Disclaimer: Mangala Deshmukh is NOT a licensed Dietitian/ Nutritionist.
The information on this website is provided for educational and entertainment purposes only, and is not intended to diagnose, cure or treat any medical or other condition. Always seek the advice of your health provider prior to starting any diet.
For a child or adult allergic to gluten, Chapati or Paratha is by far the most missed item in an Indian meal. Try this Gluten-free Chapati recipe and see how soft and pliable the chapati remain long after they are made. Serve them hot off of the tava or use them as a perfect snack or meal on the go.
Disclaimer: Mangala Deshmukh is NOT a licensed Dietitian/ Nutritionist.
The information on this website is provided for educational and entertainment purposes only, and is not intended to diagnose, cure or treat any medical or other condition. Always seek the advice of your health provider prior to starting any diet.
Ingredients:
Gluten-free Basic Flour Mix – 1 cup (see recipe here)
Potato – 1/4 cup, boiled and mashed
Oil – 2 tsp
Warm Water – 1/3 to 1/2 cup, as needed
Rice Flour – 1 heaped tablespoon, for dusting
Oil or Ghee – optional, for pan frying or coating
Method:
1. Place Flour Mix in a bowl and add Potato. Incorporate it into the flour.
2. Add Oil and rub it into the flour to incorporate well.
3. Add half the water and start to knead the dough.
4. Slowly add the remaining water (as needed), kneading gently all the time.
5. Note: Gluten free flours usually require more kneading than wheat flour, to acquire a soft, smooth texture and the addition of the gum will make the dough a little sticky.
6. When dough has formed into a ball, smear your hand with a little oil and continue to knead and make a smooth dough. Place prepared dough in a bowl and allow it to rest for about 15 minutes.
7. Meanwhile, place the rice flour onto a plate and keep it handy nearby.
8. Tear off two large sheets of plastic wrap, about 10” long. Place one sheet on rolling surface, and the other one on any clean, dry surface nearby. Take care to ensure that plastic sheets are not close to the stove top.
9. Heat a tava/skillet on medium heat till it is nice and hot.
10. Divide dough into 7 equal sized balls.
11. Roll each ball smoothly with your hands, press and flatten to form a disc.
12. Take one flattened ball and dust it lightly with rice flour
13. Place on top of the first plastic sheet, in the center. Place the second sheet on top of the ball, in parallel with the bottom sheet.
14. Begin to roll gently. You will be able to roll out a fairly thin roti about 7” round.
15. Once rolled out, remove upper plastic sheet and set aside away from stove top.
16. With one hand, gently peel away the lower plastic sheet, while lifting the rolled roti onto the palm of the other hand.
17. Place roti on tava. Allow some bubbles to appear, flip the roti onto the other side and allow it to cook while gently pressing and moving it a little.
18. Flip once again and let the first side cook a little more. Roti will balloon a little, though not as much as a wheat roti
19. Take off the flame, smear with Ghee (optional) and serve hot, or keep in an insulated container till all rotis are made
Tips—
Make your puris just like you would make wheat puris. Divide the dough into 10-12 small balls, flatten into discs and follow the above procedure. Since puris don’t have to be rolled out large or thin, you may be able to make them without using plastic wrap.
One advantage of using the plastic wrap is that the dough does not directly come into contact with the rolling surface or the rolling pin. This is a safe practice as it completely prevents cross contamination, especially if the same equipment is being used to make other foods
In any case, ensure that everything is completely free of allergens before starting to prepare for kids and others with allergies.
Make parathas just as you would make wheat parathas. Make a hollow in the ball of dough, place your filling, then close the hollow so that filling is firmly enclosed within. Gently press, dust with rice flour, place on plastic wrap and roll out without pressing too hard with the rolling pin.
If you wish to make Hetal and Anuja’s fantastic kathi rolls, do add the potato. Imagine the delight of a wheat allergic child, when he/she can also hold a tasty chapatti roll and eat it!
Hi, I tried making these today for my kids but the chapatis ended up a bit hard and crisp instead of soft. What could I have done wrong? Which ingredient makes it nice and soft?
Nice recipe very simple. I am fed up of eating stored breads and burgers at least i can try some special and fresh. Thanks a lot.
Can you suggest some savory filling recipes for these? Thank you for this recipe and your video!!
JMs
Help! They turned out flat and crisp, vs fluffy and pliable! Was it my flours being too old perhaps? Too low or high a heat when I cooked them? Rolled them out too thin? I used the potato starch and guar gum (have to be corn and soy free, as well as gf, dairy free, etc). What did I do wrong? Poo 🙁
Hello Anuja/Hetal/Mangala Aunty
Thanks a lot for sharing this recipe.I have been eating chapathis from my childhood. But, suddenly last year I realized that I became allergic to gluten. From then on, I have been searching for a good chapathi recipe as I totally missed it. Whatever tried came out to be brittle. I came across your recipe and tried it yesterday and I was so thrilled to see the chapathis come out so good. And it tasted awesome too..
Thanks a lot
Do you have a good recipe for Pooris too?
Anu
Is there a substitute for xanthan gum that I can use? something that is more natural and does not have any side effects? Have you tried using psyllium husk instead of xanthan gum? I would so appreicate if you could let me know.
Being a mom of a child with special needs, this would be very helpful
Hi Girls! I have made this recipe three times and my coeliac wife is thrilled to enjoy eating have a “wrap” that actually wraps and doesn’t taste like cardboard! I double the recipe and use a Thermomix to prepare the dough. It is so easy to prepare a smooth and needed dough using this clever kitchen machine. I make the Chapatis on the larger size. They freeze well. Take strait from the freezer,a sprinkling of water then wrapped in a kitchen paper towel and a quick microwave and they are yummy. And very tasty for non coeliacs to share too! I have converted the recipe for the Thermomix and would like your permission and acknowledgment of creator Mangala Deshmukh (“Mangala Aunty”) before I post it on the Australian thermomix recipe community. I would include a link to the recipe on showmethecurry.com It is always an adventure visiting your site. The videos are so helpful and your style of presentation so encouraging. Keep up the good work. John
Thanks for this! Was just wondering if I could freeze them!
hi there
thanks for the great receipe .kindly tell me what is the alternate of amaranth flour????????plssssssssss reply fast
thanks again
erum
I have used your Gluten-Free Basic Flour Mix for muffins many times and it works great !!
Today I finally made the Chapatis and they were wonderful. My whole family liked them !
Thanks so much for the Allergy Free Recipes !!
Can the gluten free flour be used to make Pizza crust?
Thanks
Sorry, we have not tried making a pizza crust out of this dough.
Can you replace rajgira flour with bajra flour when making the gluten free flour mix?
Hey, thanks for the great recipe! My wife recently developed a gluten-allergy and we’ve been looking for an alternative to the good old wheat chapatis! I came across this and decided to give it a go. Everything went great, I’ve used all the listed ingredients. However, I’ve noticed that the chapatis have sand-like particles in them, even though I’ve bought them from a quality store and its not bobs red mill. After investigating, it looks like the Amaranth flour is the culprit. Is the chapati suppose to have that sand-like taste to it? I mean we could feel the tiny buts of sand when chewing on the chapati and it’s rather unpleasant..
So if you could kindly let me know if this is what the final product is supposed to be like or maybe I should try another Amaranth flour brand..
Hi John,
As far as we know (and judging from our final product), the chapatis are not supposed to be sand like. I’m not sure what happened. If you narrowed it down to the amaranth, maybe you can buy it from another store and compare the two before trying again.
Correction in the above. I meant to say sour yogurt and I said sour milk instead.
Mangla Auntiji,
You all are doing a great job just as good as professional people yet a simlicity in your method. I also love that you don’t make any blender, food processor or tap water noise either.
Anyway, the reason i m writing this is a friend of mine makes pudla of all this flour (just the way Hetal and Anuja has besan pudla. What my friend does is, she takes Juwar, Bajri and Rajgara flour, adds sour yogurt, salt, red chili powder and chopped green methi and soaks for a 10 min. and she makes pudla. If no sour milk, add lemon juice in yogurt for 10 min., than soak it. No specific measurement of flour and since chopped methi is flat, you just pour like dosa and it does not need soda and yet makes whole in the edges of pudla.
Also, one can make a muthiya which are steamed and more healthier also.
To make this a whole meal, have some rice kheer and it is a perfect milk.
Thanks for your recipe gm!
Finally I can feed my 3 year old rotis, thanks to your wonderful recipe! I’m glad I bumped into this site, excellent recipes and even better allergy recipes 🙂
I love this recipe! I used sweet rice flour in the basic mix instead of cornstarch. I didn’t have the time to cook potato so I put half a banana in the dough. It was great. It didn’t fall apart like so many gluten free recipes I’ve used before for flatbreads.
Mangala Aunty, thank you for your gluten free recipes. As a teenager my best friend’s family introduced me to curry and roti and chapati and for many years I have greatly enjoyed Indian food, but a few years ago, I discovered that I was allergic to wheat and have missed rotis and chapatis very much, something was missing from a curry meal without the breads. I have just discovered your site and look forward to trying the recipes. Thank you so much
awesome, super awesome recipe. Tried out tonight and all came out great. Used cooked & mashed sweet potato instead of white boiled & mashed potatoes. Didn’t balloon much while cooking but all came out perfect and soft! best thing ever for this gluten free girl!
thank you!
Hello Hetal and Anjula,
Would it be ok to use potato flour instead of the mashed potato? Just thinking it would save some time.
Hi Samina,
This is Mangala Aunty’s recipe so we followed her directions exactly. We have not tried potato flakes.
Hi Hetal,Anuja and Mangala
My daughters are also slightly allergic to wheat your recipe is really god sent .Thank you very much for that.Here I would like to share my recipe with you I take one catori water 1/4 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp oil keep it to boil as soon as it boils take out off the stove and mix exact 1 catori jowar flour into it mix it very well and on the very low flame keep covered for 5 min.take ot and knead it .make chapati’s my daughters just love them .you can use rice flour instead of jowar and can be mixed with cumin seeds,cilantro,chopped green chillies (make these with rice flour and eat with butter they are awsome)
Thanks so much for sharing your recipe Leena!
Hi Hetal,
Please try my recipes and show it on your website.These chapati’s stay soft for a long time and taste great.I just want to pass this recipe to people with allergies so that they will have a different variety.
Thanks & Regards
Leena
Can we substitute the instant mashed potatoes for the boiled potato?
Hi Roney,
We have not tried it but it should work. If you do try it, you may want to experiment on a small batch first.
Tried them out today and turned out great.. almost like wheat rotis. Thank you Hetal and Anuja for your thoughtful consideration to include allergy free foods in your already wonderful cooking site and thank you Mangala aunty for sharing the nice recipe.
Hi Hetal and Anuja and Mangala, I am reposting this message to get your opinion and/ or suggestions. Thanks….Can this flour mix with boiled potato and same ratios be used to make the Indian naan bread? Thank you
Hi,
Not sure if Mangala Aunty has seen this comment but we have not tried it. The only problem I see is that naan is leavened and chapati is unleavened. We usually use yeast or baking soda for the dough. You can try it out on a small portion just to see.
well, i tried and failed to make good naans. Maybe its not possinble.
Hi Hetal and Anuja and Mangala, can this flour mix with boiled potato and same ratios be used to make the Indian naan bread? Thank you
Thank you so much!!
I have celiac, and I loved Mangala’s advice of taking it to go, like a wrap. Such good advice and something I hadn’t thought of.
I only found your site a few days ago but I am so impressed, your accents are beautiful and I just love the variety of foods you cook/create with.
Keep up the good work <3
Thanks Melanie and welcome to SMTC!
Thankyou Hetal and Mangala auntie for your advice regarding soya flour.I will try again to see if I can get Amaranth flour.I had one question auntie.Can I use this flour to make Hetal and Anujas Banana nut and focacia bread?Do I need to make any changes to the recipe?
Hi Hetal, Anuja and Mangla auntie,
Me and my daughter have been diagnosed with celiac recently and since then I have been struggling with different flours to get decent chapatis.This recipe was God sent.I made these chapatis and they came out absolutely fantastic. The whole family loved them.I served them to my friends and they could’t tell the difference.As I couldn’t find amaranth flour ,I used soya flour instead.
The wheat flour is completely out of my house now as my husband and son who are not allergic to wheat happily eat them as well.I can’t thank you enough for this as it has improved the quality of life so much and meal times are now stress free.Thanks a million.
Hi Shama,
We’re so glad to hear that you and your family are able to use this wonderful recipe. You are right, its delicious even for non-allergy suffers. Good luck to you and your daughter as you try to find suitable foods.
I am so happy that this has worked out well for you. Since soy is a key allergenic food, I don’t use it. Do try to find amaranth whenever you can, as I have read in a book by two British doctors, (Brostoff and Gamlin), that soy is not too great for those with Celiac disease. See if you can find out more.
All the best.
I’m really looking forward to trying this recipe. I’ve been learning Indian cooking (and retooling the spice cabinet) for awhile now and in the last year discovered I had to give up wheat. I’ve been so disappointed in most bread recipes and this looks promising.
I have a question. How long will the finished chapatis keep? Can I make a batch in the afternoon to take to a gathering in the evening? They would have to hold about 10 hours.
Place the chapatis in an insulated container, then warm them before serving and they will be good. Remember that gluten free flours become dense but once they are warmed, the rotis will taste great. I make rolls with these rotis, put in a yummy filling, wrap them in foil and freeze them. It is so easy to pull them out when required, unwrap the foil, cover and microwave the rolls, then rewrap in foil and take them along.
They work well for a picnic, a journey or even a school lunch. With the filling, they remain soft.
Enjoy your rotis.
Many thanks Mangala! I made a double batch, put them in an insulated container, then transferred to foil at serving time and warmed in the oven. They disappeared quickly with a batch of Hetel and Anuja’s kalachanna curry.
You would have had a good laugh in my kitchen yesterday watching me learn how to roll out and get them onto the tawa flat. First I had the bright idea of using my tortilla press. Not for GF! Yikes. I had a gooey mess. Luckily when I splurged for my tawa I also bought a little roti rolling pin. That worked much better. However the finished dough ready to cook kept sticking to some spot on my hand and would go onto the pan folded or creased. Finally I figured out to flour the top again before inverting onto my hand, keep a little of the end hanging over, then tip up the tawa and kind of roll/throw the roti onto the surface. Next I learned I got better puff if I cooked on one side then when turning immediately put it onto the open flame. I just trashed my kitchen with my beginner’s flailings but had fun, learned a lot and loved the results. I have a bread that I truly enjoy. Thank you again!!!
Congrats! With a little bit of practice, you’ll become an expert!
I forgot to mention, when I wrote about the stuffed chapati rolls, please use aluminium foil for wrapping warm rolls. Plastic foil will make them soggy. You can warm them with the aluminium foil in an oven/toaster oven, or else, remove foil and microwave. Just do whatever is convenient.
Try the rolls and I am sure you’ll love them.
Have fun
Heyyyyy
Can u plz show us how to make Dosa. Thank you both for your hard work. I rally like your recipes.I have try many of them n they turn out to be really good.
Thsnk u so much:)
Hi Kala,
We will put that down on our long (very long) list 🙂
I have been experimenting & searching for GF chapati/roti recipe…and here it is!! Thanks a ton!
hai hetal & anuja DOING NICE JOB i have been watching ur videos for last 1mnth & it s very useful for me ,thanx to both of u ,please help me.. ,i have brought a oven which is kenwood mw877 series micro/grill/combi and i cant find how to preheat the oven,i want to make puffs ,pizza etc .. can u help ,thanks for all ur recipes
Hi Anuja and Hetal, thanks for the recipe. I have tried some of your recipes. You both are doing a good job.keep going. Thanks again…
Mangala ji mentioned about usage of carrot or spinach instead of boiled potato. Carrot or spinach should be boiled too and not raw (grated), correct? Thanks.
Hi
I guess i can try to help as i did try this recipe and it turned out awesome ! My husband is allergic to gluten ): I put raw grated carrots after squeezing out the water and then used that water slowly to knead the dough.
i hope that helps.
thanks 🙂
all gluten free recipes was recorded in 1 day so why not post online in 1 day instead of waiting a week….
All in due time!
Regarding the videos – we wish it were as easy as we make it look. There is a lot of thought that goes into when we release, needless to say a lot of time into editing / writing up recipes / responding to questions on our site, YouTube and Facebook, emails, work on our test kitchen and above all this take care of our families and homes.
Cheers!
Thank you so much for the smtc team.Since my son is having a trace of Autism i was looking for glutenfree recipes.I really appreciate all of your work.I have tried many recipes from your site ,everything came very well.Could you post gluten free bread, muffin or cake please…?
Thanks for this lovely recipe!!! Mangala ji, I have one question for you, the basmati rice which we buy from Indian stores, is it safe to consumed in gluten free diet?
I use ripe avocado paste while making chapati dough. And it makes my chapati very soft and the same time very healthy 🙂
I guess, It will be the good idea to add avocado instead of boil potato in this recipe.
wow gr8 tip, Thanks for sharing!
I do not use avocado, as those with severe allergies could react to mango, pineapple and avocado. But go ahead if that works for you.
It is a gr8 tip for those who do not have allergy issues. tks.
I tried this using yogurt and it was soft as ever!
Hi Hetal/Anuja,
There is a kind of sound disturbance in the video like a continuos noise in the background which is distracting and voice clarity is affected because of that. Just wanted to bring this to your notice so that you can look into it.
Good luck with the new series!!!!
Thanks a lot Hetal, Anuja and Mangala jee!!
Hello!
I’m not Indian – just plain ol’ American, born & raised in Texas. 🙂 I love your videos & am wanting to learn more about Indian food & cooking. My family & I have to live gluten free, so I’m extra delighted about your new segments. Thank you!! My biggest concern relating to making your recipes is finding Indian spices that are gluten free. I cannot tolerate foods prepared/processed in the same facility with gluten containing ingredient. Mangala, do you have any tips or resources in this area? Mail order would be perfect for me. I would have already tried to make some of your recipes, Hetal & Anuja, but haven’t taken the step of finding safe spices. Ya’ll are great! Looking forward to the more gluten free segments.
Faydra,
For me, the safest method is to buy whole spices from Indian grocery stores or from speciality/nature food stores. I then put them through a coffee/spice grinder and store them in small containers. ( I only make small quantities at a time). You can look at Hetal and Anuja’s dry masala recipes, combine spices in given proportions and grind. Its a good idea to keep ground cumin, coriander seed, cloves, cinnamon cardamon and pepper at hand as basic spices to use. You can grind and keep small quantities,(1/4 – 1/2 cup) without roasting too.
All the best!
Im so glad you girls added the allergy sensitive line of recipes to your collection, many people suffer from this problem and its nice to accommodate them also!
Thanks a tonne..My MIl is gluten allergetic ..very useful healthy recepie..
hi hetal and anuja
will you please show a video on how to make Pasta Salad?
Thank you.
OHHH it is already there. just saw it. delicious receipe. thank you.
very nice…Thanx for sharing
Good recipe for rotis! Very well presented by Mangala aunty.