Sourdough Aloo Paratha — Spicy Potato Stuffed Flatbread

I recently listened to an episode of the podcast Eat My Globe that focused on indigenous American cuisine. It reminded me that so many classic dishes from around the world feature plants that originated in the Americas, including potatoes and chili peppers. One example is aloo paratha, a traditional flatbread from Northern Indian that is filled with mashed potatoes, chopped chili peppers, and tempered spices. If you haven’t had aloo paratha before, imagine two foods each awesome on their own — fried whole wheat flatbread and spiced mashed potatoes — combined into a single synergy of textural deliciosity that can be enjoyed all kinds of ways.

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The manner of eating parathas is just about as diverse as the methods of making them – they can be eaten with pickles, dunked into spicey hot chai, tamed down with creamy yogurt, or elevated with a shmear of all manner of preserves and chutneys. Parathas are wonderful to mop up warm bowls of spicey regional gravies made with vegetables, chickpeas, meat or beans. Or you can eat them as is.
—The History of the Indian Paratha by Amrita Amesur in “Quench Magazine”

Here is a short video showing how I fill the dough and cook parathas on the stove. Also refer to the photo gallery after the recipe for more process photos.

I’d only ever had aloo paratha in restaurants until I tried the Aloo ka Paratha recipe collaboration of Breadtopia’s co-founder Denyce Rusch and vegan Indian cookbook author, Anupy Singla. I think their recipe is awesome, and for flavor fun, I fermented the dough with sourdough starter. Parathas are not leavened breads, so my recipe variation isn’t traditional, but I think you’ll find it delicious and no more difficult than an unleavened bread. If you mix the dough and put it somewhere warm before you begin making the potato filling, you can begin assembling the paratha once the filling has cooled a bit. The dough doesn’t need a particular amount of expansion for this bread to work, though I would aim for less than doubled to maintain strength for rolling.

Flour Options: The flour in this dough is a 2:1 ratio of all purpose flour to whole wheat flour, specifically fresh-milled hard red spring wheat berries. This is actually more whole wheat than the 3:1 ratio recommended by Nik Sharma in the March 2025 Serious Eats article where he discusses how to approximate Indian whole wheat flour, called atta. He explains that atta has “higher damaged starch values” than American whole wheat flour due to different milling practices, and this means atta has smaller bran flakes and is thirstier. (The trade off is a shorter shelf life and faster enzymatic breakdown once in dough form.) I wanted a little more wheat flavor, so I went with a ratio of 2:1. Another great option is to use one of Breadtopia’s high extraction flours, either the strong Select Bread Flour (milled and sifted hard red spring wheat) or the slightly softer All Purpose High Extraction Flour (milled and sifted hard red winter wheat). You may need a little more water if you use the stronger bread flour.

2:1 all purpose and hard red spring whole wheat flours

Other Ingredients: I used russet potatoes, peeled and cut in half before boiling. Other potato varieties and peeling after boiling are also fine. Many aloo paratha recipes do not include onion, but the recipe of Chef Anupy Singla and Denyce Rusch does and I enjoy this added flavor and texture. If your spice-heat tolerance is low, omit the fresh chopped green chili peppers or substitute with a small amount of a mild pepper like bell, poblano, or cubanelle. Kashmiri chili powder is more spicy than paprika and less spicy than cayenne powder. If using the latter, consider dropping the amount to 1/4 tsp. Mango powder adds an acidic fruitiness to the filling. If you can’t find it, try ground sumac or lemon juice (amounts given in the recipe). Garam masala is often available in grocery stores but there are also recipes for the spice blend online, typically combining ground cumin, coriander, cardamom, black pepper, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. If you don’t have access to dried fenugreek, omit it or substitute dried or fresh cilantro. While the flavor of cilantro is quite different from fenugreek, it works well with the potato filling.

Recipe Portions: The recipe makes dough for eight parathas and enough mashed potato filling for double that. Unless you double the dough, you will have about one quart of leftover spicy mashed potatoes. This can be frozen for a future batch of parathas or you can use it in meals. In my household, leftover mashed potatoes were most often fried to a crisp and paired with eggs as in the photo below.

