Whole Wheat Kulchas with Onion Stuffing

Kulcha is a leavened flatbread enjoyed in India. Risen, shaped and baked in a clay oven, these kulchas make for the most delicious accompaniment with Chickpea and Dried pea curry. Usually kulchas are made using all purpose flour but today i am making it a notch healthier by replacing the base ingredient with whole wheat and punching a pack with my all time favorite, spicy onion stuffing.

Kulchas had been on my mind for almost 2 weeks and i was looking for the perfect opportunity to get geared up for making some for myself. That opportunity came to me when suddenly, after days of heat wave, the clouds decided to bring the rain down and set the mood. It was past 4 pm when it started raining and instantly i decided to make Kulchas. With no all purpose flour at home, i was left with the only choice of going the “whole wheat” route. I had already planned for some dried peas chaat for the evening and thought some onion stuffed kulchas will make for a true comforting meal. To make it easier, i just roasted these on the griddle and skipped the oven heat myself 😛 So, here it is folks ! Enjoy 🙂

Whole Wheat Kulchas with Spicy Onion Stuffing

Whole wheat Kulchas with spicy onion stuffing

Time: 2 hours (including resting time)
Difficulty: medium
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Ingredients

For Dough

For Assembly

Extra flour for dusting and rolling the kulchas
Butter to apply on top of the roasted Kulchas.

For Stuffing

I am using the same stuffing i made for Jaipuri Onion Kachori. It is spicy, tangy and totally lip smacking. Check out the recipe for the stuffing here.

Method

Take a glass and in it, add the lukewarm water, sugar and yeast to it. Mix it well and let it sit for around 10 minutes. The yeast should start working in the meantime and should froth in the water.
In a bowl, add in all the remaining ingredients for the dough and mix well till the flour starts to resemble bread crumbs. Slowly add in the water -yeast mixture and start to combine to knead a soft dough.
Put the dough in a bowl and wrap it with a cling film. Let this rest and rise, approximately 1-1.5 hours in a dark but warm spot. I like to let my dough rest inside the oven (switched off). The dough should rise to double quantity. If not, let it rest for a little more while.
Now, prepare the stuffing as per instructions here. Once cooked, keep it aside and let it cool down.
After the dough has risen, punch it with your fist and knead a little to remove any excess air from the dough. Divide the dough in 8 portions.
Take one portion. Roll this portion into a ball and using your thumb, make an indentation (to make it look like a bowl) in between to stuff the filling. Add the stuffing in the ball of dough and seal it by pinching along the circumference of the dough.
Dust the working surface with flour and using a rolling pin, roll out the dough into a circle with a thickness of about 1/8 inch.
Heat the skillet/tawa/comal. Once hot, put the rolled out dough and roast on both sides till you start to see brown marks on the surface.
Remove and brush with butter. Serve hot with Curries, yogurt or mint coriander chutney

Isn’t that awesome? These Kulchas are really versatile and they make a great pairing with all sorts of dips, chutneys and pickles 🙂

I topped my kulchas with a pat of butter and then served them with a piping hot plate of my Matra Chaat (Spicy dried yellow peas) . If u are planning to make these, i would highly recommend the following pairing together: