Spinach Paratha and a Balanced Breakfast

They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day. In Pune, however, breakfast almost seems to be a second thought. It’s something you do between getting dressed for work or school and leaving the house. I for one have been brought up on a steady breakfast of Carbury’s drinking chocolate (the one that came in the blue tin) and Britannia Nice biscuits. (Hello diabetes!) Shoving the biscuits in my mouth and washing it down with chocolate milk hot enough to take the top layer off your gullet. All this mostly while the school bus would stand outside honking the horn and my mother, trying in vain, to ask the driver to wait just one more minute till her son got his shit together. Unfortunately, no matter how old you get or where you go in the world, breakfasts might change, but the chaotic morning scene remains the same. On the weekends however, we try to bring back some sanity to our lives and what better way to start than with a healthy, hearty sit-down breakfast.

Ingredients
3 cups Atta (Durum Wheat Flour)
3 cups Spinach (very finely chopped)
1 tbsp Oil
1 tsp Coriander Powder
1 tsp Cumin Powder
3 Green Chilies finely chopped
1/4 tsp Hing (Asafoetida Powder)
1/2 tsp grated Ginger
Salt to taste
Tepid Water (to make dough)

Method
Chop the spinach very finely in the same way you would chop coriander
Add all ingredients except water and oil to the flour and mix thoroughly
Add water and oil and knead to form a nice ball of dough
Place aside for an hour covered with a damp cloth
Take a golf ball sized piece of dough and roll it into a thin paratha
Heat a skillet and turn the gas on high
If skillet is hot enough, no oil is needed to cook the paratha
Place the paratha on the skillet
Cook paratha on both sides
Serve hot, or wrap in a cotton cloth and place in an airtight container to maintain softness

For a balanced breakfast, serve:
2 parathas, 1 boiled egg, fresh fruit or fruit juice