This Sri Lankan bread combines whole meal flour with self raising flour to create a perfect textured flatbread. The plain bread can easily be customised with your favourite flavours and is a diverse side that will go with any dish. We love to serve this bread with our Chinese style chicken curry and chilli chutney. This recipe makes six flatbreads.
Whilst not traditional adding a teaspoon of sugar to the dough will bring out the flavour of the coconut, and for real coconut lovers (like me!) you could even add more. Another note is that coconut and almond go really well together so if you do choose to add more sugar and a few tablespoons of ground almond it will taste like a peshwari roti (combining a chapati with the naan bread filling)
Ingredients
- Wholemeal flour (115g)
- Self-raising flour (115g)
- Desiccated coconut (2 tbsp)
- Salt (1/2 tsp)
- coconut milk (150ml)
- Ghee or oil
- Green chilli (optional)
- Chopped 1 red onion (optional)
Method
Make a dough by combining the wholemeal flour, self-raising flour, coconut, salt and enough water. Knead the dough to ensure everything is combined, then let it rest for 1 hour. Shape into six balls, roll out into a flatbread, then shallow fry each one with either ghee or oil, and drain the excess oil by placing them onto kitchen paper and serve.
Sri Lankan Roti: Frequently asked questions
Indian chapati vs Sri Lankan roti
These two flatbreads are very similar, and both are made from wholemeal (chakki flour). The main difference between them both is that the Sri Lankan roti contains coconut whereas the Indian chapati is more plain. If you are looking for a Sri Lankan roti without coconut, you can find our chapati recipe here.
Fresh coconut vs desiccated coconut
For this recipe, you can use desiccated coconut and replace the water for coconut milk or alternatively you can use fresh coconut with water.
Do you have to let the dough rest?
Letting the dough rest will allow the flour and coconut to hydrate making the roti more soft. If you decide not to let it rest the breads will turn out more dense.
What to serve with Sri Lankan roti?
Serve the flatbread with sambal, a tasty chutney or with any curry that you like. You could even eat it solo as a snack!
