Editor’s note: This is the fourth and final piece in our Khapli series. We’ve explored the grain through technique (Dhruv Oberoi), through nutrition and everyday preference (Nikhil Merchant), and through the lens of heritage in our flagship feature. Sadaf Hussain brings all of those threads together — in the simplest possible way.
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THE ROTI on the table in Noida looked wrong. Not bad — just different. Darker than it should have been. Softer than expected. And when Sadaf Hussain, chef and author, picked it up and tasted it, it had a quality he hadn’t encountered in a roti before: something nutty, slightly earthy, distinctly its own. His mentor, the late Ashish Chopra, smiled. “That,” he said, “is Khapli.”
This is how Sadaf Hussain, chef and author, encountered Khapli atta for the first time. At the home of his food mentor, the late Ashish Chopra, in Noida. At a table where the rotis looked different from every roti he had grown up eating. The grain those rotis were made from — Emmer wheat, cultivated in India for thousands of years and grown today primarily in Karnataka and Maharashtra — is the same grain that Aashirvaad Chakki Khapli Atta is built around: carefully sourced from farmers in the grain’s home regions, stone-ground, and put through 40+ quality checks with a traceable certificate on every pack.
“Khapli atta was first introduced to me a few years ago by someone I considered a food mentor, the late Ashish Chopra. I remember going to his home in Noida and noticing this very different-looking roti on the table — it wasn’t the regular brown rotis we’re used to eating with everyday Sharbati atta. He asked me to try it, and what struck me immediately was the texture and flavour. It had this soft, slightly nutty quality that felt very distinct from regular wheat. Since both he and my mother were diabetic, the conversation around Khapli was always linked to health and digestibility as well," says Sadaf.
Khapli is an ancient grain — Emmer wheat, cultivated in India for thousands of years. It has a lower glycaemic index than modern wheat, is richer in fibre, and (according to many first-hand accounts) feels lighter on the stomach. These are the properties that made it relevant to a household sensitive to matters of diet and nutrition. They are also the properties that Aashirvaad has built its Khapli sourcing story around. The grain that Ashish Chopra served at his table in Noida, and the grain that now comes to your kitchen in a verifiable, certified form, are the same grain. That continuity matters.
ALSO READ: Which Atta Is Best for Diabetes?
Sadaf is measured, and deliberately so, about the claims that orbit Khapli wheat. “That’s really where its relevance lies for me,” he says, “not in trying to overcomplicate it into fancy dishes, but in using it in the most everyday, relatable way possible: as roti.” He keeps Khapli atta in his kitchen alongside multigrain mixes, ragi, bajra, and rice flour. He is not, he admits, a big roti eater. But when he does eat rotis, he keeps returning to Khapli. “It has both flavour and function,” he says simply.
“I honestly feel the beauty of Khapli lies in not overcomplicating it. The simpler you keep it, the more naturally its nutritional and culinary qualities come through.”
His two recipes here hold to that philosophy entirely. The Khapli Sattu Litti is the grain at its most plainspoken: dough stuffed with spiced sattu, roasted in an oven or over charcoal, served with chokha, curd, and melted ghee. “The nuttiness of the flour works beautifully with the earthy filling,” Sadaf says, “while the higher fibre content makes the meal feel far lighter and more sustaining than regular refined-wheat versions.” The Khapli Soft-Shell Tacos take the same dough in a completely different direction — thin flatbreads, quickly cooked on a tawa until lightly spotted but still pliable, filled with shredded meat or mushrooms and whatever toppings you like. Not traditional. Not trying to be. Just Khapli wheat doing what it does when you give it a little room.
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The series ends, appropriately, here: not with a two-day fermentation or a burrata topping, but with a flour rolled thin and cooked on a hot tawa. The simplest possible thing. And, if Sadaf Hussain is right, the truest.
Sadaf Hussain’s Khapli Sattu Litti
A rustic sattu litti where the nuttiness of Khapli flour works beautifully with the earthy filling.
For the dough
2 cups Khapli atta | Warm water, as needed | 1 tsp salt | 1 tbsp ghee or oil
For the filling
1 cup sattu | 1 small onion, finely chopped | 2 green chillies, finely chopped | 2 tbsp chopped coriander | ½ tsp ajwain | 1 tbsp mustard oil | Juice of ½ lemon | Salt to taste
Method
Mix Khapli atta, salt, and ghee. Add warm water gradually and knead into a soft dough. Cover and rest for 15–20 minutes. Combine all filling ingredients, adding a little water if too dry. Divide dough into equal portions. Flatten each, place filling in the centre, seal to form stuffed balls. Roast in an oven at 180°C for 25–30 minutes, or cook over charcoal or on a tawa until lightly charred. Serve hot with chokha, curd, and melted ghee.
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Sadaf Hussain’s Khapli Soft-Shell Tacos
Khapli atta adapts surprisingly well to soft flatbreads. Its nutty flavour gives tacos a deeper, almost toasted character.
For the tacos
2 cups Khapli atta | Warm water, as needed | 1 tbsp oil | ½ tsp salt
For the filling
1 cup shredded chicken or sautéed mushrooms | ½ cup sour cream | Pickled or sliced onions | Fresh coriander or herbs | Lime wedges
Method
Mix Khapli atta, salt, and oil. Add warm water gradually and knead into a smooth, soft dough. Rest for 15 minutes. Divide into small balls and roll into thin discs. Cook each taco on a hot tawa for 30-40 seconds per side, until lightly spotted but still soft and flexible. Fill with shredded meat or mushrooms, top with sour cream, onions, fresh herbs, and a squeeze of lime. Serve immediately while warm.
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