Lauki Thepla are savory and spiced flat breads made with bottle gourd or opo squash (lauki in Hindi and dudhi in Gujarati), whole wheat flour, gram flour, herbs and spices. These tasty flatbread make for a healthy breakfast, tiffin or picnic brunches.

Recipe Snapshot

  • Prep time: 15 minutes
  • Cook time: 30 minutes
  • Total time: 45 minutes
  • Yield: 12
  • Category: Breakfast
  • Cuisine: Gujarati

Ingredients

  • ¾ to 1 cup lauki (- grated, (dudhi, opo squash, calabash, bottle gourd))
  • 1½ cups whole wheat flour
  • 3 tablespoons gram flour ((besan))
  • 2 tablespoons curd ((yogurt) - add 1 or 2 tablespoons more, if required while kneading)
  • 1 small green chili (- crushed to a paste in mortar pestle)
  • 1 inch ginger (- peeled, crushed to a paste in mortar-pestle)
  • ½ teaspoon coriander powder
  • ½ teaspoon cumin powder
  • ½ teaspoon red chili powder
  • ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
  • 1 tablespoon oil
  • ¾ teaspoon salt (or add as required)
  • oil (as required, for roasting)

Method

Kneading dough

  1. First rinse, peel and then grate the lauki in a bowl or tray or large plate. Grate about ¾ to 1 cup lauki. NOTE: Before your grate, check the taste of lauki. If it is bitter to taste, then throw it away.
  2. Add the herbs and spices - ginger-green chili paste, coriander powder, cumin powder, red chili powder, turmeric powder salt.
  3. Mix the spices, salt very well with the grated lauki and keep covered aside for 5 minutes. The lauki will release its juices during this time.
  4. Then add whole wheat flour and besan or gram flour. If you don't have gram flour, then skip or you can add chickpea flour. You can also simply make these with whole wheat flour. Mix well.
  5. Add curd (yogurt) and oil.
  6. Mix and then begin to knead into a dough. Make a smooth soft dough.

Rolling

  1. Make medium sized balls from the dough.
  2. On a dusted rolling board, take each ball and begin to roll it.
  3. Sprinkle some more whole wheat flour, if required while rolling.
  4. Roll to a round of about 5 to 6 inches in diameter.

Roasting

  1. Place the rolled dough on a hot tawa or griddle. Keep the heat to medium or medium-high.
  2. When you see air pockets, flip it.
  3. Spread some oil all over. Flip again.
  4. Spread some oil on this flipped side now.
  5. Flip once or twice until they are roasted well.
  6. Roll and roast the flatbread in batches. Place them in a roti container or a casserole/hot pot, so that they stay warm.
  7. Serve these hot, warm or at room temperature with mango pickle or curd/yogurt.

Kiyaan Singh’s Kitchen Note

Keep this recipe as a working base: cook once as written, then adjust spice, texture, and serving style for your own table.