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Copyright © 2025 Foodies Only
Copyright © 2025 Foodies Only
5 min
27/01/2026
Parathas can be an excellent way to sneak nutrition into picky eaters through tactical nutrition, using lauki and spinach as dough instead of fillings or toppings. Adding these two nutritious but often rejected vegetables to parathas provides nutritious meals without changing the way the paratha is consumed.
Picky eaters tend to reject vegetables not just for taste but also for the visible texture and appearance of vegetables, as well as the unfamiliarity of how they feel in their mouths. Therefore, by treating lauki and spinach as structural ingredients instead of visible fillings or toppings, we can add these highly nutritious vegetables to the paratha seamlessly without being detected. It is important to create meals for picky eaters that have the objective of keeping nutrition invisible.
Parathas are ideal for tactical nutrition as they are designed to absorb moisture, colour, and fibre without causing a significant change in flavour profile. Typically, when using wheat flour parathas, the use of warm water during dough creation can mask many of the mild vegetal notes that lauki and spinach have; therefore, they should not have a strong vegetable taste in the paratha. Additionally, as it relates to consistency, when added correctly, lauki adds water to the dough and helps to keep it soft, while spinach provides vitamins and minerals to the dough without negatively impacting the texture of the resulting product.
One of the reasons that hidden vegetables work so well is that the size of the vegetable pieces is so small. Lauki, for example, when grated very finely, releases moisture and gets rid of the crunchy texture of lauki, which is generally one of the biggest sensory reasons for dislike. Once blanched and blended into puree form, spinach loses both its fibrous resistance and its bright green colour and can be used to bind the dough as a neutral ingredient. The small piece size means that the individual small particles of lauki and spinach are evenly dispersed throughout the dough mixture, which prevents any concentration of flavours or textures from forming chewy "pockets" in the finished product that might cause children to think it is "something different."
The high-water content of lauki can be both a positive and a negative attribute. When lauki is very lightly squeezed after being grated, it provides controlled moisture to the dough mixture, reducing the need for additional water content in the dough mixture. Consequently, parathas made from this dough will remain soft and pliable even after they have cooled, which makes them very desirable for use in tiffins. Another very important note regarding lauki is that its flavour profile is very mild, and therefore disappears completely once it is mixed with attá flour and cooked on a hot tawa or frying pan; therefore, lauki acts more as a dough conditioner than an actual ingredient in paratha.
Although spinach has a high level of visual resistance compared to other flavours, it is more visually impactful than flavour-based ones. When spinach is briefly blanched, it dulls some of its bright green colour and removes some of the bitterness associated with spinach. However, when spinach has been pureed into a paste and then mixed with flour for dough, the spinach has lost its organic identity and becomes a part of the final product. Mixing spinach with whole wheat flour adds visual balance, while adding whole spices, which are characteristics of parathas, like carom (ajwain) and cumin (jeera), will naturally cover up the vegetal flavour that spinach provides. Thus, the paratha looks and has a similar appearance to normal parathas while providing nutritional benefits.
Children are particularly sensitive to chewing on unexpected resistance. When a paratha is made with an excessive amount of vegetable matter, it can create a dense/paratha or rubbery paratha and can raise red flags immediately. The key is to use the correct balance of vegetables: they should add to the natural elasticity of the dough, not disrupt it. It is also extremely important to allow the dough an adequate amount of rest time to hydrate the fibre thoroughly, which will help to smooth out any remaining inconsistencies. If the dough is rested properly, to ensure the paratha tears cleanly and chews easily, like a regular paratha.
Hidden nutrition allows children to slowly develop a taste for vegetables by incorporating them into meals in a non-disruptive way. As their palates gradually get accustomed to these foods, their resistance to trying new foods decreases, and they learn to trust that the meals prepared for them at home will be healthy. Lauki and spinach contain iron, water, and fibre and can easily be added to many dishes without creating any conflict between the parent and child. Therefore, tactical nutrition works with children who are sensory-based eaters to help them achieve dietary goals, creating a long-term solution rather than a quick fix.
