Recipe for an easy-to-make and delicious Spelt Chapati. It’s an Indian flatbread, with basic ingredients, baked in a hot pan. No oil, no yeast & vegan. My version is with 100% spelt flour.
I love all kinds of Indian curries and of course, there’s no curry for me without a naan or other Indian flatbread.
Usually, chapatis (unlike naans, are made without yeast) are made out of Atta, which is a super fine ground whole wheat flour but I’ve used spelt flour because I had that one at home. I added some white sesame seeds on top of the chapatis and sprinkled it with a little bit of salt.
The Spelt Chapati is vegan (obviously), but also oil-free and yeast-free!
Serve it with …
It was the perfect addition to Dal Makhani, but would be awesome for many other curries as well like Palak Tofu (or the quick and dirty version) or a Falafel Curry.
When I published the 4-Ingredient Naan recipe I’ve been asked a lot if it would be possible to leave out the white flour and sub it with any other flour. Well yes, you can! It just needs a bit of adjustment of the flour-water-ratio and you’re good to go.
However, I found that chapati would be the more suitable name, as it contains no yeast and because of that needs less time to make it. I’ve let the dough rest for a bit, to make it easier to work with, but it’s still much quicker than waiting for the yeasty dough to rise.
Spelt Chapati - Simple Indian Flatbread
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup spelt flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt + more to sprinkle above
- 2 tablespoons lukewarm water
- 1/2 teaspoon white sesame seeds (optional)
Instructions
- Add the spelt flour in a big mixing bowl, add the salt and mix. Slowly add the water little by little until you can form a smooth dough. You might not even need all of the water given in the ingredients.
- Either mix and knead with your hands until a smooth dough forms or use a kitchen machine with a knead hook. (You may have to double or triple the amounts for a machine to work properly).
- Let the dough rest in the bowl covered by a clean kitchen towel for about half an hour.
- Divide the dough in two equally large parts and roll them out on a floured surface.
- You can sprinkle sesame seeds and a pinch of additional salt over the flatbreads and lightly roll the seeds into the dough with the rolling pin.
- Heat a crepe pan (or another really flat pan) super hot (as hot as possible).
- Place one chapati after another in the hot crepe pan and let it cook for about 1/2 a minute on each side.
- Serve & enjoy :)
Estimated Nutrition Info
Should you decide to give this simple spelt chapati a try I’d love to hear how it went! Write me a comment or post a picture on instagram, use the hashtag #elephantasticvegan and tag me via @elephantasticvegan to make sure I’ll see it ^.^ I love to see all your lovely creations! Thanks! <3
I NEED more flatbread in my life! Then again…can we ever really have too much!? I have to try your recipe SOON!
Yes! There can’t be too much flatbread ^.^ Curries without bread just aren’t the same :)
The bread is so important for getting up all those flavors so nothing is left on the plate!
Ohhhh, I totally agree! :)
I have been trying to find a good spelt flour bread of flat bread or something carb-y for a while now, I was so excited when I saw this!!! Need to try! And it’s such a pretty color too :)
I’m glad this recipe comes in handy! Thank you so much and I hope you’ll like it, if you give it a try :)
I’m having a phase now (again) in which I want to ditch the white flour. We’ll see how long it will last :D
Beautiful recipe, Bianca. Nothing beats homemade bread — and this looks like a perfect chapati <3
Aww, thanks, Audrey! I have been experimenting a lot with vegan flatbreads lately. Different flours, yeast or no yeast, … and most of them turned out great for different occasions. It’s never a bad thing to have a nice assortment of easy & quick flatbread recipes :)
This Indian flatbread looks so delicious, Bianca. I totally agree with you. Indian curries are awesome! I can’t get enough of them! :-)
Especially now with the temperatures dropping! Me and my friends go to our fav Indian restaurant once a week (on sunday, actually) and I’ve noticed that many people prefer to eat kind of heavy, creamy Indian curries in fall/winter and less in the summer :) I didn’t mind, but when it was really, really hot outside, I sometimes struggled with finishing my plate :D
ga question abiut the calories
is that 84 per serving or per recipe
thnx
the calories are per serving – so one flatbread. :)
Yummy! Thank you :)
I’m so glad you like it, Roseanna!
I tried this to go along with baingan bharta and it didn’t come out properly at all. The dough didn’t puff up and I found the finished bread very stiff. They taste ok and would work for wraps, but I wouldn’t call them chapati.
Update: I doubled the recipe so I had dough left over; yesterday (2 days later) I used it to make a wrap and it did puff up. I filled it with a quinoa, lettuce and tomato situation and it worked out well. Thank you.
Yeay, I’m glad it turned out well, Gabrielle! To make the flatbread puff up, it oftentimes helps to add a bit of weight (e.g. pressing it down with a spatula) while the bread bakes in the pan.
Hey, yea I did that actually. Not sure why nothing happened.