Leftover aloo filling and fried eggs

Sourdough Aloo Paratha — Spicy Potato Stuffed Flatbread

This recipe is a sourdough fermented take on aloo paratha, a classic potato-and-chili stuffed flatbread from India. Enjoy these breads dipped in yogurt and chutney, alongside soup or stew, wrapped around salad greens, and in many other ways.

Prep Time

1 hour, 30 minutes

Total Time

1 hour, 34 minutes

Ingredients

Filling

• 4 medium potatoes, peeled, boiled, and riced or mashed
• 1-2 Tbsp oil
• 1 heaping tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 0-3 green chilis (Thai/bird’s eye, serrano, cayenne), sliced
• 1 tsp kashmiri chili powder
• 1 tsp mango powder (amchur) or 1/2 tsp ground sumac or 2 tsp lemon juice
• 2-3 tsp garam masala spice blend
• 1 1/2 tsp coarse sea salt
• 1/4 cup dried fenugreek leaves

Dough

• 390 grams flour (260g/2 cups all purpose flour and 130g/1 cup hard red spring wheat whole grain flour)
• 237 grams water (1 cup)
• 12 grams oil (1 Tbsp)
• 5 grams salt (1 tsp)
• optional 60 grams sourdough starter (scant 1/4 cup)
• additional oil, ghee, or butter for cooking the breads

Instructions

• Using the dough at any degree of expansion less than double is fine. In a warm kitchen (78°F) with refrigerated starter that had doubled a few days prior, my dough expanded by 50% in four hours. If you want to mix the dough in the morning and use it in the evening, mix the dough with cold water and less starter, e.g. 15-30 grams.

Dough

• Combine the dough ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly. Transfer to a clean workspace and knead for a few minutes, adding flour as needed.
• Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl and let it rise while you prepare the filling.

Filling

• Peel the potatoes and cut them into similar-size pieces. Place in a pan of salted unheated water and bring to a boil. Simmer until the potatoes are tender all the way through when poked with a fork. Drain off the water and rice or mash the potatoes into a bowl.
• Dice the onion and slice the chilis, set aside.
• In a saute pan, heat the oil. Add the cumin seeds and ground turmeric, cooking until the seeds sizzle, about 30 seconds.
• Add the onion and chilis and cook until the onion is tender and translucent.
• Add the chili powder, mango powder or substitute, garam masala, salt, and fenugreek leaves, crushing them in your hands as you put them in the pan.
• Mix and cook for a few minutes more, adding a splash of oil if the mixture seems dry.
• Transfer the mixture to the bowl of riced potatoes and mix thoroughly.
• Give the filling a taste and add more salt if desired.

Assembly

• Prep two baking sheets covered with well floured tea towels to hold the parathas before you cook them.
• Divide the dough into eight pieces and roll the pieces into balls.
• Flour a dough ball on both sides, roll or stretch it into a circle 4-6 inches in diameter, making the edges thinner than the center.
• Add the filling to the center of the dough, 1/4 to 1/3 cup, but experimenting with the amount that works for you. Fold in the sides of the dough, pinch the top, and re-roll the dough into a circle about 6 inches in diameter.
• Place the stuffed dough on a baking sheet lined with a floured tea towel.
• Repeat with the rest of the dough balls.

Cooking

• Preheat one or two cast iron pans on your stove to medium heat. Water sprinkled on the pans should sizzle. Place a dough on the hot pan and let it cook about 30 seconds or until it is bubbly and flippable but not hard. Flip and add oil, butter or ghee to the top if desired. When the second side is cooked, the paratha may puff up. Flip again to make sure both sides have brown spots.
• Remove from the heat to a plate or cooling rack, and repeat until all the dough is cooked.
• Serve warm if possible. Store in the refrigerator in a closed container. For reheating, if a paratha is soft and damp, use the toaster oven. If it is hard and dry, use the microwave.

Photo Gallery