Some recipes enter the kitchen without declaring its origin and this cooked beetroot recipe is widely smiling from that same shelf of unknown ancestry!
Living in Dublin I come across cooked beetroot more often than raw ones. When I was new in this city, I usually went to do grocery without a shopping list because I had no idea what all could be found in the attractive looking shopping aisles. Most times I ended up being tempted at the sight of vegetables that were new to me and bought them to experiment a recipe fresh to my kitchen.
Of course, I was very familiar with beetroots but always in the raw form. At home my mother would cook the raw red beauties into beetroot palya, a Bangalore delicacy, which we enjoyed with hot parathas. And sometimes we added beetroot to salad (this wasn’t very popular in the family).
Placing the packet on the table I started browsing the internet for recipe of cooked beetroot that can be interesting. All recipes that showed up came close to a salad form of using cooked beetroots and that didn’t interest me. Now I couldn’t let that pack of 4 boiled beetroots go waste, so I rang my sister because mothers don’t experiment, they are experts of traditional recipes.
That phone call for recipe inspiration!
All I remember is the phone conversation with my sister where I explained her my situation and she said “the other day my mother-in-law added the extra juice of beetroot to the chapati dough she was preparing and the chapatis were quite tasty.”
I thought that could be a nice try, by grating the beetroots and mixing it to the whole wheat flour and make parathas out of it. She also said ‘add a pinch of chilli powder as beetroot sweetens the dish’. And there I was curiously grating the cooked beets in a bowl of flour.
Very soon the parathas were ready and after that day this recipe has visited the kitchen multiple times. And to my delight it has become our favourite dish out of cooked beetroots.
Recipe of Beetroot Paratha
It is a very simple and flexible recipe which can be altered based on the quantity of beetroots available. The proportions I use is:
- Whole wheat flour – about 2 cups
- Cooked Beetroot – 2 medium or 3 small size beets, grated over the flour (so we don’t waste the juice of beets)
- A pinch of Red chilli powder / paprika
- A pinch of salt
- Water as required (if the beets are more juicy, less water will be needed)
- Oil – 1/2 tsp
Method:
– Add flour, grated beetroot, salt and chilli powder to a bowl.
– Use your fingertips to bring together all the ingredients.
– Sprinkle little water and mix it along with other ingredients.
– Slowly, keep adding water and start kneading until you get tight dough consistency. At this stage, dough shouldn’t be sticking to hands or the sides of the bowl. If this happens, add more dry flour.
– Spread oil on top of the dough and gently grease all sides of the dough with that oil.
– Cover the dough and keep it aside for about 15-20 minutes.
– It is now ready to be rolled into parathas. Make small lemon size balls from the dough.
– Take a rolling pin and flatten the dough on a floured surface, making it thin in circular shape.
– Fry it on a flat hot pan with 1/2 teaspoon of oil.
Enjoy it with a curry or dry side dish 🙂 The Amritsari chole masala goes very well with these parathas.
I will love to know if you have any recipes that were born from inspirations.
