Beetroot Chapati – Here is a veggie variation from the traditional chapati. Beetroot Chapati is very colorful and tasty. Beetroot is ground and added to the flour and allowed to rest for sometime and made into chapatis. Here is how to do it.
Take a medium sized beetroot, peel and chop them roughly. Beetroot is such a hearty and earthy vegetable. Whenever I peel beets, I smell the scent of rain on dry earth – petrichor or மண் வாசனை – manvasanai as we call it in Tamil. It just lightens up my mood. Grind the chopped beetroot with half a cup of water to a fine paste. If there are bits and pieces of beetroot, it will become a mess while rolling the dough later on. So take time and make a fine puree of beets. Set aside.
Take a bowl and add in the whole wheat flour / atta. I used 2 cups of wheat flour today. Add in the salt, cracked pepper and a teaspoon of butter. Butter makes the chapati very soft. Add in the beet puree. Mix well and knead for a couple of minutes to form a cohesive dough. If the dough is very wet, add in a bit more flour and mix well.
Apply a teaspoon of oil on the surface and spread it on the surface. The oil will keep the dough from drying out.
Cover the dough with a lid. Allow the dough to rest for a couple of hours. Longer the better. If resting longer than 2 hours, rest in the refrigerator. The dough works very well if rested over nite. Just take the dough 30 minutes in advance from the refrigerator before moving on. Divide the dough into lime size balls. Set an iron pan on medium high heat. Let it become hot. Take a dough ball, flatten a little and generously dust it with flour.
Roll the dough into a 3-4 inch round on a flat smooth surface using a rolling pin. Dust more flour if the dough is sticking to the rolling pin.
Place the chapati on the hot griddle. Let it cook for 10-15 seconds until bubbles start to form on top. Flip the chapati and cook for 30 seconds more.
Flip one more time and press on top. Chapati should beautifully fluff up.
The last flip can be done on fire to make it into phulkas. If making phulkas, just flip on direct flame and it will fluff up.
I made a video on how to cook chapatis, flipping the chapatis etc… See this video for reference. The same 2 flip principle works for this beet chapati too!
Storing chapatis
Line a bowl with cotton towel. Place the cooked chapati on the bowl and cover with a lid. Chapati will stay beautifully soft for a long time. The steam from the hot chapatis provide a moist environment that keeps them really soft without drying out. The lid may sweat with moist steam. Try to wipe them off once in a while when transferring the cooked chapatis from the hot pan to the bowl.
Enjoy! This recipe for beetroot chapati goes well with kurma. I served this recipe with my 10 minute no fry – no saute veg kurma.
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Beetroot Chapati, Beet Roti Recipe
Recipe for Beetroot chapati. Healthy and colorful beet rotis. Serve with gravy / sabzi or curry of your choice. with step by step pictures.
- Total Time: 2 hours 20 mins
- Yield: 25 chapatis 1x
Ingredients
- 1 medium sized beetroot
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 cups whole wheat flour / Atta
- 1 teaspoon butter
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cracked black pepper
- 1 teaspoon oil
- 1/4 cup whole wheat flour / Atta for dusting
Instructions
- Take a medium sized beetroot, peel and chop them roughly. Grind the chopped beetroot with half a cup of water to a fine paste.
- Take a bowl and add in the whole wheat flour / atta. Add in the salt, cracked pepper and a teaspoon of butter. Add in the beet puree. Mix well and knead for a couple of minutes to form a cohesive dough.
- Apply a teaspoon of oil on the surface and spread it on the surface.
- Cover the dough with a lid. Allow the dough to rest for a couple of hours or over nite.
- Divide the dough into lime size balls. Set an iron pan on medium high heat. Let it become hot.
- Roll the dough into a 3-4 inch round on a flat smooth surface using a rolling pin.
- Place the chapati on the hot griddle. Let it cook for 10-15 seconds until bubbles start to form on top. Flip the chapati and cook for 30 seconds more.
- Flip one more time and press on top. Chapati should beautifully fluff up.
Notes
Storing chapatis
Line a bowl with cotton towel. Place the cooked chapati on the bowl and cover with a lid. Chapati will stay beautifully soft for a long time. The steam from the hot chapatis provide a moist environment that keeps them really soft without drying out. The lid may sweat with moist steam. Try to wipe them off once in a while when transferring the cooked chapatis from the hot pan to the bowl.
- Prep Time: 2 hours
- Cook Time: 20 mins
- Category: bread
- Cuisine: indian
Hi,Thanks so much for sharing your recipe. I was wondering, I live in a tropical place, should I leave the dough out of the fridge or inside?
I have a question. Usually beetroot lets out moisture if you leave it for simetime ( for eg in cutlets). So, if you keep the dough in the fridge for use the next day, win’t the dough become a little loose? Just wondering..
yes. It doesnt stay well refrigerated.
This chapathi came out beautifully.
Perfect for a ‘beet-hater’ like me (You can’t really taste the earthiness of the beets in this).
Thank you Suguna for this recipe.
Thank you Sumi!
These chapatis are gorgeous and so delicious. I am always trying to find ways of getting more beets onto my family’s plates, and this is just a great way to go. I also really appreciate the video you made on how to cook the chapati. Achieving a bread that would “poof up” was something I tried for again and again. By watching you work, I was able to make the bread poof up – everyone in the family was delighted. Thank you so much!
Thank you so much Jenelle. Really glad that you were able to get the chapatis to puff up!
I like the colour of your rotis.. I usually make this beetroot roti.. It will be more soft if we add little mashed potatoes.. it will be soft even if we plan to take it out and have later..
Thats nice to know Sabari
I love the way you express your creativity beautifully through your cooking! There are some recepies that I have tried which have come out beautifully. Like veg biriyani, thengai Paal sadam, idiappam, coconut milk, dosa maavu to name a few. There are many more I would like to try 🙂 I love the way you interlace your recepies with stories which make them a very good read 🙂 thank you for being so willing to share your learnings with the world, so many have found them to be very useful 🙂 it’s people like you who make this world a very good place to live in. I have a reason to say this. My mom always says food is the best ice breaker and sharing food and the knowledge of the same can make any two strangers best of friends 🙂 I am sure you have too many of them 🙂
Hope to meet you in person someday and thank you profusely for helping me get interested in cooking 🙂
Thank you so much for your kind words Renuka. You made my day! It means a lot to me!