Broccoli Paratha Recipe

Recently had the Chicago's deep dish pizza followed by three full days of cheese, cheese & cheese. Never imagined I could survive without the Indian dishes(especially rice) for these many days. After the over dose of cheese, the first thing I prepared was rice & Udupi rasam with some papad. The next day, I made this broccoli paratha for our brunch & after that we felt, we were back home :)

Cooking time: 30 minutes
Preparation time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:
For the dough:
Wheat flour: 3 cups
Salt: 1 tsp
Oil: 1 tsp
Water: As needed

For the stuffing:
1 medium sized broccoli or 2 cups grated broccoli.
Oil: 1 tsp
Green chilli: 3 nos, grated
Salt: As needed
Lemon juice: 1 tsp

Other ingredients:
Oil: 1 tsp for each paratha
wheat flour, for dusting
Butter: 1tsp, on each paratha (for the extra zing!)

Method:
For the dough:
Mix all the ingredients mentioned for the dough (except water). Slowly add few tablespoons of water at a time & prepare a soft dough. The dough should not be sticky. Knead for 5 mins until the dough becomes pliable. Rest the dough covered for a minimum of 30 mins.

For the stuffing:
Heat oil in a broad pan. When oil is hot, add the grated green chilli & broccoli. Sprinkle salt. Mix well & saute on a high heat for 2 mins. Reduce the heat to medium & cook for another minute. Turn off the heat. Add lemon juice & mix well. Keep it aside.

For making the parathas/Stuffed Indian bread:

• Knead the dough again & divide the dough into lemon sized balls.
• Roll the ball using a rolling pin to 3/4th the size of the palm. Place 1 tbsp or a little more of the stuffing in the center of the rolled ball. Cover the stuffing (refer pictures below). Pinch out the extra dough if any (refer pictures below). 

• Generously dust the stuffed ball. Roll the stuffed ball carefully into a 5 to 6 inch diameter circle using a rolling pin.

• Heat a tawa/tava/griddle. When the tava is hot place the rolled paratha & shallow fry it with a tsp or more of oil on a medium/high heat
• Flip the paratha & cook on the other side too.
• Remove the cooked paratha from the heat. Add a blob of butter & serve immediately!
• Repeat the procedure with the remaining dough balls.
• I served the paratha with green gram dal.

Notes:

• It is very important to keep the stuffing dry, else the stuffing will start oozing out when you start rolling the stuffed balls.
• If you are beginner at making parathas, try with a little stuffing at a time. May be a tsp to begin with. Increase the stuffing as your confidence in preparing them increases.
• The safest stuffing to start with for making parathas are green peas stuffing, broccoli stuffing and paneer stuffing, because they don't ooze out water like potato stuffing or raddish stuffing. 

Are you interested in few other broccoli recipes? Here you go:

Broccoli ka kheema/Minced broccoli with Indian spices

Broccoli Capsicum Curry

Mashed broccoli & cottage cheese/Broccoli-Paneer burji

Broccoli ka kheema/Minced broccoli with Indian spices

These days, I am experimenting more with broccoli recipes with Indian spices. This is a very simple, subtle & a crunchy dish that goes well with rice. This is unlike the normal gobi kheema recipe that uses tomato puree. I make this often for weekday lunch. My son relishes this dish with some ghee & rice. I coined the name broccoli ka kheema, could not think of a better one :)

Preparation time: 5 mins
Cooking time: 5-7mins

Ingredients: (Serves 2)
Broccoli: 2 cups, shredded
Garlic: 3 pods, minced
Spice powder: 1.5 tsp (I used this spice powder. Infact you could use any spice powder of your choice)
Red chilli powder: 1/2tsp
Oil: 1 tbsp
Nigella seeds/Kalonji: 1 tsp
Cumin seeds: 1/2 tsp
Salt: According to taste
Lemon juice: 1 tsp, optional
Coriander leaves: 1 tbsp, finely chopped

