Last year during Navrathiri (Dasara), I was preparing green peas sundal (curry).  I soaked dried green peas overnight and pressure cooked it the following day.  But I guess I added more water than required, so the peas were mashed.  I was wondering what to do with so much peas.  First I thought of making cutlets, but my husband is not a big fan.  That day I was going to prepare chapathis for dinner.  So I got the idea of mixing the mashed peas to the roti flour and prepare rotis.  The rotis were so soft and added bonus we get the fiber and proteins of the peas also.  So now I prepare it quite often with different types of beans. 

Ingredients:
There is as such no strict measurements.  It’s just mixing mashed beans with the regular chapati flour and preparing the rotis. 
Any type of cooked beans (I used half a can of red kidney beans this time)
Whole Wheat Flour – 1.5 cups
Salt
Oil

Procedure to prepare the mashed beans:
1.  You can either cook the dried beans yourself and prepare the rotis or use canned beans.

2.  For cooking the dried beans, soak it overnight.  Add the beans and water (more than the usual amount you use) to the pressure cooker and leave it for 1 whistle.  You will get a nice mushy mixture.  You can also add grated ginger/asafoetida while cooking the beans to aid digestion of the beans. 

3.  If you are using canned beans, drain the beans in a colander and rinse it well under running water.  Add the beans and little water and blend it to a smooth consistency, like hummus.  Be careful while adding water, we need a semi solid paste of the beans.

How to make rotis?
1.  Now combine the mashed beans, flour, salt and oil to form the dough.  Knead it well.

2.  Pinch a golf ball size dough.  Knead it again and roll it in whole wheat flour which is set aside for dusting.  Flour the surface and roll the dough into a circle.

3.  Cook it on a heated griddle on both the sides by applying little oil or spraying non stick cooking spray.  You can either cook it one by one or use this tip of rolling out all the rotis at once and then cooking them.

My Notes:
1.  You can use any type of cooked beans or can also use a combination of 2 or 3 types of beans. 

2.  You can also add spices to the flour, like garam masala, red chili powder etc, so that you need not prepare a separate side dish.  These masala rotis can be had with yogurt.

This goes to Srivalli’s Roti Mela.

This one also goes to Sangeeth’s Eat Healthy Event, this month’s theme being Fiber Rich.

 Also thanks to everybody for voting for me in the Open Sesame Contest May 08 edition.

I made Roma’s Methi Thepla for dinner on Monday.  Even though she had mentioned that it was a travel food, I could not wait to try these until my next long trip.  So I got methi greens on Sunday and made the theplas on Monday.  We all loved it Roma.  Thank you very much for the recipe.

My Notes:
1.  I doubled the recipe.  So for 2 cups of whole wheat flour I got 10 theplas.
2.  I would like to share with all of you a tip which is very useful while preparing chapathis and puris.  My mother-in-law read this in a tamil magazine.

Take some sheets of paper (preferably unprinted, so that the ink does not stick to the dough) and staple them to make a book.  Roll out all the chapathis/puris and keep them in each page of the book.  After rolling out all the chapathis, heat the griddle and by the time the griddle gets hot clean the place where you rolled out the dough and start cooking the chapathis one after the other.  There are two uses – it keeps all the rolled chapathis moist without drying and it is also a time saver.  Those in the US can use the grocery store’s paper bags to make the book.  People in India can use the back side of the big calendar sheets.  Try replacing the book every month.