Spinach Flat Bread (Palak Parantha)

Yes, I understand that even though I go on saying healthy eating/lifestyle, I tend to come back with Indian dishes which are more of carbohydrates 🙂 In my defence, I would say that the mantra to a healthy lifestyle is eating a balanced diet, of which carbohydrates are an essential building block!!

This post covers another of the Indian Paranthas’ but with a slight difference – this time the Parantha is much more nutritional as it is mixed with the super healthy Spinach (called Palak in Hindi). I like Spinach and prefer enjoying it in many forms – parantha, kofta, and standalone curry. But I have seen many people who do not like Spinach that much (especially standalone curry), and my husband is definitely one amongst them. So this Spinach Parantha is the key to this lot – as my  darling husband seems to have finally fallen for Spinach, in the form of these Paranthas. What more, he keeps on requesting for them in breakfast as well as in dinner (in winters).

Spinach is an excellent source of vitamin K, vitamin A, vitamin C and folic acid as well as being a good source of manganese, magnesium, iron and vitamin B2. Vitamin K is important for maintaining bone health and it is difficult to find vegetables richer in vitamin K than Spinach. Spinach is also very low in calories and fats hence it is one of the finest vegetable sources recommended in cholesterol controlling and weight reduction programs!

Without wasting any more time, let me get down to business 🙂

The ingredients for Spinach Parantha are:

1. Whole Wheat Flour : 3 cup
2. Chickpea flour (Gram flour/Besan) : 1/2 cup
3. Spinach : 3 cup (chopped)
4. Green Chilli : 2
5. Garlic : 2 cloves
6. Ginger : 1/4 tsp
7. Red Chilli Powder : 1/2 tsp
8. Turmeric Powder : 1/4 tsp
9. Salt : to taste
10. Dried Mango Powder (Amchur) : 1/2 tsp
11. Garam Masala : 1/2 tsp
12. Coriander Leaves : 1 Tbsp
13. Oil : for cooking

Method :

Wash, rinse and chop the spinach.

Take garlic, ginger, green chilli, and coriander leaves and chop them finely.

Take a big bowl; add whole wheat flour, chickpea flour, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, salt, garam masala, dried mango powder, and 1 tsp oil; mix well. Then add the chopped items (garlic, ginger, green chilli, and coriander leaves) to it and mix everything well.

Now add chopped spinach to this mix and knead the dough with required amount of water. Make a smooth dough and let it rest for 10 minutes.

Pinch out a medium sized ball from the dough, dust with some flour and roll it out with rolling pin in a normal size parantha.

Heat a skillet/tawa, and put the raw parantha on it. When the colour of raw parantha has starts to change, flip it and apply oil on it.

After a minute flip the parantha again and apply oil on the other side too. When the parantha is cooked(brown spots), remove parantha from the skillet and your healthy, tasty parantha is ready !

Make paranthas in the same manner with the remaining dough.

Serve these warm Spinach Parantha’s with yogurt and pickle, Kadhi or simply with tea/coffee.

Insider Tips / Finer Points :

• You may adjust spices according to your taste buds.
• You may use clarified butter(ghee) instead of oil.
• I have used chopped spinach in the parantha as I love to see tiny spinach in the paranthas’; but if you like you can make purée of spinach and then use it.

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