Matar Paratha | Stuffed Green Peas Paratha | Indian Flat Bread With Spicy Green Peas Filling

Matar paratha or green peas paratha with detailed photos and video

Stuffed parathas are so popular and unavoidable part of day to day menu in North India. In the same way as we south Indians prepare dosa varieties. They have a vast variety of stuffed parathas which are so delicious and you can't resist yourself from taking another one. The basic preparation and techniques are almost same but each will give an entirely different taste. Last day, I shared aloo paratha and mooli paratha recipes and today my plan is to share another tasty stuffed flat bread, the matar paratha

What is matar paratha?

Matar paratha is a tasty paratha with stuffed fresh green peas. The word 'matar' stands for green peas. The spicy green peas filling is prepared separately and then cooled and stuffed inside the wheat dough which is later rolled into flat breads very carefully without spilling the filling and they cooked with some ghee or oil.

For me and my family, it is the tastiest version of paratha , I have ever made. Use of home made ghee elevate its taste to heaven. You don't need any side dishes to serve this yummy flat bread which is already packed with spiced green peas inside. But you can go with the usual way of serving flat parathas with curd and pickle.

Green peas paratha is the common delicacy of winter when there is a lot of fresh green peas are available in the market. But still we can make the same with frozen peas also. I am doing this with frozen peas only because of the non availability of fresh peas here. If you are using frozen peas, let it defrost completely before use.

So here comes the recipe for this delicious parathas.

Matar paratha recipe | How to make north Indian matar paratha at home | Indian flat bread with spicy green peas filling

Stuffed flat bread with spicy green peas filling

Preparation time: 20 minutes | Cooking time: 15 minutes | Total time: 35 minutes

Ingredients

Filling

3/4 cup green peas
1/4 cup onion, chopped
4 to 5 garlic, finely chopped
A small piece of ginger, finely chopped
1 small green chilly, finely chopped
1 stalk of coriander leaves, finely chopped
1/2 tsp chilly powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
1/4 tsp amchoor
Salt to taste
Oil as needed

Dough

1.5 cups of wheat
1 tbsp oil
Salt to taste
Water as needed

Other ingredients

1/4 cup ghee or oil.

How To Make Matar paratha or Green Peas Paratha - Video

Matar paratha or green peas paratha with step by step photos

The first step in the preparation of stuffed green peas paratha is grinding the peas. As I said in the previous section, you can select either fresh or frozen peas. If using the second one, you need to defrost it first. Now we are going to blanch the green peas and then will grind till smooth.

Take enough water in a saucepan and let it boil. Once it comes to rolling boil, put the green peas and let it boil again. Once the water starts to boil, switch off the flame and keep aside. Now you have to wait till it cools slightly. Check the softness of peas and if it's done. We have to discard all the excess water and then grind into a coarse paste when the peas are completely cool.

Meanwhile, we can prepare the dough. The dough needs to be rested for some time before making parathas. So it is better to prepare the dough as you stopped blanching of green peas.

Take wheat flour, salt and oil in a wide bowl. The oil is added to build the texture of parathas and will make it crisp.
Put water little by little and continue to mix until you get a soft dough. The dough should not be as loose as chapathi dough, it should be little more harder. Spread some oil all over and keep aside for another fifteen to twenty minutes.

Preparation of Filling

As soon as the blanched green peas cool down completely. You can proceed with the filling preparation. The filling should be dry and taste should corrected before filling the parathas.

Heat one pan over medium high heat and pour one or two tablespoons of oil. Once the oil turns hot, you can put the cumin seeds and wait till it crackle. Care should be taken at this stage as the cumin tends to burn very quickly, you can either reduce flame to low or add the next ingredients immediately as soon as the crackling is over.
Put onion, ginger, garlic and green chilies, remember all of them should be finely chopped. Sauté immediately with a spoon until turns soft and light brown.
Once the onion and other spices turn soft and put gram flour. Gram flour absorbs extra moisture and also give a pleasant aroma to the filling. Sauté immediately till you feel a nice aroma.
This is the time to incorporate the spices like chilly powder, coriander powder, garam masala and amchoor (dried mango powder). The amchoor is used to get a nice sourness to the filling, if you don't have amchoor, you can replace it with lemon juice. Sauté immediately over medium flame until the raw smell of spices leaves.
By this time, the green peas will be ready to grind. Grind into a coarse paste without adding water. Put this paste into the pan and sauté on medium flame till it turns completely dry.
Add salt and sauté over medium high heat with continuous stirring until the moisture is almost vanishes.
Now you can switch off the flame and put some coriander leaves and mix well.

Final preparation of parathas

The filling should be completely cool before you start stuffing, otherwise the water vapor trapped inside the hot filling will surely break your parathas and you won't be able to roll it perfectly. Also make sure that the dough is rested and it turned soft.

To make parathas, first you knead the dough thoroughly and then make big lemon sized balls. It should be a little bit larger than the usual chapathi dough as we need enough dough to hold the filling.
Dust some flour on the chapati maker and roll the dough into a small round disc just like small poories. Make sure that rolled dough has thin edges and thicker center. Further put one or two tablespoons filling in the center and gently make fleets like we do for saree.
Then close the dough by holding the edges together and remove excess dough if any. Press gently and then shape it again into round discs.
Now keep the dough with filling on the chapathi plate again after dusting enough flour and gently press on top so that the filling spread equally all over. While doing this the chappathi will flatten a bit and make sure that there is enough flour on the chapati palate or chapathi maker.
Next, roll gently with the chapathi roller until it turns and flatten nicely.
Heat a tawa or pan and put the rolled parathas over it.
When one side is almost done, flip and apply some ghee or oil over it. If you want, you can avoid ghee but you know, ghee gives a very pleasant taste to the parathas.
Flip again and apply ghee on the other side also and then cook till both sides are completely cooked and crisp.
You can serve this parathas with curd and pickle. Actually, this parathas does not need any side dish as tasty filling inside. Enjoy.