Spelt Sweet Potato Paratha for #BreadBakers

It's time for this month's BreadBakers' and the theme for this edition is Ancient Grains and is being hosted by Robin at A Shaggy Dough Story. Ancient grains are generally accepted to mean grains that have remained largely unchanged/un-hybridized over the last several hundred years, which means NO MODERN WHEAT. 

I have to say this was probably the most challenging theme I have done for the BreadBakers. Finding ancient grains or even their flour was not the hard part, but finding a bread recipe with just ancient grains was hard. Also my family is not much into rustic breads, so my search for soft sandwich bread without any wheat flour turned up nothing.
Then I thought of making Indian flatbread with spelt flour. I have made rotis with spelt flour before but that recipe also had some wheat flour in it. These parathas are made with 100% spelt flour and added mashed sweet potato to make them nice and soft.

Parathas turned out great, I added a little bit of chili powder and ground cumin to add some spice to the parathas. But you can leave them out and make it plain. I served the parathas with Palak Tofu for a filling and delicious meal.

Spelt Sweet Potato Paratha (Makes 8~10 parathas)

Ingredients:

• 2cups Spelt flour
• 1 Medium Sweet potato
• ½tsp Chili powder (adjust as per taste)
• ½tsp Ground Cumin
• 1tsp Oil or ghee
• To taste Salt

Method:

1. Boil, steam or microwave sweet potato until very soft. Mash until smooth.
2. In a mixing bowl, combine mashed sweet potato, spelt flour, chili powder, ground cumin, oil and salt. Mix well, add water a little at a time to make a soft, pliable dough. I added about ⅔~¾ cup of water.
3. Cover and set the dough aside for at least 15 minutes.
4. Divide the dough into 8~10 equal pieces. On a well floured surface, roll each piece into 5~6" round roti.
5. Heat a griddle or tawa on medium-high heat. Cook each roti until golden brown spots form on both sides. Brush with more oil or ghee, if desired. Serve with a curry or pickle or yogurt.

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all our of lovely bread by following our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated after each event on the #BreadBakers home page.

We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient. If you are a food blogger and would like to join us, just send Stacy an email with your blog URL to foodlustpeoplelove@gmail.com.

Here's what our creative bakers came up with for this month's 'Ancient Grains' event:

• Ancient 4 Grain Breakfast Bread from Cindy's Recipes and Writings
• Ancient Grain Carrot Bread from The Schizo Chef
• Barley Flour Donut Muffins from I Camp in my Kitchen
• Blueberry Peach Quinoa Oatmeal Muffins from Magnolia Days
• Buckwheat Savoury Pancakes from Mayuri's Jikoni
• Dimbleby's Breastfeeding Bread from Food Lust People Love
• Eggless Sorghum and Pearl Millet Banana Muffins (Eggless Jowar and Bajra Banana Muffins) from G'Gina's Kitchenette
• Foxtail Millet Bagels from Cooking Club
• Garlic Cheesy Einkorn Crackers from The Wimpy Vegetarian
• Injera Bread from Spiceroots
• Little Millet Banana Bread from Sara's Tasty Buds
• Millet Idli from Gayathri's Cook Spot
• Quinoa Banana Bread from Wholistic Woman
• Seeded Spelt Boules from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Spelt and Buckwheat Soda Bread from A Shaggy Dough Story
• Spelt and Einkorn Sourdough with Caramelized Onions from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Spelt Bread from Hostess at Heart
• Spelt Sweet Potato Paratha from Cook's Hideout
• Teff Crepes with Spinach and Mushrooms from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Yeasted Jowar Naan from Sneha's Recipe