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Copyright © 2025 Foodies Only
Copyright © 2025 Foodies Only
6 Min
31/12/2025
It’s time to remove ‘guilty’ from pleasure when you’re thinking and craving parathas on a cold morning. As good as maida tastes, it barely has any fibre and retains oil like water in a swamp. By swapping refined flour (maida) for ancient grains like jowar, ragi, and bajra, you can turn your everyday flatbread into a health powerhouse.
Craving parathas on a chilly morning doesn’t have to mean using the good old maida. By switching to the ‘poor man’s’ ancient grains like jowar, ragi, and bajra, you can savour the same comforting flatbread with a whole new nutritional profile. These millets keep their fibre, minerals, and natural antioxidants – unlike refined flour, which gets stripped down to empty carbs. So with just a simple swap, your everyday parathas become a wholesome, nutrient-dense treat that supports gut health and digestion, and gives you lasting energy.
Nothing is wrong with maida; it's not dysfunctional, but definitely won’t be winning any health races anytime soon. Moreover, in today’s day and age, maida is (almost) everywhere, and in everything, so you end up having more than you might think you are eating. It’s in your biscuits, samosas, pizza and even cakes and pastries. While maida seems harmless, it does not compare to fibrous flour like atta. During the refining process, wheat loses its bran and germ, the parts that contain all the fibre, vitamins, and minerals. What's left is just starchy carbohydrates with empty calories.
Regular consumption of maida can lead to several health issues. Maida might cause rapid jumps in blood sugar levels followed by crashes, leaving you tired and craving more food. Without fibre, it sits heavy in your stomach, causing constipation and bloating. Maida doesn't keep you full for long, leading to overeating and unwanted kilos. But you can choose better.
This gluten-free millet has a mild, slightly nutty flavour that won't overpower your parathas, and its high protein and fibre content will keep you full for hours. It has a low glycemic index that helps regulate blood sugar levels, making it excellent for diabetics. Rich in antioxidants that fight inflammation, jowar/sorghum also contains iron, magnesium, and phosphorus for bone and heart health. Jowar aids in weight management by controlling hunger naturally. When used for parathas, jowar creates soft, pliable ones with a pleasant texture.
This reddish-brown flour is a nutritional powerhouse that's been feeding Indian families for generations. A single serving of a ragi-based flatbread provides a good amount of calcium, which is vital for supporting bone health and teeth. It's excellent for growing children, pregnant women, and elderly people. High fibre content promotes healthy digestion while its low glycemic index helps manage diabetes. Ragi is also rich in iron, preventing anaemia and boosting energy levels, and contains essential amino acids for muscle building. Ragi parathas have a reddish tinge and a mild, earthy flavour.
This dark, dense flour is nutrition in disguise and makes slightly denser, heartier flatbreads. Bajra has a good amount of fibre, magnesium, potassium, iron, zinc and calcium. These nutrients are vital in supporting heart health and improving circulation. It is also known to help in lowering bad cholesterol and controlling blood pressure naturally. With a glycemic index of 67, it's suitable for most people when eaten in moderation.
When making millet parathas, whole wheat flour isn't your enemy – it's your helper. Quality wheat flour provides the gluten that makes dough stretchy and easy to roll. Aashirvaad Select 100% MP Sharbati Atta is an excellent choice for this purpose. Made from carefully selected MP Sharbati wheat sourced exclusively from Madhya Pradesh, this premium atta features grains selected for uniform size and natural golden colour. It produces soft rotis that remain tender for longer periods, with enhanced water absorption that leads to smoother dough preparation. The pleasant natural aroma and premium quality texture make it perfect for blending with millet flours.
Why choose just one when you can have multiple benefits? You can make your own blend, but if that feels like too big a task, you’ve got Aashirvaad High Fibre Atta with Multigrains to the rescue! It contains a nutritious blend of six grains, including wheat, soya, chana, oat, maize, and psyllium husk. High in dietary fibre to support healthy digestion, just three rotis made from this atta provide 35% of your recommended daily fibre intake. The fibre from this atta is comparable to six carrots or four beetroot portions! What’s best is that it has that same familiar taste and quality associated with Aashirvaad Atta, with everything good in it
Making millet parathas isn't difficult, but it does require a slightly different approach than regular wheat parathas. The texture and taste differ, so getting your flour ratios right is important, based on how each millet behaves.
As a beginner, start with a 1:1 ratio of millet flour to wheat flour, like one cup ragi plus one cup wheat flour. This mix will give you easy-to-roll rotis with a soft texture. As you get comfortable with the process, you can gradually increase the millet flour proportion. For experienced cooks, a 2:1 ratio of millet to wheat flour is a good idea, but just keep in mind that higher millet content means the dough will be less stretchy and may crack more easily.
Each millet flour has its own traits and needs to be handled differently. For jowar parathas, mix one cup of jowar flour with one cup wheat flour for the best results. Since jowar has minimal gluten, wheat flour helps bind the dough. The dough should feel slightly softer than regular wheat dough. Ragi parathas work well with equal parts ragi and wheat flour in a 1:1 ratio. If you're increasing the ragi proportion, expect slightly more difficult rolling. To make things easier here, make sure you give the dough a 15-20 minute rest period before rolling.
Traditional bajra rotis use 100% bajra flour and are hand-patted, but for easier rolling, use a 1:1 bajra to wheat flour ratio. Bajra dough needs more water than wheat dough, so add it slowly while kneading. For multi-millet blends, use equal proportions of different millet flours – one-third cup each of jowar, bajra, and ragi plus one cup wheat flour. Some cooks find single millet varieties easier on digestion than mixing multiple millets, so start with one type and experiment with blends once you're comfortable.
Making the switch from maida to millet flours in your parathas isn't following a diet trend or fad – it's going back to your roots. With jowar, ragi, and bajra, you're not giving up taste or convenience; you're upgrading the health factor, while still getting deliciousness.
Join the Aashirvaad Paratha Fest!
From chilly morning breakfasts to evenings in Delhi's Parathe Wali Gali, the paratha holds a sacred place in Indian winter. Maa's ghee-laden aloo parathas, the sizzle of the tawa, the comfort of each flaky bite, celebrate winter's warmth with the wholesome goodness of Aashirvaad Atta.
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