Parantha Teir List

This post was originally published on my blogger blog on 6 February 2022. This is a revised version of that post.

The perfect north Indian breakfast, not just north Indian though. Parantha is a thing that possibly is the largest common tie between one of the largest regions of this sub continent. From Lahore to Calcutta, you can see the similar breakfast of parantas with chai. And why not !? isn’t it such a great one. So many different iterations to pick from, tastes great when hot and still remains edible when cold. No need to bother about a pickle or a sookhi sabji, the parantha’s already stuffed for you ! It’s quite possible one of those foods that strike the balance between ease (of making and eating) and comfort.

Representational image because parantha.

So the question arises, thy mother has asked which paranta you wish to eat. Wanting to have the perfect breakfast ? You might wanna consult this list I made. But before, I’d like to provide some context to the scale I’ve made. The way I have graded paranthas might seem a bit controversial to many (i.e. the 2 readers of my blog) The points I’ve considered while grading are:

1. Ease Of Making
While I’m usually concerned with eating, the making process is a crucial step in the entire kitchen to thaali supply chain. Making a parantha isn’t something anyone can do. From mixing the stuffing to stuffing the stuffing in the dough its a complicated process. Sometimes the stuffing is too bland, sometimes the stuffing is just too much ! And to be honest nobody likes a bloaty parantha does anyone ? Hence in theory there are many great paranthas, but in common practice only a few taste as great as we want them to.

2. Ease Of Eating
Now this is the point I am most concerned of. Paranthas can get very messy, there’s loads of butter, carbohydrate, and some more carbohydrate stuffed inside carbohydrate. It’s sort of deemed to get messy, and personally I don’t bathe every morning and come to the breakfast table to get dirty. Nobody likes a parantha with the stuffing just falling everywhere bite by bite.

3. Nutritional Value
Something that a parantha eater shouldn’t be concerned with but we’ll still keep it.

4. Accessibility
Again an important factor that is closely related to ease of making. Paranthas are food, unlike music or entertainment people have limited access to food.

5. Taste
Obviously when you’re grading things you eat you talk of the taste.

For the impatient.

So we begin with the tier list, like everything else we have the highest stage of honor the S level.
The S Level is occupied by the Gobhi Parantha and the Gobhi Paneer Parantha.
The gobhi and the gobhi paneer paranthas strike a balance among all categories. Gobhi parantha’s are hardly messy or problematic while eating cause everyone knows gobhi is going to fall around while you eat it and henceforth doesnt stuff the parantha too much. Also, it is much better than other paranthas as it isn’t just carbohydrate coated in fat.
Coming to the A Level we have The Saada Parantha, The Paneer Parantha, The Methi Parantha and The Laccha Parantha.
What the saada and laccha parantha lack in stuffing is made up by their simplicity. A simplicity that lets you enjoy the natural flavor of freshly made flat breads coated in butter or ghee. They also receive many plus points for their greater accessibility and ease of making. Mothers usually are happy to see that you asked for a Saada Parantha while the rest of your family throws a tantrum over which Parantha they shall be having for the breakfast, and usually she’ll make you a nice one for your cooperation too. Their lack of stuffings also makes eating them a lot less tricky as there are no more stuffing crumbs that fall around you.
The Methi Parantha offers something similar to the laccha and saada paranthas, but with a touch of methi making it a very good winter breakfast.
And then the paneer parantha, it’s quite the king of paranthas in the ideal situation but the problem is that not all can make it that good. Half of the time you eat it it’s either too stuffed, or a bit too less stuffed. Sometimes people don’t get the stuffing right and it tastes horrible, but nonetheless the supreme filling media of paneer saves the day every time someone messes up a paneer parantha.
Starting with the C level, the C level offers us the Aaloo and the Mooli paranthas.
Now for mooli it may not be tough to say why but for the one’s who don’t get why aaloo has slipped down here I have a few, a few small pricky things with the aaloo parantha. The parantha is literally carbohydrate stuffed in carbohydrate coated in oil. Secondly, the aaloo filling gets messy to eat and almost certainly everyone uses too much butter while making an aaloo parantha and lets not forget how no matter which way you stuff it or with what you’re stuffing it, it’s always gonna be a bloated parantha do whatever you do. Its a potato, the vegetable of bloat.
The level B is occupied by the Piyaaz ka paranta for obvious reasons, lack of taste, just pyaaz. Literally pyaaz, isn’t pyaaz supposed to accompany something else as well ?
And now we reach the bottom two parantha levels the two breakfasts of sin made by sinners who shall be stuffed into dough and then be coated in butter and cooked into a parantha of themselves in hell.
At level D reside those post modern work of art paranthas that can be seen on the internet. Those weird recipes including things you’ve never heard of in a parantha. Conceived by jobless MBA graduates forced to manage their family dhaba and what not.
At level E we come across the comical Lauki parantha, the maker of which shall be sent to heaven by an exception. But that doesn’t negate the point that it’s a freaking lauki parantha. Followed by this is truly the worst form of a parantha I can imagine, the product of a Satanic American Capitalist Ritual, the antichrist of all parantha’s (at least on my scale) the Cheese Parantha.
There is literally no reason to put cheese in a parantha. And if someone thinks there is some reason cheese might be put inside a parantha, then let me tell you that cheese you need to put in a parantha is called paneer not your American style melty cheese. It absolutely ruins the point of a parantha, is mess as heck, tough to make, tough to eat, not nutritious and probably tastes audacious.
And that ladies and gentlemen was my parantha tier list. Don’t get too triggered that I placed your favorite parantha at the wrong spot, its a personal scale I think some people may relate to. Also, if you’ve got a scale of your own, do share it.

PS: This is my personal scale of grading. Will not apply to everyone. If you think that the lakui parantha is the best or something please dont get butthurt.

by **Arjun