. Mix all the spices and herbs with the flour well.

2. Next, add 1 tablespoon oil to the flour and rub it well. Now, add little milk at a time and knead the flour into a soft dough. Cover the dough and allow it to rest for at least 15-20 minutes.

3. After resting time, knead the dough again and make 8 equal portions of it. Take a dough ball and roll it out into a chapati as thin as possible. Use wheat flour to dust the working surface while doing so.

4. Smear the chapati with ghee and sprinkle flour and mint powder all over it. Now take the top portion of the chapati and make a fold on it as shown in the figure. Start making as many as possible, small pleats of the chapati, one below the other.

5. Stretch the pleated chapati and roll it tightly as a pinwheel. Tug the open end at the center of the roll.

6. Dust the working surface and roll out this pinwheel into a slightly thick paratha.

7. Roast the paratha on a heated tava or griddle until it is golden brown from both sides. Apply ghee on both sides of the paratha while doing so. You will see beautiful layers or circular patterns on the paratha.

8. Make all the parathas similarly. Stack them and serve the delicious, flaky and oh so appealing mint lachha paratha along with any curry, dal or raita of your choice and enjoy with your loved ones!

                                      

Recipe Notes:

• I have used fresh mint from my potted plant. If you do not have access to fresh herb, just add dried mint powder both in dough and while rolling. To make dried mint powder, just wash the fresh mint leaves, pat dry using kitchen towel and then allow it to air dry in shade. Once completely dry store it in an air tight container. It stays good for a year. 
• We love the flavor of minced garlic in this lachha paratha so have used it. You may skip for a satvik version.
• Addition of milk makes the paratha soft from within, though they may appear crisp and flaky from outside. However, you may use water instead of milk if you wish to.
• Adjust the red chili powder levels as per your spice tolerance and liking.

I hope a few of you would love to try out this recipe. If you do so, feel free to share your feedback with us in the form of likes and comments in the comment section below this post. All your suggestions are also more than welcome. If you like my work and feel it is worth following, do hit the follow button at the top right corner of this blog. Your appreciation means a lot to me. For more recipes and new updates follow us on social media.

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For more Indian Flatbread recipes, do check out the following from this blog

• Gavhache Dhirde - Jaggery and whole wheat pancakes

                                  

• Pesarratu - Mung bean dosa

                               

• Sarva Pindi - Savory Rice Flour Pancakes

                               

• Adai Dosa

                               

• Dudhiche Thalipeeth

                               

• Amritsari Aloo Kulcha

                               

• Besan Dhirde

                              

• Gobhi Ke Parathe

                              

• Broccoli Paneer Paratha