Experimenting with lentils: Missi Roti recipe
Roti and daal combined
We all love a good daal and love the health benefits that come with it. But having daal, in the same way, gets boring (well certainly for us), so missi roti was the perfect way to get lentils back into our diets.
Missi roti is essentially Indian flatbread (roti) dough (attah) mixed with lentils, chilli, gram flour and methi (fenugreek leaves). Using gram flour helps make the roti much softer and the spices help bring in a much-needed kick to ordinary roti.
These originate from the Northern part of India where the majority of my family are from. Traditionally made in a tandoor (clay oven) and served on the side of Punjab roads in little restaurants which are known as a Dhaba. Not being in Punjab and not having a tandoor, I used a Tawa, a flat cast iron pan, but you may not have one of these, so a hot, non-stick frying pan will produce similar results.
Missi Roti can be eaten on their own. It doesn’t require an accompanying sabji (curry), like a poratha (another stuffed Indian flatbread) – plain yoghurt will do just fine.
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Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour (plus a bit extra)
- 3 tbsp of gram flour
- 1 tbsp of dried fenugreek leaves (methi)
- 1 medium sized onion
- 2 green chillies
- Thumb-sized piece of ginger (peeled)
- Salt to taste
- 1 cup of your choice of lentils (I used whole black lentils also known as maa)
- Water
- Butter or Desi Ghee
Instructions
The Attah.
- Add the flour, gram flour and salt into a large bowl and mix together.
- Now grind together the onions, chilli, ginger so they are finely chopped and well combined.
- In a small pot, add in a cup of your chosen lentils and add in just enough water to cover the lentils.
- Cook the lentils until you can split a lentil easily in half.
- Then set aside to cool.
- Once cold add together your lentils (and the water it was boiling in), chopped ginger, onion and chillies into your dry ingredients and bind together it should start coming together like a dough and gradually become less sticky the more you knead it.
- Now place the dough into the fridge for an hour.
Making the Roti:
- Set up a rolling station: it should be made of a bowl with dry flour in, a rolling pin and your dough.
- Split your dough into equal golf-sized balls.
- Take one of these balls and dip into the dry flour so it is fully covered and flatten it down.
- Take the flattened ball out of the flour and roll it out with a rolling pin so it forms a round circle and is as thick as a penny coin. Rolling it quickly and moving in a slight circular motion will insure your roti doesn’t stick and comes out round.
- Dust off any dry flour from the roti and place onto a dry hot frying pan.
- Once you see a change in colour on the top flip the roti round.
- When large air bubbles start forming on the top flip the roti around again.
- Take to roti off the pan when you can see dark circles on both sides of the roti.
- Serve with yoghurt and cover in butter or ghee.
Recipe Notes
If your dough isn't binding together, add small amounts of cold water and begin to knead again. If too wet add in some more flour a tablespoon at a time.
Recipe by
Ayesha
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Comments (2)
Sounds good!
This is very interesting! I would love to try it. It looks really tasty.