I have had many requests for Indian recipes. While many Indian foods are gluten and allergy free, there are many others which have to be excluded from the gluten free diet. For anyone allergic to gluten, the chapati / paratha / puri is by far the most missed item in an Indian meal.
The chapati is also great substitute for the Mexican tortilla especially if corn is an allergy issue. Just substitute tapioca or potato starch for corn starch in my Gluten Free flour Mix recipe, which is right below the Start Here, at the beginning of my blog. You will also find it in the Basics, or Cakes. Cookies and Desserts section.
Try the gluten free chapati / tortilla and see how soft and pliable chapatis remain long after they are made. Serve them hot off the tava (skillet), or store them in an insulated container for later use, or even freeze them, then microwave and serve. They are perfect to take along on a journey, rolled up with a favorite filling– anything from small pieces of chicken or paneer tikkas, aloo subzi, to sweet fillings like ghee and jaggery paste or strawberry jam can go in the chapati roll. They are simply great for school lunch as well.
Call them tortillas and make quesadillas with Mexican fillings, or prepare enchiladas with them. Fold them like wraps with salad/ cold meats, leftover cooked meats. Or make quick and easy roll ups for hungry kids in a hurry.
Ingredients Makes 10-12
- 2 cups Grandma’s Gluten Free Flour Mix
- 1/2 cup boiled and mashed potato
- 1 Tablespoon plus one teaspoon oil (divided use)
- 1 cup warm water (approximately)
- 1 heaped tablespoon rice flour, mixed with a Tablespoon of corn starch for dusting
- 1 Tablespoons or a little more, of oil or ghee for smearing on the pan or on the chapati./ tortilla.
Method – To Prepare the Dough
- Place flour mix in a large bowl, with mashed potato and 1 Tablespoon oil.
- Rub the potato and oil into the flour to incorporate well.
- Add half the water and start to knead the dough.
- Slowly add the remaining water (as needed), kneading all the time.
- Note: Gluten free flours usually require more kneading than wheat flour to acquire a soft, smooth texture.
- Add a little more water if required.
- When you are able to form the dough into a ball, smear your hand with a little oil and continue to knead to make a smooth dough.
- Place prepared dough in a bowl, cover and allow it to rest for about 15 minutes.
Method – To Prepare the Chapatis / Tortillas
- Place the rice flour and corn starch mixture onto a plate and keep it at hand.
- Tear off two large sheets of plastic wrap, about 10” long Place one sheet on rolling surface and the other on any clean, dry surface nearby. Take care to ensure that plastic sheets are not close to stove top.
- Heat a tawa / skillet on medium- high heat, till well heated.
- Divide dough into 10- 12 equal sized balls.
- Roll each ball smoothly with your hands, press and flatten to form a disc.
- Take one flattened ball and dust it lightly with the flour mix kept on plate.
- Place on top of plastic sheet kept on rolling surface.
- Place the second plastic sheet on top of the ball, in parallel with the bottom sheet.
- Roll out gently, rolling evenly on all sides, to form a fairly thin circle of dough about 7” in diameter.
- Once rolled out, remove upper plastic sheet and set aside away from stove top.
- Flip the chapati / tortilla along with the lower plastic sheet onto the palm of your hand.
- With the other hand, peel off the plastic sheet, and place chapati / tortilla on tawa / skillet
- Allow some bubbles to appear, then, using a spatula, flip roti onto the other side and allow it to cook while pressing it gently and moving it around the tawa / skillet a little.
- Flip once again and let the first side cook a little more.
- Remove from skillet, smear with ghee and serve hot, or keep in insulated container till all chapatis are are made, and then serve.
Chef’s Tips
Make Gluten Free Flour parathas just as you would make wheat parathas. Make a hollow in the ball of dough,place your filling, then lift up all sides and close them so that filling is firmly enclosed within.
Gently press the filled ball, dust with dry flour mix, place on plastic wrap and roll out without pressing too hard with the rolling pin.
Puris can be made without adding the boiled and mashed potato. Since puris don’t have to be large or thin, you may be able to make them without using the plastic wrap.
Enjoy!
Variation
My friend, Manisha, came up with a great idea–
Instead of mashed potato, use 3 Tablespoons of soft cooked dal for one cup of Gluten Free flour I use moong dal, but you could try any other dal of your choice. Dal should be of cake batter consistency. You may need an extra Tablespoon if the consistency is too thin.
Add dal to flour, mix it in, then add water as required. The amount of water you need depends on the consistency of dal, so add water a little at at a time.