Method:

• Shred the broccoli. I let my chopper do it for me!
• Heat oil in a broad skillet. When oil is hot, add kalonji & cumin seeds. When seeds leave out a nice aroma, add the garlic & saute till the garlic turns golden.
• Throw in the shredded broccoli & mix.
• Add the salt, spice powder, red chilli powder & cook it on a medium heat for 3-5mins. Keep stirring in between. 
• After the broccoli is cooked, increase the heat to high-medium & keep stirring continuously for 2-3mins. This step will ensure to remove all the moisture from the broccoli & make it crisp & crunchy.
• Turn off the heat. Add lemon juice & coriander leaves. Mix well & serve it as a side dish for rice.

Notes: 

• Do not get tempted to sprinkle water, we need this dish crunchy! 
• I have tried this dish with variety of spice powders including sambar powder. Some spice powders that could be tried are kitchen king masala, pulao masala, sambar powder, curry powder. 
• You could even mix the spice powder, oil, garlic, broccoli & roast it in the oven! I will try it next time & update the result here. 

Mashed broccoli & cottage cheese/Broccoli-paneer burji

I love broccoli where as my family prefers to avoid it. Hence I try to hide this vegetable. One trick that always work for me is to mix it with the vegetable that they absolutely love. I tweaked the Paneer Burji recipe by adding loads of my favorite spices. This gets done very fast & is a great side dish for phulkas or plain paratha (whole wheat Indian bread).

Bland paneer & broccoli becomes very flavorful with this spice powder & tastes great.The spice powder mentioned below comes handy while preparing many dishes.

Ingredients:
Paneer/Indian cottage cheese: 1.5 cups, grated
Broccoli: 2 cups, shred
Green peas: a fistfsul, fresh or frozen (optional)
Oil: 1 tbsp
Garlic: 2 pods, minced
Onion: 1, med sized, finely chopped
Cumin seeds: 1/2 tsp
Kalonji/Nigella: 1/2 tsp
Red chili powder: 1/2 tsp, optional
Spice powder: 1 tbsp, refer below for the ingredients.
Salt: According to taste
Lemon juice: 1/2 tsp, optional.
Coriander leaves: 1 tbsp, finely chopped

For spice powder:
Fennel seeds: 1 tsp
Coriander seeds: 1 tsp
Cumin seeds: 1/2 tsp
Red chili powder: 1 tsp
Garam masala: 1 tsp
Amchur powder: a big pinch

Method: 
Spice powder:
Dry roast the fennel seeds, cumin seeds & coriander seeds. Allow them to cool. Make a fine powder of the dry roasted seeds. Scoop out the powder & mix the garam masala, red chili powder, amchur powder. Store this powder in a air-tight container. You could use this spice powder to make several types of stir-fry/sabzi or curry.

For burji:

• Wash the broccoli. Drain it in a kitchen towel & shred/grate the broccoli.
• Grate or mash the paneer. 
• Heat oil in a broad wok/pan. When oil is hot, add cumin seeds. When seeds turn golden brown, add kalonji. Saute for 10secs. Throw in the garlic & saute till garlic turn golden. 
• Add the onion & saute till the onions sweat (around 2-3 mins).
• Add the shred broccoli, green peas to the oil & saute for 2-3mins.
• Add the paneer, salt, spice powder, extra red chili powder & mix well. 
• Cook the mixture on a medium flame for 5-7mins. Turn off the heat.
• Add lemon juice, coriander leaves & mix.
• Serve it hot with a bread of your choice.

Notes:

The measurement mentioned for broccoli & paneer in this recipe is completely your choice. Adjust according to what you have at hand. 

Broccoli Capsicum Curry

I keep hoping everyday that my maid would have cooked something delicious for dinner.

Scene at home:

Me: Kya banaya khane ke liye? (What have you prepared?)

