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Beetroot rotis being folded

Beetroot Roti

Shri Repp
Beetroot Roti! Roti is the staple flatbread in most Indian households. It should have crispy charred leopard-like spotting but also be soft and tender enough to tear it apart and bend it into a vessel for vindaloo. A roti should be nutty in flavor -- complex enough to eat on its own, yet subtle enough to act as a supporting partner to the kormas it hoists.
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Prep Time 35 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Course Dinner
Servings 16 rotis

Ingredients
 

  • 1 (100 g) beetroot medium, peeled
  • 1 tablespoons ghee

Dry Ingredients

  • 2 cups atta flour 300g OR 1:3 ratio of whole wheat flour to AP flour (75 g wheat, 225 g AP or ½ cup wheat, 1.5 cup AP)
  • 1 teaspoon Kashmiri Chili Powder or ½ teaspoon Chili Powder
  • 1 teaspoon cumin powder
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 cup (180 g) water

Instructions
 

Prep Ingredients

  1. Peel and cut 1 beetroot into quarters

Forming the Dough

  1. In a small pot, add peeled and cut beets and enough water to completely submerge them. Bring water to a boil over high heat for ~15 minutes. Your beets should be fork tender.
  2. Use a small food processor or blender to grind the beets into a chunky puree. You can add 1-2 Tbs of the leftover beet water if needed to mash the beets.
  3. Mix 2 cups atta flour, 1 teaspoon Kashmiri Chili Powder , 1 teaspoon cumin powder, ½ teaspoon sea salt together in a large bowl. 
  4. Mix 1 cup water with the pureed beets and evenly pour the mixture over your dry ingredients to hydrate them. Use your hands to mix and knead the dough for ~10-15 minutes or until the dough is smooth, soft, and pliable. The beets should impart a bright magenta color to your dough. Cover dough with a damp cloth and rest for at least 15 minutes.
  5. Divide dough into 16 equal dough balls (~35g each).

Rolling and Cooking the Roti

  1. Lightly flour one dough ball and use a rolling pin to roll out a ¼" thick and 6" diameter width circle. Don’t worry if you don’t get a perfect circle, but try to get your roti to an even thickness so that it cooks evenly.
  2. Heat a skillet on medium-high heat, add your roti to the pan, and allow it to cook for ~1-2 minutes on each side or until you see slight blisters and puffing. If you have a gas stove, you can additionally place your roti over a medium flame for ~10-20 seconds to give it a final burst of heat which will help it puff! 
  3. Remove roti from the heat, brush ghee or butter on both sides, and keep covered until ready to eat. Repeat steps for other dough balls.
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Notes and Tips

  • If you use Atta, you may need to knead longer to form gluten structures then if you use white/wheat flours. Attta is more absorbent than the white/wheat flour combination so you might need to add more flour if your dough is too sticky. Checkout the Serious Eats article from Nik Sharma to learn more about the differences between Atta and American flours.
  • You can prep your dough 1-3 days before use and leave it in the fridge tightly covered in plastic wrap. Just make sure to take out your dough and let it come to room temperature before rolling it out.
  • Your beets will look like the chunky puree pictured here once you have blended them. Alternatively, you can skip boiling fresh beets and buy precooked beets from a can which will get you a finer puree.
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