Many Indian vegetarian dishes as well as non vegetarian curries call for accompaniments like breads and these come in a large variety! Curry dishes are best enjoyed with Indian breads that come in various shapes, textures and taste. The best way to research is to order a breadbasket in an Indian restaurant. The variety served is an eye opener and then once you have sampled everything, reorder one that is your favourite of the evening. A quick run of Indian vegetarian recipes that make an ideal breadbasket follows….
Phulka: puffed whole wheat bread.
The commonest and is eaten daily with meat and vegetable curries and dals. Called the chapatti sometimes but in actual terms a chapatti is generally flat and not puffed, it comes from the Hindi word ‘chapat’ which means flat. Phulka means one that is puffed as it is derived from the Hindi word ‘phulna’. One familiar but confusing usage of the term roti baffles a few. Roti is any unleavened bread like phulka, chapatti or roomali roti.
Parantha: layered fried bread
‘Parat’ means layer, and therefore parantha is a layered fried bread the layering of which is done by folding the dough while rolling it out. Depending upon the stuffing for the filling inside, many kinds of parathans are possible. Plain paranthas are usually enjoyed with various curries. The same dough as that used for the phulka may be used to prepare paranthas. To make stuffed paranthas, the stuffing is added before folding and layering the flour. The stuffing used may be boiled peas, potatoes, cauliflower, onion or radish. For non-vegetarians, a popular stuffing use is minced meat.
Phulka: puffed whole wheat bread.
The commonest and is eaten daily with meat and vegetable curries and dals. Called the chapatti sometimes but in actual terms a chapatti is generally flat and not puffed, it comes from the Hindi word ‘chapat’ which means flat. Phulka means one that is puffed as it is derived from the Hindi word ‘phulna’. One familiar but confusing usage of the term roti baffles a few. Roti is any unleavened bread like phulka, chapatti or roomali roti.
Parantha: layered fried bread
‘Parat’ means layer, and therefore parantha is a layered fried bread the layering of which is done by folding the dough while rolling it out. Depending upon the stuffing for the filling inside, many kinds of parathans are possible. Plain paranthas are usually enjoyed with various curries. The same dough as that used for the phulka may be used to prepare paranthas. To make stuffed paranthas, the stuffing is added before folding and layering the flour. The stuffing used may be boiled peas, potatoes, cauliflower, onion or radish. For non-vegetarians, a popular stuffing use is minced meat.
Naan: leavened bread
A bread which is seen more often than rotis in many Indian restaurants. Though of Persian and Afghan origins, naan is an incomparable combination of European bread and the Indian chapatti! One might think then that the recipe will be painstaking but that is not the case. In fact, the recipe works in favour of its universal appeal. White flour mixed with yeast and other ingredients gives dough that can be rolled out and put to cook in a tandoor. The final flourish is the sprinkling of nigella seeds! One test for a good cook is that if the dough for the naan is right, they should puff up.
As our knowledge of Indian vegetarian recipes keeps getting enhanced, look up some more breads such as Aloo Parantha, Bhature, Missi Roti…
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