West Indian

Khakhra (Thin Crisp Wheat Cracker)

Name: Khakhra (Thin Crisp Wheat Cracker)
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: West Indian
Ingredients: 2 cups whole wheat flour; 2 tbsp besan; 2 tbsp oil; 1 tsp cumin seeds; 1/2 tsp carom seeds (ajwain); 1/2 tsp salt; 1/2 cup water

Nikhil Kelkar @nikhil_thali

Khakhra (Thin Crisp Wheat Cracker) is West Indian home cooking, eaten at breakfast. On the plate it is the carb everything else is eaten with and the condiment. Below is what usually sits beside it, what it does and does not contain, and what else to cook once you have made it.

45 min Medium Vegetarian Vegan Halal Dairy free Pescatarian

Ingredients

Serves

The quantities follow this count.

2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tbsp besan
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp carom seeds (ajwain)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup water

How to cook it

Mix the whole wheat flour, besan, cumin seeds, carom seeds, and salt in a bowl, then rub in the oil until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs.
Add water a little at a time and knead into a very firm, tight dough, firmer than you would for roti.
Divide the dough into small balls and roll each one out into a very thin, even round.
Cook each round on a medium-hot tawa, pressing the edges with a folded cloth or flat spatula as it puffs, until dry-looking spots appear.
Keep pressing and flipping over low heat until the khakhra turns crisp and light golden all over, 3 to 4 minutes per piece.
Cool completely on a rack before stacking, they crisp further as they cool and keep for days in an airtight tin.

Watch how to cook Khakhra (Thin Crisp Wheat Cracker)

Someone making it start to finish, so you can see what the steps look like.

Serve it with

A West Indian breakfast is a plate rather than a single dish. These are the courses that normally sit beside Khakhra (Thin Crisp Wheat Cracker), read from the same composition Dinejot builds a real meal from.

The dish at the centre
- Akoori (Parsi Spiced Scrambled Eggs)
  
  20 min

Safe at your table

Dinejot tracks ten allergens and tags every one of them by hand, so the absences below are as deliberate as the presences. Khakhra (Thin Crisp Wheat Cracker) carries gluten. It is free of the remaining 9 allergens on that list.

Every tracked allergen in Khakhra (Thin Crisp Wheat Cracker)
Allergen	In this dish	Cook this instead
Peanuts	No
Tree nuts	No
Dairy	No
Gluten	Yes	Bajra Bhakri (Pearl Millet Flatbread)
Shellfish	No
Eggs	No
Soy	No
Fish	No
Sesame	No
Coconut	No

These tags are set by a person rather than inferred from an ingredient list, and they describe the recipe as written here. Read the labels on whatever you actually buy.

What it brings to the plate

Estimated, per serving

Calories: 190 kcal
Protein: 5 g
Carbs: 30 g
Fat: 6 g
Fiber: 4 g
Sugar: 1 g
Sodium: 190 mg
Saturated fat: 1 g

Estimated values. Actual nutrition varies with ingredients, brands, and how you cook.

When to cook it

Khakhra (Thin Crisp Wheat Cracker) takes about 45 minutes from a cold stove to the table, and the cooking itself is a fair bit of work. It is eaten at breakfast. Nothing in the calendar rules it out, so it is a year round dish.