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The winter chill on one side, and the warmth of piping hot paratha! Doesn’t that make you salivate? No matter how nutritious that egg, oats and fruits breakfast may be, there’s nothing quite like a paratha in Indian households, isn’t it? Add to that the goodness of greens in the form of the winter delight of fresh peas! Voila, with a lip-smacking matar paratha, you have taste and health right on your plate!
Peas become an integral part of Indian cooking every winter. Whether it is the easy-peasy pulao or the go-to matar paneer, aloo paneer, mushroom matar, chaunka matar, matar dal… A lot of dishes go incomplete without this one vegetable. And that’s not just because it adds taste and sometimes a crunch, but also because these little green balls are in fact, a fireball of nutrients.
Peas and nutrition
Yes, they are packed with protein, vitamins and minerals, and carbohydrates. And to top it all, they are low on calories, which makes it a win-win for weight loss.
According to the US Department of Agriculture, one cup (145 grams) of peas can give you 7.86 g protein, 20.9 g carbs, 0.58 g fat, 8.26 g fiber, 36.2 mg calcium and 2.13 mg iron. Its cholestrol is assumed zero!
Peas are also rich in antioxidants, apart from being low on glycemic index, which makes it a superfood for regulating blood sugar levels. Besides that, they help with digestion because of their fibre content, and can even guard you against chronic diseases due to the presence of heart-healthy minerals.
Now that you know that peas are a storehouse of nutrients, let us introduce you to a yummy way to add this veggie to your diet!
Here’s a Matar Paratha or Peas Paratha recipe which can become your winter staple:
Ingredients:
1 kg fresh peas
A pinch of hing
A pinch of cumin seeds
Ghee
Kneaded dough of a grain of your choice.
Salt
Red chilli
Amchur
Garam Masala
Recipe
1. Take 1 kg fresh peas or matar
2. Grind the peas, leaving them a little coarse
3. Take a spoon of ghee in a kadai
4. Add hing and cumin seeds (jeera) to it
5. After 2 minutes, add grounded peas
6. Cook it for at least 15 minutes.
7. Once cooked, add a pinch of salt, red chilli, amchur and garam masala to taste.
8.Cool this mixture, and use it as stuffing for your paratha!
Enjoy them piping hot, with curd!
Are matar parathas healthy?
Whoever told you to douse your paratha in ghee and butter? You’ve got to control your quantity, and mind you, a crispy paratha can also be made with bare minimum ghee. That, I can tell you from experience! Try it.
A paratha can be made healthy by the way you choose to make it.
Daljit Kaur, Head – Dietetics, Fortis Escorts Heart Institute, New Delhi, had told HealthShots that it all boils down to the stuffing, grain, and quantity of oil we use.
So, try to use a dough with multigrains, different kinds of cereals, or millets. Don’t just use maida or wheat flour to make the dough. Jowar and ragi, for example, can lend roughage, calcium, and protein to a paratha.
And when you have a filling as nutritious as peas, you don’t really have to worry if it’s healthy or not, please!
