Mooli Paratha
Mooli Paratha are whole wheat flatbreads with a spiced radish filling. These are best eaten hot or warm with a side of Chai or pickle and yogurt. Mooli Paratha are a winter favorite from North India and are mostly eaten for a breakfast. This post shows you how to make perfect, crisp and flaky parathas with a delicious and healthy radish filling.
Like Gobi Paratha, Mooli Paratha is also made with uncooked, raw veggie. Grated white radish is spiced and then stuffed in a soft pliable dough. It is later rolled before frying on a pan/ tawa.
About Mooli Paratha
“Mooli” is a Hindi word for radish and Paratha are whole wheat flatbreads. These radish paratha are a winter staple in the Punjabi homes and you will find these most commonly in dhabas and North Indian restaurant menus.
Many different kinds of radish are grown across the world. In India white radish is used to make these parathas but long red variety also work well. These parathas are best minimally spiced so I have kept the spice levels low. If you want you can up the heat levels by adding more green chilies.
But the beauty of these mooli paratha is to let the flavor, taste and texture of radish shine through, by keeping everything else to minimum. A good pickle or chutney on the side is all that you need. I have shared an instant chutney idea in the pro tips section below.
Radish is a root vegetable with high (about 90%) moisture content. Stuffing a dough ball with this kind of wet veggies will cause the dough to turn sticky and squishy. So to avoid this, grated radish is mixed with salt & allowed to rest for a short time.
Salt helps to draw out moisture from the mooli. This juice from the radish is used to form the dough. The stuffing is made by simply mixing the raw radish with spices and herbs.
It is then stuffed in a dough ball, rolled to parathas and then pan fried. During this step, radish gets steam cooked inside, keeping the parathas soft from inside and flaky from outside.
Many ways to make
Second Method: If you don’t eat raw radish, simply follow the same way of extracting the juice and then dry saute the grating in a steel pan or use a teaspoon of oil. Alternately you may also temper your spices – ginger, red chili powder etc in a tsp of oil before adding the radish.
Third Method: A lot of times I make these mooli paratha without stuffing. Simply mix all the ingredients together – flour, radish and spices to form a dough. I have shown the method in this Vegetable Parathas. With this method I double all the spices and cut down the mooli to 2 cups. You won’t use any water to make the dough but only use the mooli juices.