PHOTOGRAPHS BY EVA KOLENKO/FOOD STYLING BY STACY ADIMANDO AND KAT CRADDOCKA popular breakfast
food in India, stuffed
parathas are best paired
with spicy achar pickles
and cooling yogurt.parathas are the stuff
of my carb-filled dreams.
The soft, layered Indian
breads were a staple of
my childhood in Dallas—
most commonly stuffed
with spiced, mashed pota-
toes and made by my
Aunt Rachna. I remem-
ber sitting at her kitchen
table, mesmerized as she
carefully rolled the whole-
wheat dough into rounds,
expertly sealing an impos-
sible amount of potato
filling within each thin
disk. Ours were basted in
oil or ghee and griddled in
a hot cast-iron pan until
shimmery and crisp, and
we’d either pile them high
in the center of the table
or, more often, eat them as
soon as they came out of
the skillet.
Depending on where
you are in India or its
surrounding countries,“paratha” might mean
something entirely dif-
ferent. In some places,
they are folded into tri-
angles, in others they’re
f laky and laminated like
croissants, and some
cooks blister them in a
tandoor. For my Indian-
American family in
Texas, parathas were a
simple, chewy, pancake-
shaped disk filled with
whatever we had on hand,
be it spiced vegetables,
mashed chickpeas, or
crumbled cheese.
Making the dough
from scratch is easy and
involves just a few in-
gredients. And once
homemade parathas are
sizzled and laid out with
spicy and cooling con-
diments for dipping, it’s
impossible to eat just
one—so make enough to
go around. India’s unleavened, ghee-griddled, potato-
filled parathas comfort and sustain
BY PRIYA KRISHNAINDIAN FLATBREADS
Stacked in
Your Favor
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