Pumpkin & Hyacinth beans Paratha /Sihikumbala - Avarekai Paratha

This year, we harvested a pretty good number of pumpkins from our garden. That is about 6-7, good sized pumpkins from one creeper. Same way, Avarekai! I tried many recipes out of these. This post is special for me as the parathas are made up of the vegetables grown at home garden.

I usually do parathas without stuffing that is by combining all the ingredients in dough. It saves a lot of time. These can be served with a combination of flavoured yogurt or curds with pickles.

This Pumpkin Avarekai paratha is a wholesome food which is nutritionally rich. It packed with protein, carbohydrates, vitamins & minerals. It has the goodness of pumpkins & Avarekai mixed with whole wheat & spices. I was overwhelmed when my 7 year old son complemented it asking to prepare again the very next day. It was an achievement as he never likes homemade food at once!

Now, let’s see the recipe.

Ingredients:

Grated pumpkin – 1 cup

Avarekai or Hyacinth beans – ½ cup

Wheat flour – 2 cups

Salt - to taste

Carom seeds/ Ajwain/ Om kalu – ½ tsp

Red chilli powder – ½ tsp

Coriander leaves – few strands

Ghee – 1 tbsp

Ghee or Oil – For frying paratha

Method:

Wash and cook Avarekai in pressure cooker by adding required water and salt. Allow it to cool. Peel off pumpkin, deseed and grate it using a vegetable grater. Chop washed coriander leaves finely. Drain water from cooked Avarekai & preserve it separately. De husk (remove the skin) cooked Avarekai (need not remove skin of all the Avarekai, about half of the quantity should be fine). You can also leave this step if you are fine with the fibre. Churn Avarekai coarsely in a mixer. Do not make very smooth paste.

Now it is the step of preparing dough! Take a large vessel. Add ground Avarekai, grated pumpkin, chopped coriander leaves, salt, chilli powder, carom seeds/ ajwain and 1 tbsp of ghee to it. Add wheat flour and kneed well to get soft dough. Add little water preserved (of cooked Avarekai) if the dough looks too dry or little flour if it is very sticky. Set aside for 15 – 30 minutes.

To prepare Paratha: Divide dough into equal sized balls. Roll each ball into thin parathas by applying little flour as and when needed, that is when it sticks. Meanwhile heat a griddle or tava on high flame. Apply little ghee or oil on tava. Fry/ cook each paratha flipping in regular intervals until you see few brown spots on both sides of it. Apply little ghee or oil on paratha while cooking. Do not make it too dry. Repeat the procedure until you finish all the dough. Serve hot with a choice of gravy or yogurt & pickles.These parathas can be stored in a casserole for 10-12 hours.