Lauki Paratha: Bottle Gourd Flatbread

Bottle gourd decks up in style in lauki paratha, balancing its natural simplicity with a host of heftier flavors. When grated and kneaded into dough, this unassuming gourd lends its feel and texture to the paratha without making its presence stand out.

[If you have a toddler on hand who declares "I don’t eat vegetables", you can feed him lauki paratha and the little one will lap it up, blissfully unaware that he has defied his policy #TrueStory]

You Need:

• Bottle gourd – 250 grams (~1 cup when grated)
• Coriander leaves – 1 small bunch (~1/2 packed cup when chopped)
• Green chilies – 1 (optional)
• Carom seeds (ajwain) – 1/2 teaspoon
• Salt – 1/4 teaspoon (adjust to taste)
• Whole wheat flour (atta) – 2 cups
• Oil – for frying

In the picture above (clockwise from top): Bottle gourd, whole wheat flour, carom seeds, coriander leaves, green chili.

How To Make Lauki Paratha:

1. Prepare the ingredients

Peel and grate the bottle gourd.

Mix 1/4 teaspoon of salt to the grated bottle gourd, cover and keep aside for 15 minutes.

The bottle gourd will ooze out water. Firmly squeeze out the water and collect it in a bowl.

Chop coriander leaves and green chilies finely.

2. Season and knead the dough

Take atta in a large bowl. Add to it carom seeds, finely chopped coriander leaves and green chilies, and a pinch of salt.

Mix well.

Then add grated bottle gourd and start kneading, clumping the flour with your palms to let the flour moisten from the bottle gourd. Kneading this way will help you estimate how much water you should add to the dough – if you are too hasty with the water, you might end up with a sticky mess.

After a while, you might find that you do not need any extra water at all – the dough is firm and pliant with only the moisture given off by the bottle gourd. In case the dough is still powdery, moisten it with the bottle gourd juice that you had squeezed out earlier.

You can stop kneading when the dough is firm and pliant and comes together into a nice ball.

Cover and let the dough rest for 30 minutes.

3. Roll and cook

Pluck some dough the size of a ping-pong ball.

Flatten it slightly, dip it in dry flour and roll it out into a disk. Spread it evenly – make sure it doesn’t get too thin as the bottle gourd in the dough tends to make it tear.

Heat a flat, wide non-stick pan. Place a rolled out paratha on it. Keep the heat on high for a while.

When the side facing away from the heat begins to pop tiny bubbles , flip the paratha over to cook the other side.

Spread a few drops of oil on the side facing up. Lower the heat when the pan gets smoky.

Flip the paratha again, spread oil on the other side too.

When both sides are cooked well (flecked golden, no raw patches – check the sides), take the paratha off the heat and place it on absorbent paper.

Repeat the roll and cook process till you are through with all the dough.

Tip 1: Ball up all the dough before you start rolling. This way you will avoid that one last odd-sized paratha.

Tip 2: With a wide, flat spatula, keep pressing the paratha down as it cooks, and give it slight rotations. This will help it cook better.

Tip 3: Share the work with a partner: one rolls, the other cooks. This way you will speed up the paratha-making process and get to enjoy the entire stack of parathas hot.

Serve lauki paratha hot with chutney/pickle, yogurt, curry.

Meal below: lauki paratha with pumpkin mangodi curry.

Notes:

Check other paratha recipes that follow a similar knead-into-dough pattern: beetroot paratha, cabbage paratha, spinach paratha.

If you’d rather go the stuffed way, try sattu paratha, onion tomato paratha, minced soya paratha.

Other bottle gourd recipes you might like: dahi wali lauki, lauki aloo stew, lauki raita.