How Many Types of Flour Are There In India?

To talk about Indian flour is to talk about many things. Indians use flour made from wheat, rice, millet, lentils, chickpeas, maize, semolina and even potato to name a few. Even within the category of wheat flour there are a number of different products. Flours are often marketed according to their purpose; so you will find products like 'chapatti flour' and 'idli flour'. I will try to avoid this categorization but I will try to make the connections where relevant. There are literally hundreds if different types of flour, I will concentrate here on the Indian flours - those used most often in Indian cooking. Wheat Flours Wheat flours are grown mostly in Northern India and especially the Punjab, which grows about 20% of India's wheat. and there are many varieties. The two Indian flours most commonly used (and available outside India) are atta and maida. Atta Atta flour is probably the most commonly used wheat flour in the Indian subcontinent. It is a w...