Gluten free Indian flat bread with banana/banana roti – back to basic comfort

We are a country obsessed with flat breads. No meal is complete without one of the variation of flat breads or rotis. From whole wheat roti to paratas to fruit breads and much more. Banana roti is a semi sweet roti without any insertion of wheat in it. This roti is very special for me as they invoke a lot of nostalgia and home like feeling in me.  My mom would prepare them for us for every outings we would attend as children, most of the road trips were associated with banana roties.

Prepared them with the freshly picked ripe bananas from our backyard tree, rolled on the banana leaf and served with the fresh home mode ghee/clarified butter and mango pickle. well….a dream food in reality. I tried to prepare them in its original form, very close to nature and the place I come from, specially for a friend who requested recipe of my mom’s variation of this roti.

What I emphasise here is use the best quality ingredients. As this flat bread has minimum ingredients in it, and fragrance of each ingredient is very evident in the final product. I would advise against using overripe frozen bananas.

Recipe

• 2 cups rice flour
• 1/2 cup skimmed milk
• 3 bananas finely grind
• 3 tbsp jaggery – more if you want it sweeter
• 2 tbsp ghee/clarified butter
• 1 tsp salt

Method

Mix the jaggery in milk and stir until combined. Heat his mixture in a medium flame. Take care that you don’t boil this mix, but heat it well. Add ground bananas. Mix well, while keeping it on low flame. Take it out of the heat and add the rice flour in three installments. Mixture may appear dry at this stage, but don’t worry, it will come together once you knead them. Knead well for 3-4 minutes.

Knead it to a soft dough. At this stage if you find the dough dry, add some water to make it soft. Divide the dough into 12 equal portions and form the round balls. Dust them with rice flour and roll them to flat breads as thin as you can. Thinner the better. I have used the banana leaves to roll them, you may use the parchment paper in the absence of banana leaves.

Cook them on the tawa/flat wok on medium flame. Cook the till they turn golden brown on both the sides, taking care not to burn them.

Makes 12 rotis/flat breads.

Best served fresh and hot along with a gallop of ghee/clarified butter. However this can be stored well for 2 days at room temperature for a longer shelf life refrigerate and re heat before consumption.

Note –

• It cooks really quick, need to be really attentive at this stage.
• Edges of the roties will slightly crack because of the absence of gluten, when you roll them. Pinch the edges and keep rolling.

 

For Vegan Version follow the recipe with the below ingredients

• 2 cups of Rice flour
• 3/4 cup warm water
• 3 mashed bananas
• 3 tbsp Jaggery
• 2 tbsp Coconut oil
• Salt to taste