This post is sponsored by Rotimatic.
Rotis are an important part of an Indian home cooked meal in many regions in India. Freshly made flatbread served with the dals, veggie sides, and curries. Rotis are the carrier of all the amazing food. Rotis, also called Chapati, phulka, rotli, vary in terms of thickness and some additions to the dough. In general, the flatbreads served are made of whole wheat dough (called atta), they are rolled out into thin flatbreads that are cooked on a hot griddle or tava and puffed either on the tava or on the flame. Often the rotis will puff up fully to make a balloon filled with hot air.
Indian Restaurants here (in the US) rarely offer the traditional Rotis. The flatbreads generally offered are Naans, parathas and tandoori Roti which is somewhat like Naan. The thin light fluffy traditional Rotis or chapatis can sometimes be found in a few restaurants that offer home style food.
Back home in India, Mom has her Roti making oiled out and scheduled perfectly so there were always fresh rotis during meals. She also had helpers to roll them out, cook and serve on occasion. In my house here, we generally end up eating premade rotis from the Indian store. The whole process of making a smooth dough, rolling the dough out and standing for the half hour to make them on a hot tava used to be just about achievable on some days before I had balance issues, and then it just wasn’t possible.
Rotimatic is a robot that kneads, rolls out, cooks and serves fresh rotis, Its a neat white box where you fill up the flour, water and oil containers and press a few buttons. A few minutes later, you get hot roti flatbreads!
And it obviously became a sensation when the prototype rolled out a few years back. Everyone wanted this machine to reduce the hours and effort spent everyday to make rotis. See the end of the post to find out how to order one.
The Rotimatic is preprogrammed to work best with certain brands of flour which is typically used to make rotis in India (Indian atta or durum wheat flour). These are available in Indian stores. I tried 2 of the preferred brands and they worked ok. The rotis were soft and perfect when hot but ended up being overly chewy after cooling. So I started mixing other whole wheat or whole grain flours in, that are not the specific brand flours. The machine worked pretty well with most of the combinations. The favorite combination for me in terms of flavor, texture and maintaining the texture after cooling was the a mix of Indian atta, some general whole wheat flour, some Spelt and some oat flour (roughly 2:2:1:1).
You can also use other flour combinations to make tortilla like flatbread or other flatbreads. I have mixed in millet, corn, oat, chickpea flours into the wheat flour as well.
I’ve been using the Rotimatic Rotis with most Indian meals, so they show up on some of the recent posts. Below is Butter Tofu Masala.
The other amazing part about Rotimatic is that the machine is wi-fi enabled and connects to an app on the phone! This means that it can get updated settings to work with other flours, or settings to add interrupts to the current continuous cycle of making the dough, flattening it and cooking it, so that you can get just the formed dough, or just the flattened flatbread. You can also use the app for live support, troubleshooting and other things.
A lot of thought has gone into this machine and it is fascinating to see it work. The way each dough ball for a flatbread is made, then flattened out and cooked to puff up perfectly is mesmerizing.
The founders (Pranoti, the inventor and co-founder, Rishi – co founder) have worked fore more than 8 years on it to bring it to what it is today. The machine uses sensors and devices to figure out the amount of water needed for the flour to make perfect roti dough. It adapts and learns from failed rotis, updates and information from the app/net. So if you use different flours, it learns!
I do very few sponsored posts on the blog and only mention the brands if I love them. This machine has been on my radar for a while and since we have had it, it has been used and tested in many ways and has passed with flying colors with my Mom, who is visiting from India, my young nieces who are picky and just about everyone else.
It seems like a bit of extra work when using it for just 1 or 2 people, but this machine has been the perfect help to have the past 10 days when I have been hosting my mom and family. Lots of Indian food gets made everyday and no one needs to stand in the kitchen to roll out the dough and cook it on the skillet for fresh rotis. With toddlers(visiting nieces), the meal times generally extend to hours and the Rotimatic works out really well as you can keep it on stand by and press start to continue making rotis when you have time to sit and eat.
New features get updated to the machine through wifi. For eg, a new upcoming feature called ‘Pooris’ will give you ready to fry poori discs. This is how it will work. New flour options will be added as well.
You can choose the thickness and roast levels of the flatbreads – below.
The 2 major Cons of the machine is the noise it makes and the price. It is a very noisy machine that you cannot place close to the dining table. The noise level is a bit more than a stand mixer with some other types of noises thrown in. I put the machine in a closed room near the kitchen which works just about ok and bearable when the door is closed for the 15 mins of noise. If I were to use the machine to make 30+ rotis regularly, I would have to put it in the garage. (this depends on your noise level limit.)
The other deterrent is the pricing. The machine costs itself out in 1 to 2 years depending on your Roti consumption if you often buy premade rotis. The easy of use, and the time you get back to use for other things to do also balances the price.
Some other issues that might be bothersome are that either the water or flour runs out after 10 to 12 rotis and needs to be refilled. The minimum thickness of the Rotis is a bit thicker than the average hand rolled rotis.
The Rotis being puffed up below.
Pros so far: Fresh Hot Rotis, Easy to Use, Easy to Clean (takes 2 mins to clean up end of the day), fast turnaround. Wi-fi enabled, software updatable, learning machine.
Cons: It is an incredibly noisy machine. It is bulky, has limited options for flours (which will eventually be fixed with the new features of using other flours).
The rotis also dont exactly taste like the hand rolled skillet cooked version, but the company doesnt claim them to be.
In spite of the cons, I have been using it since it arrived and have not bought the premade rotis from the Indian store. There is something about hot and fresh rotis that makes the food so much more interesting.