Chef’s Tip
Cook 1/2 cup dal with a 1//4 teaspoon of turmeric and salt to taste. Hing (asafoetida) is optional. Fill it into ice cube trays, and freeze. Remove frozen dal cubes from trays, put into in freezer bags, and place in freezer. This way, you will have cooked dal handy before preparing the chapati / tortilla dough.
[…] Comments « The Gluten Free “Miracle” Chapati […]
Hi MangalaKaku,
Thank you so much for the recipe and the tips!
This flour blend is quite different from the one you show on the “Show me the curry” website. Which one would be better?
Are rajgira and quinoa similar? I find both quite expensive. Could you please suggest substitutions? I have jowar, bajra, ragi, buckwheat, white rice and brown rice flours.
Would you know if teff is similar to ragi or bajra?
Good to know that guar gum is from gavar. I was staying away from it. What is the “gund” we use to make laddoos?
Is the shrink wrap necessary to make the chapatis? It makes the procedure look quite fussy…
Thankyou, Ratna! The flour blend on my blog is even better than the one I show on SMTC, because I keep experimenting and stumble upon better ways of doing things as I go along. Very soon, I will be adding a variation which results in really soft chapatis which maintain texture for a day or two and freeze very well, so be on the look out!
I have explained rajgira and quinoa in my note. You will find that each one has essential nutrients in different proportions, and together they create balance.
You could try buying them in stores which stock bulk quantities in bins. That works out cheaper than buying packaged stuff. You already have jowar (sorghum). Bajra, which I have tried, gives a rough texture. Ragi gives a very dark color, which doesn’t appeal to some. But add half a cup to the mixture and let me know if smell and texture remain good.
Teff is closer to rajgira than to other grains. It is protein rich, and is significantly richer in calcium, potassium and iron than other grains. I have not tried it, but I will and tell you when I do.
I do use white rice flour in my mix. I find that white rice and oat flours mask the strong smells and flavors of flours like quinoa and make the blend more palatable. Oat flour also adds a binding quality,
The plastic wrap makes it easier to roll out thin chapatis. You also need minimal flour while rolling. Once you get used to the process, it is not as fussy as it looks. In fact I use plastic wrap even while rolling out wheat parathas which have fillings that moisten up a lot (cabbage, mooli etc.), Thin and soft gluten free
chapatis can be rolled up easily with fillings for school lunch, and make good quesadillas.
Do let me know after you have tried out the GF chapatis. Thanks again.
I tried the chapati finally, Mangalakaku! I didn’t use either oat flour or cornstarch – I had such a bad reaction to oats that I refuse to touch them, and I didn’t have organic any corn starch. So I used tapioca and arrowroot flours. The dough was quite sticky. The shrink wrap really helped. However, I was not able to roll the chapatis out very thin. Any suggestions?
We also used the same flour to make gingerbread-pear cake and it was delicious!
Just omit the oats and use tapioca instead. You could omit the arrowroot also–probably the combination of arrowroot and tapioca makes it too sticky. Another alternative is to omit the guar gum, in case you feel the flour has enough stickiness by itself.
Do share your gingerbread-pear cake recipe. With your permission I will put it up under your name.
Sorry for the delay in replying to you. For some reason, I got no ‘comment alert’.
Thanks, MangalaKaku. I am in the middle of moving and my recipes are all packed up. When send you the recipe for the cake in a while.
I recently made savoury pancakes (dosa/ghavan) with one part moong dal flour, one park whole buckwheat flour and one part brown rice flour. For flavour, I added crushed green chillies, grated ginger, chopped cilantro, whole jeera and some salt. They were really yummy. Next time, I want to try soaking and grinding whole moong and fermenting it like dosa batter.
Take your time, and send the recipe at your convenience.
The ghavan sounds great. You can try many different combinations. Moong and any other dals that suit you can be added to rice, soaked and fermented, then ground to make delicious dosas. I also use boiled rice ( about 1/2 cup to one cup plain rice). This adds some nutrition, gives a crispy texture and creates browner dosas / ghavans. One has to keep experimenting all the time.
All the best with your move.
Thanks for this! Stuffed myself senseless with these!!
How nice to know this. Use these chapati / tortillas to make enchilladas from any regular enchillada recipe. They are delicious. All the best.
Many thanks, you’ve brightened up my life! I’ve only known I was coeliac since a car crash less than a year ago in which I broke my back. Since then many things have been difficult but by far the hardest has been not being able to eat my favourite flat breads. I ate 6 of these with some curried chicken and felt utterly stuffed in a way that rice can’t fulfil. I’ll be enjoying these for many years. Cheers.
OMG, I’m super happy with this recipe. It’s amazing. I can stop eating rice cakes with my subji’s and dhal’s. Thank you so much.
