Whole wheat flatbread stuffed with grated radish and green chilli filling, cooked with ghee. The winter paratha of Punjab alongside gobhi — the pungent freshness of raw radish inside hot bread makes it a morning essential.
Ingredients
For the dough:
2 cups wheat flour, 1 tbsp oil, a pinch salt, warm water — about 3/4 cup
For the radish filling:
2 large daikon radish (mooli) — grated on coarse side (about 2 cups after grating)
2 green chilli — very finely chopped
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1/2 tsp coriander powder
1/4 tsp ajwain (carom seeds)
2 tbsp fresh coriander leaves — chopped
salt to taste
ghee for cooking
Method
Make the dough: Combine wheat flour, oil and salt. Mix oil in with fingertips. Add warm water gradually and knead 7 minutes to a smooth, soft dough. Cover with damp cloth. Rest 20 minutes.
Grate the radish and squeeze DRY — the critical step: Grate the daikon radish coarsely. Place in a clean cloth and squeeze as hard as you can, repeatedly, until absolutely no moisture remains. Radish is 95 percent water — if not completely squeezed dry, the filling will be wet and the paratha will steam rather than fry, becoming soggy. A properly squeezed filling is almost crumbly.
Season the filling: Mix the squeezed grated radish with chopped green chilli, red chilli powder, coriander powder, ajwain, coriander leaves and salt. Mix well. The radish has a pungent, sharp smell — this is normal and this pungency mellows when cooked inside the hot paratha. Divide into 6 portions.
Divide the dough: Divide the rested dough into 6 equal balls.
Stuff and seal: Flatten one ball in your palm into a 10 cm disc. Place one portion of radish filling in the centre. Bring dough edges upward around the filling, gather and pinch firmly at the top. No filling should be visible outside.
Roll gently: Place sealed ball on a floured surface, sealed side up. Roll gently from centre outward into a round about 18 to 20 cm wide. Roll very slowly — the radish filling is coarser than potato and can easily push through the dough.
Cook on a hot griddle: Heat a flat griddle on medium heat. Place the paratha on it. Cook 1.5 minutes until bubbles form on the surface.
Apply ghee and flip: Apply 1 tsp ghee on the top surface. Flip. Apply 1 tsp ghee on the other side. Press gently with a spatula.
Cook until golden: Cook 1.5 minutes per side after adding ghee until both sides are golden with crispy, charred spots.
Serve with yogurt and pickle: Serve hot with cold yogurt and mango pickle. The cold yogurt softens the pungency of the radish filling pleasantly.
Note: Mooli Paratha is made in winter when daikon radish is abundant and extremely fresh in Punjab. The pungency of fresh daikon inside a hot paratha is a distinctive winter pleasure — the heat of cooking mellows the sharpness somewhat. Like gobhi paratha, this is a seasonal preparation that marks the winter breakfast culture of Punjabi households. The complete squeezing of moisture from the radish is the single most important step.