If you or your family makes rotis or tortillas from scratch often, want to be sure about the ingredients that go into the flatbreads, and would like to reduce the effort and time needed there, then this is the machine for you.
Rotimatic is not directly available to order from the US. They have a wait list which gets fulfilled in a few months. You can skip that line using this link here and get to the top of the waiting list. Once you sign up, you will get a order link to order yours. For other countries, see their website.
Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by Rotimatic. The unit was sent to me for Review. The opinions are my own after using it for more than a month.
Arvinder Dhanda
I am single.it is good for single.
Avinash Desai
Hi Richa,
To make the rotis not chewy what proportion of atta and almond flour should we mix. I am using sujata gold atta.
Richa
3 atta to 1 almond
Vanshita sharma
How can I buy or order this rotimatic in Jaipur ?
Richa
Check with the help chat on rotimatic.com
Imran Siddique
I just read today that Rotimatic people are soon launching it in Middle east. Therefore, I was going through the reviews and came across yours. I really liked detailed feedback. I am planning to buy it. What do you suggest? We are a family of 6 and we eat rotis on a daily basis.
Richa
It really depends on how cumbersome you find the daily roti making process. The unit is definitely a time and energy saver
Rehan Kothari
I have invested in washing machine, dishwashers and vacuum cleaner. And I think I can invest in Rotimatic too. Being a bachelor you know I need help in cooking and cleaning. You know I suck at making chappatis. And I’m tired of eating sandwiches and burgers. From your review I think my dream of eating home made chappatis will come true.
Anita Sawala
Hi Richa, my husband and I both work and it had become difficult making chappatis everyday before going to work. We both don’t like pre-made rotis and without rotis our food is also not complete. I was searching for some roti making machine and came across your review. I think we will give Rotimatic a try as one time investment in a product will be more profitable than buying rotis everyday.
Richa
I know right. Rotis are an integral part of everyday meals. Its a good machine. You will need to tweak the flours to get the roti that you like. I usually add oat and coconut flours and oil the freshly made rotis to keep them soft. Just wheat flour rotis are excellent when fresh but do get chewy on cooling. But thats a flour issue. Even hand made rotis get chewy(not as chewy as the machine but chewy anyway), on cooling.
MKKohli
Hi Richa, do you know how we can keep rotis more soft till lunch time? As I pack lunch for kids, but they are hard to chew after 6-7 hours.
I am using Pillsbury multigrain, thickness 2, roast 3, oil2. Please share if you know that. Thanks.
Richa
I usually mix in a bit of gluten-free flours to keep them soft, like oat flour, coconut flour, super fine almond flour. Once cooked, i apply some oil on them and store. you would have to experiment with the amounts to see the texture you prefer.
Niketa Parikh
Hi Richa! I love reading your recipes and feel very proud how you have fused Indian recipes with western touch!!
I follow vegan and gf diet and your ideas have helped a lot to make my peace lov g journey easy ! Thanks!
Question about rotimatic…. Did you try skipping wheat flour compeletly and make rotis out of gluten free flour mix?
Thanks!
Richa
I dont think the machine will work with completely gluten-free. I have seen people making 50% glutenfree flours with wheat in the rotimatic facebook group. They did say that they are working on software updates to work with all gluten-free. Currently the process relies on gluten to make the dough and flatten.
Hina
How do I order one to New Zealand?
Richa
I dont think they have launched there yet
Divisha Joe
Just launched in NZ 🙂 Tempted, but based what I have read, I feel I am better of waiting for the new and improved version when the launch it. Till then for two people both of whom can’t make chappathis – frozen pack zindabad. 🙂
Nice post Richa.
Richa
we’ve been using it for months now and with the new features like the poori option where you can take the rolled out dough out, its even more useful. It depends on how many times you eat rotis, how labor intensive you find the process. It does free up a lot of the time you would instead be making the dough rolling it out and standing in the kitchen cooking the rotis. So the extra time is also time i can use elsewhere saving my energy and time for other things. I gifted units to my siblings. They both have young kids and I can see how this will benefit them.
Vidya
Does it have non stick coating?
Richa
I dont know. I asked in the Rotimatic support group and am waiting for a reply.
Richa
It has a PTFE based non stick coating. The plastic used is also not BPA free, but is FDA compliant.
Milda
Hi Richa,
Thanks for this review. My in-laws showed this machine to me a while ago but I hesitated due to the price and it was uncleare whether it could be used without oil (I cook oil free). Have you tried what happens if you mix just water and flour? Would rotis still come out or would they be inedible?
Richa
The machine doesnt work without oil, i.e the container needs to be filled. I think they might roll out future updates with no oil option. The updates happen through the app. The new updates for pooris will roll out this July. I’ll ask them if the oil container can be filled with water instead. There is a rotimatic facebook page and facebook group where the PR answers questions.
Malini
Hello,
Do we know yet if we can make the roti without oil?
Thanks
Richa
you can leave theoil container empty, they work out fine
Vishaan
Thank you, this is a great review. We’re waiting on ours and eager to see how it fits into the various chapati needs we have.
Richa
Good Luck with the machine! Give it some time to settle in to avoid frustration.
Dalia
Ah, this sounded too good to be true, what with my birthday just around the corner. But even my husband won’t shell out that kind of money for my once a month Roti-craving. 🙁 He’ll have to invite me to an Indian restaurant instead.
Richa
It is a useful machine for people who cook rotis with every meal. The cost then justifies itself. But otherwise Indian stores offer decent rotis for once in a while
Ab
I want this machine,once i tried to order it,bt there were so much waiting for delivery to India,will u plz tell me how to order it??
Richa
Rotimatic has a chat online support on rotimatic.com where you can ask them about the wait.