I love using shortcuts to whip up dishes that I really miss from my childhood days. As rewarding as it is to cook things from scratch, it’s not always easy when you are juggling cooking with work or studies. During my undergrad days whenever I missed home a tad too much and wanted to eat something that reminded me of home, I would whip up these delicious stuffed rotis aka vegetable roti, egg roti & beef rotis.

Traditionally, these rotis are made by mixing flour and water with a bit of salt to taste and rolling into golf sized balls and soaking them in oil for a couple of hours. The rotis are then rolled into thin pancakes over a hot griddle and stuffed with a filling of choice and cooked until the roti is cooked through and blistered to a slightly crisp perfection on the outside.

Though making the roti itself is easy, my few attempts at rolling the extremely elastic-y dough left me flustered. It is definitely not something I will attempt at the end of a long day at work.

The cheat method here is to use store-bought uncooked frozen paratas to replace the roti and stuff them with a filling of choice! If you have been following my older posts, yes, this is the same frozen paratas I used to make the cheat pastries. But this time instead of baking them in an oven, I cook them over a hot griddle or a pan.

Making the Roti fillings

I would be sharing three different fillings I used for the rotis as well as three different folding techniques so you can mix and match as you fancy.

Vegetable Filling:

This vegetarian version is probably the most popular stuffed roti found in Sri Lanka. And staying true to the Lankan version, which contains more potato than any vegetables, my recipe too has a higher ratio of potatoes. But you are completely free to add in more vegetables and tweak the recipe to suit whatever is available in your fridge.

Ingredients:

• 2 Large boiled potatoes, cut into cubes
• 1 Stalk of leek, sliced (I forgot to photograph that!)
• 1 Medium onion, thinly sliced
• 3-4 Cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1 Small tomato, cubed
• 2 Sprigs of curry leaves, finely sliced
• Pandan leaf
• 2 Dried red chilies
• Chili flakes, salt, turmeric, and pepper to taste
• ½ tsp of mustard seeds
• Oil for stir frying

How to:

1. Heat oil and add in the mustard seeds and let them pop.
2. Immediately add in the garlic, onions, pandan leaf, curry leaves and dried red chili and sauté until the onions are slightly golden and aromatic.
3. Then add in the leek and sauté for about 3 mins.
4. Next mix in the chopped tomatoes together with the chili flakes, turmeric & pepper.
5. Lastly mix in the potatoes and stir well and add salt to taste.
6. Set it aside to cool down

Alternatively, you could also use a mashed up leftover Sri Lankan potato stir fry (ala thel daala) which makes up a perfect quick stuffing.

Beef filling:

Since my better half loves beef, I do quite often stuff these rotis with a beef kheema-ish filling too. You could easily alternate the beef with chicken, mutton or even sardines or tuna.

• 300g of minced beef
• 1 Medium potato, boiled and cubed
• 3-4 Cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1 Medium onion, thinly sliced
• 2 Sprigs of curry leaves, finely sliced
• 1 Small tomato, cubed
• Handful of fresh coriander
• Chili flakes, salt, and pepper to taste
• Oil for stir frying

How to:

1. Sauté garlic, onions & curry leaves in oil until the onions are translucent.
2. Next mix minced beef, along with the chili flakes, salt & pepper and cook till the meat is browned.
3. Then stir in the tomatoes and cook for 3 minutes, followed by the potatoes and the fresh coriander leaves.
4. Give a good stir and check for seasoning
5. Set it aside to cool down

Assembling & Cooking the Rotis:

1. Before you stuff the frozen paratas to make them look like the oh-so familiar vegetable, fish or meat rotis, take them out of the freezer and leave them to thaw for about 1-2 mins. This will help the roti to be more pliable so that you can fold them to the desired shape. BUT, please remember not to thaw them for too long as they will become extremely sticky and impossible to handle. If this happens, just pop them back to the freezer until they are firm and workable.
2. Next place a spoonful of whichever mixture you prefer and fold them either into triangular or rectangular shapes as below.
3. Once folded, place them on a flat pan or a griddle over a very low heat and cook each side. Make sure you do not increase the heat too high as this will cause the outsides to burn too fast and the folded parts of the roti to not cook properly
4. You could use a tong to help turn the rotis to different sides and hold in place until each side is cooked through to golden perfection.

BONUS recipe: Spicy Egg Roti

This egg roti, slightly different from the usual egg prata found in Singapore and even in most Sri Lankan shops is inspired by the egg roti sold at a small little typical Lankan saiver shop right on top of our Lane in Borella. Though I doubt this shop even exists now, in the 90’s this was THE kadé my siblings and I used to frequent to satisfy our hunger pangs.

What’s special about this egg roti is that apart from one whole beaten up egg, the roti also encases a super spicy potato mix (albeit to one side of the roti) that really surprises the tastebuds with a spicy kick.

While stuffing the frozen paratas with raw egg and transferring it to the griddle has been proven to be challenging, I used the following method to create a similar flavor combination.

1. Place a spoonful of the vegetable filling on one parata and make a little well in the middle and add in the yolk of the egg inside so that it is safely encased and will not leak out.
2. Then slowly place another parata over it and gently seal the edges.
3. Then place this into the griddle and cook both sides.

I hope you will love making these quick cheat rotis as much as I do and don’t forget to follow Ms Whimsy on instagram for daily foodie adventures~