Do you soak the chapati dough? (Read these 6 points to start doing it)

Do you soak the chapati dough before making chapatis? It is actually a process of making real healthy chapatis. If you are not doing it than please start doing it if possible for you. 


1- Early days genhu(whole wheat) used to get washed n dried in houses than only it was grinded at local chakkis or mills. But now a days we use factory made readymade wheat flour. So by soaking the dough we are actually able to give a mild wash to grain flour texture to get rid of any toxic element used during the production of crop or packing the flour. 


2-  The moment you knead the chapati dough with wheat flour (pls do not do this if you are making dough of any other thick grains like corn, maize etc) it requires certain time to get into its full gluten form. That is why in villages they still knead the dough for very long time. Than they soak it because inner texture becomes light and it is more easy to digest. But if you are not doing it that means you are not taking benefits of wheat’s real potential of becoming healthy roughage for your digestive system. 

3- Without soaking the dough and consuming chapathis means you are eating a big log of high cholestrol and fat. If your wheat flour dough is soaked that means you are consuming a good roughage which is actually beneficial for weight loss and energy boost. 

4- Actually our food habits are changing day by day rapidly. We are less focused on what our ancient systems suggested us. If we start following few things the way those old days housewives used to do while cooking, we can get rid of several health problems indeed. 

5- Please try it and start soaking the dough. It is easy. Just soak the dough after kneading in lukewarm water for 2-3 hours. Than drain the water and knead the dough again with desi ghee on hands or littlecooking oil. Do not add more flour to it. That is why you are suppose to knead the dough little tight prior to soaking. 

6- It is very good for health conscious people, old age persons or young growing up kids. Now I am so happy with results than when I knead dough for pizza or dinner rolls, I soak that dough also in lukewarm water to get more fluffy and digestive results. It really helps a lot. 

If you can soak the wheat flour dough than please do it. It is actually good for health. 

In old days elder ones used to say “attey ki garmi nikal jati hai, bhigone se”… so it was mandatory to soak the kneaded dough. 

23 thoughts on “Do you soak the chapati dough? (Read these 6 points to start doing it)

  1. Swati says:

    M still confused, soaking the dough in water…..wouldn’t this process will make the dough too sticky to handle for making chapatis..

    • Prachi Varshney says:

      Hi Swati,

      Thanks for reading the post.

      Knead the dough little tight than soak.

      Start with little qty of dough to check the enhanced flavor after soaking.

      Drain all water well and than apply ghee or oil on palms and start kneading it again. After little while it will be ok enough to roll chapatis.

      All the best.

  2. Shaista says:

    Hi very interesting post . we eat chapati everyday so I want to try this method . I should knead a tough dough and soak in lukewarm water..for 2-3 hrs then knead again ….
    I hope it turns good
    Thank you for a very good information

  3. Rahila says:

    Yes,I’m aware about soaking dough in water, but only use tht technique for making puranpoli’s, thy turn out amazingly soft,shuld try for chapatti too..

  4. Sheela says:

    Walla. I tried Prachi & it was so awesome. Thank you so much for sharing this with Euporic delight group on Facebook. I made the dough like Bhakri than add luke warm water to soak the dough. After 2 hours I added some oil and knead it really well in my kitchenaid machine. It became so light & airy that I had wonderful time rolling the roti & did not want to stop. It was so much fun and easy. Thank you again for sharing

  5. kavita ns says:

    Hi Prachi, really good article.. I have heard about soaking maids in water for puranpolis but never seen or tried… After reading your article I am sure about it.. I will definitely give this a try today. Thank you for sharing.

  6. Vimal says:

    I read your article today, tried chapathi by soaking the dough. The result was amazing. I have a question, do you think the store bought flours are pure wheat? Is it ok to soak maida mix flours?

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