[…] una idea y luego ¡dejáte llevar la imaginación! Otro blog que miré más por la técnica fue este que tiene muchas recetas indias sin […]
Hi, I have recently started a gluten-free diet and tried this recipe. Works out well, thank you! I also tried adding methi leaves in addition to potato and got lovely parathas, pretty close to the ones made from atta. I have one question: I used rajgira flour (Swad brand) from an Indian store and it says ‘buckwheat’ on it, but I was under the impression that rajgira is ‘amaranth’. Could you clarify this?
Rajgira is amaranth–Indian store labels are sometimes inaccurate. Buckwheat is also a gluten free grain and therefore safe, but rajgira works better for my flour mix. I am so glad your chapatis were good. Yes, you can make many interesting foods with this basic recipe. All the best.
Hi, I’m so pleased to have found a gluten-free chapati recipe as I’m really missing them having recently switched to a gluten free diet and I’d love to try your recipe! I’m based in the UK and have bought a pre-mixed gluten-free flour blend (rice, potato, tapioca, maize, buckwheat – by Dove’s Farm) – I just wondered if I could use this to make your chapati recipe? Thanks
I am sure my recipe will work well for you. It took me several months of trial and error before I zeroed in on my flour mix The key here is to achive both taste and nutrition. The flours I use are very high in nutrients, more so than any available in the market. But do go ahead and make chapatis with the flour you have mentioned, if that is more convenient. The proportion of ingredients written out is according to quantity, the first being the highest in quantity, then down from there. The most nutritious component, buckwheat is last on the list, therefore least in quantity. In any case, if you can make up for nutrients in other ways, please try my recipe with the market flour, and let me know how it works. All the best!
Hi Mangal!
I´ve been trying to do these but i have trouble kneading the dough,i´m using the flour mix you showed in STC,which is sorghum,amaranth and corn starch.
When i pour half the water,the dough doesn´t hold it at all,it just goes from a Flour to a Sand consistency.
Then it takes a lot of water to form a dough and it always comes out a bit hard and the chapatis rubbery…
Can you please explain precisely how you knead the dough? as i´m willing to make these chapatis!
thank you!
Hi Paul,
I wish I could come over and show you! Please look at the Grandma’s Gluten Free flour mix on my blog, it works out great. There are other ingredients besides amaranth, sorghum and cornstarch. I add quinoa, oat and rice flours as well. While making dough, I also add boiled and mashed potato or cooked moong dal. Either one of these will help to form a good, smooth dough. Work in the potato /cooked moong dal, and the oil into the flour mix, and add the water alittle at a time. At the end, smear some oil on your palm and smoothen the dough Hope you will make a good dough this time.. Very soon I will make a video and put it up on YouTube. I am sure that will help too. I would love to have your feedback. All the best
Hi Mangal
How are you? Your site is awesome. I thought of trying your gluten free all purpose flour mix but looks like its been taken down. Can you please put it back on your blog.
Thanks
Hi Aneetha,
So sorry for the delay. I have checked and rechecked the blog. I see to it that the gluten free flour mix is always on top. I wonder why it did not appear when you tried. Try clicking on this link and it should take you to the right page.
https://mangaladeshmukh.wordpress.com/
I have been checking and rechecking….the gluten free flour mix is very much there. Its called “Grandma’s Gluten Free Flour Mix” Do confirm that you can find it.
Sorry for my late reply…I have been travelling and have neglected the blog a bit! Forgive me!
Mangala
I am not sure if you know, but Hing (asafoetida) mentioned in your chef’s tip is not gluten free. It has wheat listed on the ingredient list. People with a gluten allergy need to source GF hing.
Yes I do know, and need to modify the recipe. However, most people who have an issue with gluten are not reacting to hing. But its still better to play safe and not include it Some recipes were put up a few years ago and I must review and revise. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
the link to your grandams gluten free flour mix doesn’t work. can you please tell me what the mix is?
I am sorry to know that you could not reach the Grandma’s Gluten Free Flour writeup.
When you reach the home page of my blog and scroll down, you should find the writeup there.
Or you can click on Basics under categories on the right side of the home page, it will take you
to the write-up. Please try.
HI mangal,
I made paratha today with this recipe and they turned out absolutely wonderful!!
Turned out nice and soft and actually tasted better than traditional wheat in my opinion.
Thank you very much!
It is so heartening to know this, Lin. Thankyou for writing to me.
Thank you for the recipe I made stuffed chicken keema chapatti for my grandson who has eczema and cannot have wheat he loved it very much. My question can I make chapatti without potato will it turn out soft