She(Maid): Aapne call nahi kiya na, isliye maine socha aap kuch banayenge, maine tho sirf aata ghunke rakha hai. (You didnot call me, so.., I thought you would be cooking. I just prepared the dough for rotis).

Me: (Trying to hide my anger..), teek hain, subziyan fridge se nikalo. Agar main call nahi karpayi, tho aaphi call karke pooch lijiye. (Fine, atleast keep the vegetables out & also, I may forget to call. It is better you only call & get the details for dinner)

She: Main batana bhool gayi.., sivaye pyaaz, tamatar...sabziyan kuch bhi nayi hain (Forgot to tell you, there is no vegetable except for onion & tomato)

Me: (Grrrrrrr...trying to smile again)Ok, let me have a quick look at the freezer.

Luckily on that day, I found some frozen broccoli, 1 old capsicum & some frozen peas. I started experimenting with that. I usually prepare 2-3 types of general gravies, that go well with most of the vegetables. I used one of the gravies for this dish & it turned out real good. I was very happy with the result. So, thought of writing down for your (rather our!!) reference ;)

Ingredients:

Broccoli: 1 medium sized (cut into medium pieces)
Capsicum: 2 nos(cut into 1 inch cubes)

Green peas: a fistful (I used frozen)

Green chillies: 4 nos

Onion: 2 nos

Tomatoes: 2 nos

Ginger-garlic paste: 1 tbsp

Cilantro: 1 cup or 3 strings (for the gravy)

Kasuri Methi: 1 tsp

Garam masala: 1 tsp (optional)

Amchur powder: 1 tsp (add according to your taste)

Red chilli powder: 1/2 tsp

Salt: According to taste

Oil: 2 + 1 tbsp

Cumin seeds: 1 tsp

Cilantro: 1 tbsp (for garneshing)

Method:

• Prepare a fine paste of tomato, onion, ginger-garlic paste, green chillies & cilantro.
• Heat a broad pan. Add 2 tbsp of oil to it. When oil is hot, add cumin seeds. When cumin seeds splutter, add the paste prepared in the previous step. Reduce the heat & cook it on a slow flame.
• Meantime, in a wok, add 1 tsp of oil & saute the broccoli until tender & yet crunchy (it takes around 5-6minutes). Set aside the broccoli & repeat the same with capsicum. Mix the vegetables & keep them aside.
• Ensure the raw smell of onion & tomatoes vanish away. The gravy starts oozing out oil. At this stage, add 1/2 cup of water, green peas, salt, red chilli powder, amchur powder, kasuri methi & mix well.
• Add the vegetables to the gravy & cook on a medium flame for another 5-7minutes. Add garam masala & remove the gravy from heat.
• Serve it hot with rotis.

Broccoli Raitha (Broccoli in Yogurt)

When I saw "SWC- Salads under 15 minutes" event hosted by Lakshmi, lot of thoughts passed by. Thought of preparing this salad, that salad!!! But, never realised that days are passing by & last day is nearing.When I visited her blog today, I found today is the last day for sending the entries to SWC-salad. So, decided to post something that I have already tried, for which I had a photo taken already!! When I prepared this raitha for the first time, I had used the basic recipe from "SpiceIndiaOnline", later customized to meet our family needs.

Hope you all enjoy this as much as we do :)


Ingredients:
1 small cup broccoli (chop it into medium sized pieces)
1 cup curd/yogurt
1/2 tsp jeera powder/cumin seed powder
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
4 drops of olive oil
salt according to taste
1 tsp chopped cliantro (coriander leaves)

Method:

• Chop the broccoli into medium sized pieces & cook it by adding sufficient water for 2-4 mins.
• Meantime, beat yogurt. Mix cumin seed powder, red chilli powder, salt & keep it aside
• Drain out the water from broccoli & add olive oil to it. Mix well.
• Add the cooked broccoli, coriander leaves to the yogurt mixture.
• Mix well & serve it either with parantha or vegetable pulao.