Editor’s note: This is the first in a four-part series on Khapli wheat — an ancient Emmer grain with deep roots in Indian food tradition. In the pieces that follow, three chefs tell us how they cook with it, why they came to it, and what it asks of the cook. The series can be read in any order; together, it makes a case for a grain whose time, it seems, has come around again.
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“HONESTY” is perhaps an unexpected word to encounter in the context of that most ubiquitous of household staples: atta. And yet, this is exactly the quality that Dhruv Oberoi, Executive Chef of the Olive Bar & Kitchen in New Delhi, reaches for when he talks about Khapli wheat flour — a grain that is increasingly finding takers not just among the health-conscious and superfood-aware, but also among nutrition-minded parents, professionals, and chefs who simply want their ingredients to mean something.
Khapli atta is made from Emmer wheat, one of the oldest cultivated grains in the world, with a tradition going back thousands of years in India. After long being a fixture of Indian kitchens, it slowly lost ground to modern wheat varieties that were higher-yielding and easier to mill at scale. For a generation, it belonged to grandmothers and their mothers. Now it’s back — and it’s back in a serious way.
Brands like Aashirvaad have played no small part in this. Aashirvaad Chakki Khapli Atta uses a traditional “chakki jaisi pisai” method — stone-like grinding that preserves the grain’s natural architecture rather than stripping it down under industrial roller pressure. The wheat is sourced from farmers in Karnataka and Maharashtra, the same regions where Emmer has been cultivated for centuries, and goes through 40+ quality checks before it reaches your kitchen. What Dhruv notices in his professional kitchen — the slow water absorption, the gentle gluten development, the “reward for patience” — is in part a product of how the grain has been handled. Aashirvaad’s Khapli Atta has a confirmed Water Absorption Percentage of 73%, which is what gives rotis made with it their characteristic softness and staying power.
Dhruv Oberoi | Executive Chef, Olive Bar & Kitchen, New Delhi:
“Khapli wheat has a certain honesty to it — it hasn’t been over-refined or bred for yield at the cost of character. When you work with it, you notice a deeper nuttiness, a slightly coarse bite, and a structure that behaves very differently from modern wheat. It absorbs water more slowly, develops gluten more gently, and rewards patience very nicely.”
The result, in Dhruv’s kitchen, is a Duck Khurchan Kulcha — an ambitious, layered dish that begins with a slow biga-inspired dough, rested for twelve hours to develop flavour and gas retention, then baked with shredded duck leg and plum kalonji. It is a far cry from a simple phulka, but Dhruv’s point is a simple one: Khapli brings grounding to whatever you make with it. “Whether it’s a simple phulka or a more contemporary application,” he says, “Khapli brings a sense of grounding to the plate.”
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Not every Khapli story begins in a professional kitchen. For food writer and F&B consultant Nikhil Merchant, it began with his own rotis — and a decision he found himself returning to, not out of discipline, but out of genuine preference.
Nikhil Merchant | F&B Consultant and food writer, Mumbai:
“Wheat has received a lot of criticism in recent years, but in its true, unprocessed form, it has been a staple of our diets for generations. Khapli wheat, in particular, is one of the most valuable ancient grains available today. I’ve personally switched to Khapli wheat whenever I eat rotis — and beyond the health benefits, they have a distinctly earthier, more rustic flavour that I truly enjoy.”
The numbers bear out what Nikhil instinctively reaches for. For instance, Aashirvaad's Khapli Atta contains 11.4g of dietary fibre per 100g — compared to 2.76g in refined flour. Three rotis provide approximately 34% of your daily fibre requirement and 23% of the daily protein requirement. Iron and calcium content are both meaningfully higher than in maida. This is not a flour that is trading nutrition for convenience. It is doing both.
There's another register to the Khapli conversation that's worth noting.
Neha Deepak Shah | Culinary creator and former MasterChef runner-up, Mumbai/Dubai:
“Khapli wheat is one of those ingredients that instantly connects you to older Indian food traditions. I love working with heritage grains because they bring not just nutrition, but also character and depth of flavour to everyday cooking. As a chef, I find it exciting to reintroduce ingredients like these into contemporary kitchens in ways that feel approachable, nourishing, and rooted in our culinary heritage.”
This thread of memory and return runs through almost every conversation about Khapli. Some families who have adopted Aashirvaad Khapli Atta as part of their daily meals describe it as tasting the way their mothers’ rotis used to — a quality that has less to do with nostalgia as a feeling and more to do with what stone-ground, minimally processed grain actually tastes like.
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Perhaps the most grounded case for Khapli comes not from its nutritional profile or its culinary versatility, but from a memory at someone else’s dinner table.
Sadaf Hussain | Chef and author, New Delhi:
“Khapli atta was first introduced to me a few years ago by my 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.”
Sadaf is measured about the discourse around Khapli. He notes that it is richer in fibre, has a lower glycaemic index than modern wheat, and feels lighter on the stomach. But he is wary of overclaiming. “The beauty of Khapli lies in not overcomplicating it,” he says. “The simpler you keep it, the more naturally its nutritional and culinary qualities come through.”
Authenticity, in the end, is what the Khapli conversation keeps returning to — whether the person speaking is a professional chef experimenting with biga doughs, a food writer who switched his everyday rotis and never looked back, or a home cook who recognises the grain from their grandmother’s kitchen. For Aashirvaad, that authenticity is built into the process: 40+ quality checks, a traceable sourcing trail from Karnataka and Maharashtra farmers, and a unique quality certificate on every pack that you can verify yourself.
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Next in the series: Chef Dhruv Oberoi goes deep on his two-day biga dough, the duck leg rendered in its own fat, and why Khapli wheat is exactly the right flour for a kulcha with this much going on. Read here.
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