Gluten Free Indian Cooking

A great deal of Indian cooking has never relied on wheat, and this page gathers the grains and flours behind it: rice and rice flours, millet flours such as ragi, bajra and jowar, cornmeal and makki atta, the farali flours used on fasting days, and buckwheat, known as kuttu. Every product here lists no wheat, barley or rye in its ingredients as printed on the pack. Some are packed in factories that also handle cereals containing gluten, so anyone with coeliac disease should check each pack for a may contain warning before buying.

Gluten free rotis are a regional tradition. Makki di roti from Punjab is made with makki atta and eaten with sarson ka saag. Jowar bhakri and bajra rotla come from Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan, and ragi mudde is the finger millet ball of Karnataka; all three flours sit in millet flour. Rice rotti, or akki rotti, is pressed out by hand on a banana leaf or a sheet of foil. Dosa and idli batters are ground from rice and urad dal and need no wheat at all, and rice flour also binds murukku and crisp pakoras.

Without gluten these doughs do not stretch, so they behave differently from chapati dough. Use warm or hot water, knead while the dough is still warm, and pat rotis between the palms or on a sheet of cling film. Cook them on a hot tawa and turn them gently, since they crack once cold. Our gluten free flour shelf carries further flours made without wheat, including cassava.

Millet and corn flours hold more natural oil than wheat flour and can turn stale sooner. Buy smaller bags if you make these rotis only now and then, keep them airtight in a cool cupboard, and use opened packs promptly. The full flour range is in atta and flour.