West Indian
Khakhra (Thin Crisp Wheat Cracker)
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.
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
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.
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.
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The dish at the centre
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.
| 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
Bands, not numbers. Dinejot does not weigh anybody's food, so it says light, moderate or hearty and stops there. This dish was read and set by hand.
- Calorie band
- Light
- Protein
- Low
- Food groups it covers
- Grains and Pulses
- How this was set
- Hand audited
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.
Watch someone make it
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More to cook
Cooked from the same things
Other dishes built on wheat flour.
From the same kitchens
More cooking from West India.
Does the same job on the plate
Swap any of these in when you want a meal the same shape.
Cook this with your whole family
Dinejot plans breakfast, lunch and dinner as whole plates, built around the cooking you call home and filtered for the allergies at your table.
Meal suggestions support your goals. They are not medical advice. Please ask your doctor about your family's health needs.