Recipe: Sweet Paratha or Meeta Paratha

Parathas are Punjabi's staple food and there are many varieties of them based on the stuffing used. We can make stuffing out of aloo (potato), paneer (cottage cheese), ajwain (carom seeds), gobi (cauliflower), mooli (radish), mixed vegetable, dal (lentil), sugar etc. 

In this post, I am sharing the recipe of sweet paratha, which is known as meeta paratha. There are different ways to prepare this paratha, by stuffing plain sugar or jaggery or by combining them with powdered dry fruits etc. I am going to describe parathas with stuffing made out of chana dal and jaggery. These parathas will be very soft, sweet and also nutritious with a good mix of protein, iron and fiber. They can be eaten for break fast, lunch, dinner or as an evening snack too. 

Most important aspect of making stuffed parathas is the way stuffing is placed inside the dough. The video at the end of this article shows one of the methods. With little practice, you can become a pro!!!

                                    

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Let's take a look at the ingredients and procedure to make sweet paratha.

Ingredients:

• Chana dal (Chickpea lentils) - 1 cup
• Jaggery - 3/4 cup
• Grated coconut - 1/4 cup
• Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp
• Maida (All purpose flour) - 1 cup
• Wheat flour - 1 cup
• Salt - 1/2 tsp (optional)
• Oil - 1 tsp
• Ghee/ Oil for roasting
• Water - As required

Procedure:

• Wash and soak chana dal for an hour
• Pressure cook chana dal for 5 whistles, by adding water just above the level of dal
• Strain out the water and mash the dal well with the back of a ladle or potato masher until it becomes smooth
• Dissolve jaggery in small quantity of water, strain out the impurities and add to dal
• Cook dal jaggery mixture on medium flame 
• Keep stirring the mixture occasionally. Add powdered cardamom and grated coconut and continue to cook
• Meanwhile, take maida and wheat flour in a mixing bowl, add salt and mix well. You may skip salt, if you prefer to.
• Knead the flour into a soft dough by adding water in small batches. Coat the dough with oil and keep it aside to rest for half an hour
• Once the dal mixture (stuffing) thickens and starts to separate from the vessel, switch off the flame and allow it to cool
• After half an hour, make lemon sized balls out of the dough and stuffing
• Roll the dough to form a 3 inch diameter circle and place the stuffing on it and cover it to make a bigger ball (check out the video below to know how to stuff)
• Dust the ball with flour and roll it flat to make paratha
• Place the paratha on a hot tawa (fry pan) and allow it to cook for half a minute, then flip to the other side
• After half a minute, flip the paratha and apply ghee. Do the same on the other side and cook the paratha until it is well cooked.
• Finally, enjoy the parathas while they are hot, by spreading some ghee on top

Tips:

• Based on your preference, you can replace maida with wheat flour
• Use oil instead of ghee to roast the paratha, to make the recipe vegan
• Ensure tawa is hot, before placing the paratha, otherwise parathas don't get roasted properly 
• Cast iron tawa yields best results 

To watch the video recipe, click below. I have shown how to stuff the paratha in detail.