All of the ingredients for methi thepla sort of look like vibrant food art.
For my trip home from my first cooking lesson with my Lila Khaki, she sent along a bag of methi thepla. I took one bite of this fenugreek-stuffed bread, and proceeded to eat the entire bag, even as my father shouted from the front seat, “Save some for your mother!” But you see, I couldn’t stop. Once I tasted that combination of spicy chile powder, the pungent fresh garlic and ginger, and the filling roti bread, I knew I would have exploded from lack of awesomeness the second the thepla left my death grip.
I was saving the family, really. Cuz I’m a giver.
I didn’t manage to get the recipe until my second cooking lesson, but I was shocked at how easy the bread was to make. When I heard stuffed flat bread, I was scared of how many steps this bread would take, but it took a total of one. One step to mix. Dump in bowl and mix. Done. Who knew Indian flat breads were right up my lazy alley?
I love how my aunt stores her "most used" spices in stainless steel bowls...easy access and so colorful!
My Lila Khaki mixing the thepla dough.
Portioning the thepla dough.
Lila Khaki preparing to roll the thepla dough.
The cooking process of the theplas.
Recipe: Trivedi Family Methi Thepla Recipe
Summary: Traditional Gurjarati fenugreek stuffed flat bread
Ingredients
- 2 cups Chapati flour (whole wheat flour from Indian grocery store)
- 1 cup dry or fresh methi (if fresh, remove stems and roughly chop leaves)
- 6 Tablespoons Canola oil
- 1 Tablespoon fresh minced ginger
- 4 cloves fresh minced garlic
- 1/2 teaspoon tumeric powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon- 2 teaspoons dried or fresh hot pepper to taste (depending on how spicy you like it–I use Cayenne)
- water to bind, a few tablespoons
- ghee or butter to cook with
Instructions
- Mix all of the ingredients except the water together by hand in a mixing bowl
- Add water, two tablespoons at a time, to the dough until it just binds together.
- Portion the dough into small balls based on the size you want the finished thepla.
- Roll the balls of dough out into a circle roughly 4-5 inches in diamater. The thepla won’t be thin, but it also won’t be super thick.
- Place one tepla in a dry, heated nonstick skillet. Let cook for 1 minute, spread a small bit of butter or ghee on the uncooked side of the thepla, then flip it. Press down with the spatula to get some brown spots, then spread with ghee and flip and press again for another minute. Stack the finished theplas on a plate or store on counter in a covered container for a week, or in the freezer for a few months.
Cooking time (duration): 3 minutes
Diet type: Vegetarian
Number of servings (yield): 12
Meal type: snack
Culinary tradition: Indian (Northern)
Microformatting by hRecipe.
~LTG!
