Kasuri methi paratha

There is a couplet in Marathi with begins with "Bhajit bhaji methichi..." And methi or fenugreek is a difficult vegetable to deal with. It takes a lot of time to clean and shrinks dramatically when you cook it. But it also extremely healthy, filled with potassium, calcium, iron and said to protect against some cancers.

One of my favorite fenugreek recipes is the methi paratha. While fresh methi would be ideal, since I hate the cleaning part in it I prefer using Kasuri Methi. This is nothing but dried fenugreek leaves. They are easily available in any Indian grocery store and smell as good as the fresh ones.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup Kasuri methi
  
• 2 cups wheat flour
• 2 garlic cloves finely chopped
  
• 1 teaspoon Ajwain
  
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• Salt to taste
• Red chili powder to taste (optional)

Method

Soak the methi for 30-40 minutes. Mix the flour, methi, garlic, ajwain, turmeric and salt into a dough. The dough should be soft but not sticky. Roll out the dough evenly in small circles making sure that the edges are not too thick. Fry the parathas on a pre-heated griddle/tava. While you can brush some oil on the paratha, I prefer to use ghee or butter after taking it off the tava instead of using it while on the tava. This also helps them stay soft longer. Serve the parathas with yogurt or pickel.