Mooli Paratha: Radish Stuffed Flatbread

Grated white radish seasoned and stuffed in flat-bread, pan fried with ghee. Mooli paratha is a delicious wholesome meal, perfect for brunch.

There are two schools of thought on how the filling for mooli paratha should be prepared: the first camp sautés the grated radish before using it for stuffing, the second camp keeps it raw. This recipe gives you my preferred method – the raw.

Challenges one might hear about the raw approach:

Both challenges are ably addressed with one simple trick: salting.

But I’m getting ahead of myself here. Let me lay out the recipe for mooli paratha (radish stuffed flatbread) in sequence, in full.

You Need:

[for 4 parathas]

• Wheat flour (atta) – 1 cup
• White radish (mooli) – 3 medium (enough to give 1 packed cup of grated radish)
• Carom seeds (ajwain) – 1/4 teaspoon
• Raw mango powder (amchoor powder) – 1/4 teaspoon
• Green chilies – 2
• Coriander leaves – a few sprigs
• Salt – to taste
• Ghee – for pan-frying the parathas, about 1/2 teaspoon per paratha

How To Make Mooli Paratha:

1. Prepare the radish filling

Scrape and grate the radish.

Add half a teaspoon of salt to the radish. Mix well and set aside.

While the salted radish rests, prepare the other ingredients: chop coriander leaves and green chilies finely.

After about twenty minutes, the grated radish would have given off water. Squeeze out this water into a separate container. Do not throw the water away – use it for kneading the atta for the parathas.

Tip: After a round of radish-squeezing, let it rest for another five minutes and re-squeeze for a totally unmessy filling.

To the grated radish, add these ingredients: chopped coriander leaves and green chilies, carom seeds, raw mango powder.

Mix the seasoning well with the grated radish.

2. Knead the dough

Take a cup of atta in a wide pan for kneading. Knead the atta as you would for chapatis, using the radish water collected from step 1. Let the dough rest covered for 20 minutes.

2. Roll and stuff

[We are going to make two layers per paratha, sandwiching the radish mix between the layers.]

Pluck a small ball of dough (slightly smaller than a ping pong ball). Roll it out into a disc shape of 5-6 inches diameter. This will be the top layer.

For tips on how to roll right, look up section C "Rolling it" in The Ultimate Chapati Cheatsheet.

Keep the rolled out layer aside and repeat with another ball of dough to make the bottom layer. Aim to make the two layers symmetrical.

On the just-rolled bottom layer, put a tablespoon of radish filling.

Spread the radish filling evenly, leaving a centimeter on the edges aside.

Place the top layer carefully covering all of the radish filling, mirrorring the bottom layer.

Gently press the two layers together – I do this using my hands. Ensure that the edges are sealed.

That makes one mooli paratha ready to be cooked.

Repeat for all the dough.

3. On the fire

Heat a wide non-stick pan. Place the uncooked paratha on it.

When the side facing the heat begins to spot, flip it over.

Spread some ghee on flipped-up partly-cooked side.

Keep an eye on the heat – you may have to adjust the setting as the paratha cooks.

Setting the heat too low gives you dry papad-like paratha. Keeping the heat too high makes some parts of the paratha well-done, some parts undercooked. Beat the blunders: watch the heat.

Let the second side cook as well, then turn the paratha over again and spread ghee on the second side.

Do another round of flipping till the mooli paratha is well toasted on both sides.

Take the mooli paratha off the heat and place it on absorbent paper.

Repeat for all the rolled out parathas.

Mooli parathas are ready. Best eaten hot with pickle/chutney on the side.

Meal below: mooli parathas with garlic chili chutney.

Notes:

As with preparing the filling, the act of stuffing a paratha too has varied approaches. You could:

1. Stuff first, then roll

   This method has the advantage of distributing the stuffing evenly through the paratha, also reaching the edges. It’s best done when you have some experience with paratha-making and/or the filling is dry – as in the case of sattu paratha.

2. Roll first, then stuff

   When you have gooey filling to handle, roll-first-stuff-later is the way to go. This method is more beginner-friendly – you can’t go much wrong with it as long as you seal the edges right. Cases in point: tomato onion paratha, cheese paratha.

3. Mix the "stuffing" into the flour

   The foolproof (cop-out ;-) ) approach is to not even attempt filling the paratha but to knead the dough along with the stuffing. The flavor may not be as intense this way but you still end up with delicious parathas, next best to the real deal. More about this approach here: The Taste of Aloo Parathas wthout the Hassle of Stuffing.

Mooli paratha recipes abound for each of the stuffing approaches. This recipe demoes “Roll first, then stuff”, though I do occasionally make mooli paratha using the other two approaches depending on the time I have on hand. Experiment and see what works for you.

Wondering what else you can cook with mooli? Try these recipes: