Amaranth recipes: 8 rajgira dishes from roti to ladoo

Every dish on this page begins with rajgira atta, and two habits decide how it turns out. Anything shaped — roti and puri — wants just-boiled water, not cold: rajgira contains no gluten, so the hot-water dough is the thing that binds the flour together and stops the rim from cracking. Wet-cooked dishes — porridge and sheera — meet the liquid from the other direction: either the flour goes into cold milk first and gets whisked smooth, or it is roasted in ghee ahead of the milk, so lumps never get a start.

Keep the jar sealed and cook with the flour while it still smells fresh, and remember the seed behind it: per 100 g, rajgira atta carries 356 kcal, 13.3 g protein, 7.5 g fibre and 162 mg calcium (IFCT 2017), so the 30 g in one roti works out to about 107 kcal and 49 mg calcium. On vrat days, two swaps keep every dish fast-friendly: rock salt (sendha namak) in place of table salt, and ghee in place of any oil a method calls for. The full rajgira guide covers names, storage and what to check before buying.

These two are the vrat-day breads, made from the same hot-water dough; one is cooked on a tawa and one is fried.

Rajgira roti

Atta kneaded with just-boiled water, rested for ten minutes, then rolled gently between two sheets of butter paper and cooked on a medium tawa until spotted brown, about two minutes per side, finished with a thin smear of ghee. Four soft rotis from 1 cup of atta, ready in about 40 minutes, and each roti comes to about 141 kcal with its share of ghee. Full method: rajgira roti.

Rajgira puri

Make the same dough, divide it smaller, roll each ball a little thicker and deep-fry in hot oil until the puri puffs and turns pale gold. Drain on paper and eat hot with farali aloo sabji. Fried rather than tawa-cooked, puri is the fast-day special; the everyday bread is the roti.

Mornings are the gentlest introduction to rajgira: both the flour and the whole seed cook quickly, and each bowl swaps in for a familiar one — porridge in place of oats, upma in place of the rava kind.

Rajgira porridge

Whisk 3 tablespoons of rajgira atta into a cup of cold milk, pour into a pan and let it simmer, stirring, for six to eight minutes until it thickens to a soft custard; sweeten with jaggery powder and cardamom, or add salt and a spoon of ghee for a savoury bowl.

Rajgira upma

Wash 1/2 cup of whole rajgira. Temper mustard seeds, cumin, curry leaves, one chopped onion and a green chilli in a teaspoon of oil, tip in the rajgira with 1.5 cups of hot water and salt, cover and cook it slowly for about 15 minutes; once the water has gone into the seeds and they have softened, finish with lemon juice and coriander.

The whole seed has one party trick: it pops.

Popped rajgira

Heat a heavy kadai until it is very hot. Throw in a tablespoon of rajgira at a time and keep it moving; the seeds pop within seconds into tiny white puffs. Tip each batch out at once so it does not scorch, and scatter the pops over curd or fruit, or bind them with jaggery as chikki.

Rajgira chikki

Warm 100 g of jaggery with a splash of water on low heat, stirring, until a drop of the syrup in cold water sets firm; fold in a cup of popped rajgira, press the mixture into a greased plate while warm, cool and break into pieces.

Roasted rajgira atta and jaggery are a natural pair, and both sweets here lean on jaggery over white sugar; one has a full recipe page, the other a two-line method.

Rajgira sheera

Gently roast 1/2 cup of rajgira atta in 2 tablespoons of ghee over low heat until a nutty smell rises. Pour in 2 cups of warm milk in a thin stream, stirring so no lumps form, and cook until the mixture thickens into a soft pudding; add jaggery powder for sweetness and finish with cardamom plus a scatter of chopped almonds.

Rajgira ladoo

Roasted atta, jaggery powder and ghee shaped into balls before the mixture cools: the hot flour melts the jaggery, so there is no syrup stage to watch, and the laddus set as they cool. Twelve laddus in about 30 minutes, about 118 kcal each. Full method: rajgira laddu.

What changes between these dishes is not the grain but the company it keeps. Roti, porridge and upma are rajgira with water, a little oil and vegetables; puri, laddu, chikki and sheera add frying oil, jaggery and a good deal of ghee. Keep the first group for the daily plate and the second for fast days, festivals and the tiffin box, and let rajgira replace the rice rather than sit beside it. Our guide to rajgira for weight loss runs the calorie arithmetic, and the nutrient-by-nutrient case for the grain is on rajgira benefits. If a medical condition governs your meals, take that plan over any general page and ask your doctor or dietitian before rajgira becomes your everyday grain.

How rajgira flour is made?

Rajgira flour is the pale-brown amaranth seed milled fine, whole seed and all, so the atta carries the grain's numbers — 356 kcal and 13.3 g protein per 100 g (IFCT 2017). The seed is the same one that is cooked whole or popped; milling is what turns it into roti and sheera flour. Store it airtight and use it up while it still smells fresh.

Can rajgira be eaten in fast?

Yes, and half the dishes on this page are the proof: rajgira roti, puri and laddu are farali dishes made on vrat days, the roti salted with rock salt. Popped rajgira stands in for puffed rice on the fast-day plate. The fast itself sets which foods are allowed; these recipes give the cooking method.

Which rajgira atta is best?

Judge the pack itself, not the brand: a recent milling date, and a smell of fresh grain rather than something musty or bitter. Plain rajgira atta is the whole seed milled, so its numbers are the seed's; store it airtight and buy in a size you will use up while it is fresh.

What is rajgira?

Rajgira is amaranth, the small seed sold in three kitchen forms. Whole, it goes into upma and into the kadai to pop; milled into rajgira atta, it becomes the flour behind roti, puri, sheera and laddu; popped, it turns into chikki and a crunchy topping. Each dish on this page starts from one of those three.

Is rajgira good for weight loss?

Only as a swap, and only in its plain forms. Roti, porridge and upma are rajgira with water, a little oil and vegetables, about 107 kcal for a roti from 30 g of flour; laddu, chikki and sheera add jaggery and ghee on top of the grain's 356 kcal per 100 g. Pick the plain group for a daily plate and count it as the cereal it replaces; details on the rajgira for weight loss page.