Soft paneer and mixed greens cooked in a delicious medley of tomatoes and spices, make for the perfect filling inside a roti/paratha/chapathi/tortilla. This paneer wrap serves as the quintessential to-go lunch and is a complete meal in itself, as an added bonus.
Ingredients:
- Paneer (fresh Indian cheese) (1 cup)
- Mixed greens (spinach, arugula, kale etc.) (2 cups)
- Onions (I used red) (1/4 cup)
- Tomatoes (1/2 cup)
- Ginger (a small piece – crushed or grated) (1/2 tsp)
- Cumin (jeera) seeds (1 tsp)
- Dried fenugreek leaves (kasoori methi) (1 tsp)
- Coriander (dhaniya) powder (1 tsp)
- Turmeric (haldi) powder (a pinch)
- Dry red chili powder (to taste)
- Salt (to taste)
- Ghee/Oil (I used ghee) (1 tsp)
Method:
- In a pan on medium heat, add ghee and cumin seeds.
- When the seeds crackle, add the dried fenugreek leaves, ginger and chopped onions.
- When the onions turn translucent, add paneer cubes. Saute for a minute.
- Add chopped tomatoes and chopped greens, along with the dry spice powders and salt. Cook until the tomatoes are well done.
- Keep on medium to high heat, until the water evaporates completely, since we don’t want the wraps to end up soggy.
- Make rotis according to instructions here. If you are planning to make parathas instead, use the recipe here, if you want to. Or you could use store-bought ones.
- Spread the filling in the center of the roti, and roll it up nice and tight.
Serving Tips:
- You could add raw vegetables like lettuce, cucumbers, carrots, onions etc. and even sprinkle some chaat masala, before rolling the roti.
- Here, I’ve served the paneer wraps as a school lunchbox item for my kids, with a salad side and yogurt.
Tastes (Rasa):
Sweet (paneer, wheat flour), sour (tomatoes), salty (salt), bitter (greens, fenugreek), pungent (ginger, chili), astringent (turmeric).
Doshic Influence:
Wheat is nourishing and nutritive, but is kapha provoking due to its sticky, heavy qualities, and vata provoking since it is difficult to digest. Paneer (organic) is a high quality protein and calcium rich food, which is very grounding, nutritious and filling. Again, it is kapha provoking in excess. This recipe has a great mix of digestive, warming spices like ginger, cumin, coriander, fenugreek, turmeric etc. to balance the heavy, cooling qualities of kapha. Using excess ginger or chili powder or overdoing sour tomatoes or excess salt will make this recipe pitta provoking. The trick is to use spices to make the dish flavorful, but yet mild and not overly spicy. Ghee is tridoshic and digestive. Overall, this dish can be made in a tridoshic manner.
Effects on the Mind (Gunas):
Wheat, onions increases tamas. Chili powder increases rajas. Cumin, coriander, turmeric, fenugreek, ginger and other such digestive, mild spices increase sattva. Sattvic spices are those that help increase digestibility, are mild and not overly stimulating in taste and flavor. On eating sattvic foods, one finds that the mind is calm, centered and nourished by the food, not over-stimulated or slowed down. This recipe can be made in a largely sattvic manner if fresh ingredients, home-made paneer and an optimal amount of sattvic spices are used to prepare the filling.