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Copyright © 2025 Foodies Only
Copyright © 2025 Foodies Only
5 min
20/01/2026
It is essential to properly prepare raw onions for use in onion parathas to prevent them from retaining moisture, which would make the paratha soft and watery rather than crispy and flaky. When preparing raw onions for onion parathas, you need to consider how quickly they will lose moisture once chopped.
One way to manage the moisture content of raw onions is to chop them correctly before adding them to your dough mixture. Another way to help absorb some of the moisture from the raw onions is to mix them into your dough using absorbent ingredients such as poha or roasted wheat flour. A third way to manage the moisture content of raw onions is to use a good-quality flour such as Aashirvaad Select 100% MP Sharbati Atta or Aashirvaad Shudh Chakki Atta as they will yield a strong and stable dough that will help protect the dough from softening from the moisture released by the onions during cooking.
Onion naturally contains moisture, which is released when it is cut and salted. The moisture released directly into the dough will disrupt its hydration profile, creating a very soft, wet dough that is difficult to roll into a paratha. The trapped moisture in the paratha turns into steam as the dough cooks through, preventing the formation of a crispy layer. So, the first step to solving this problem is to understand how moisture from onions behaves; it's not the onion, it's too much water.
When finely chopped or minced, moisture release occurs much more quickly than when the onion pieces are medium-diced. For onion parathas, we want to achieve small dice of onion; small, yet still somewhat visible, not a paste and not shredded. If you chop your onions into smaller dice, you will have less time for moisture to escape, which will help maintain their texture and create a crunchy finish.
Another good way to prevent excess moisture from onions is to add an additional absorbent ingredient when mixing the onions with the dough. Poha, or flattened rice, can be lightly crushed and added to the onions before adding them to the dough, helping absorb excess moisture without imparting any flavour changes to the onion mix. Similarly, roasted wheat flour (besan) can be used.
The quality of Aashirvaad Shudh Chakki Atta can affect how forgiving your dough is, as it helps maintain balanced moisture and prevents an overly sticky dough. Aashirvaad High Fibre Atta provides additional structure and nutrition by using a mix of grains (such as oats, chana, and psyllium husk) to add fibre and help retain moisture naturally in the dough. Aashirvaad Select 100% MP Sharbati Atta offers the best water absorption and gentle handling, producing softer yet more controlled dough.
You should never knead onions directly into your dough. Instead, prepare the dough separately, then incorporate the onion mixture into the centre of the dough to limit the amount of moisture that makes it into the atta. When rolling the paratha, use minimal amounts of dry flour and apply as little pressure as possible. If you dust the dough too much, you will trap raw flour and create tough spots in the finished product. It is also important to cook on medium-high heat, which will allow the moisture to escape immediately and prevent the parathas from steaming.
Successful crispy onion parathas are the result of moisture control, not pure luck. Properly chopped onions, moisture-absorbing ingredients such as poha, and the right kinds of attas (Aashirvaad High Fibre Atta with Multigrains or Aashirvaad 100% MP Sharbati Atta) are all key components in producing a well-behaved dough when cooking it on a tawa. By managing moisture at the early stages, crisp results are easier to achieve and cook as they should be
