Methi Thepla

Gujarati Fenugreek Flatbread

As I mentioned in my mango pickle post, thepla has become one of my favourite Indian foods since moving here. I love the savoury spicy flavour of this flatbread, the fact that it is stuffed with greens, and I especially like that it is something people regularly bring to work, homemade, to share with colleagues and friends. I realized almost immediately when we went into lockdown that this was a food that I would especially miss and wouldn't be able to easily order from food delivery apps, since I'd never even seen it on a restaurant menu. 

It took me a long time to make thepla though. The difficulty was mainly finding methi (fenugreek) leaves. I think they are common here, but since I didn't really even understand what they were, it took me a while to source them. Throughout the first three weeks of quarantine, the supermarket by my house was still open, so I was shopping there. But their food availability was extremely patchy - they had hardly any produce once lockdown hit, and what they had wasn't fresh. So greens were not an option. 

Thankfully about a month into lockdown, our two main food delivery apps (zomato and swiggy) paired with local fruit, vegetable, dairy, meat, and pantry shops and now they deliver basically any fresh grocery item you might want - within an hour. The world of produce was once again available to me.  

When I saw methi leaves on zomato, I immediately bought them and went about looking for the other ingredients for thepla. The result was well worth the effort. Thepla is as easy to make as it is delicious. I will definitely make it again. And another upshot is that in the process of sourcing ingredients for thepla I ended up with 1kg of besan, chickpea flour, and it lead to me discovering some other excellent recipes that ask for chickpea flour. So that has lead to quite a lot more learning and some more excellent meals already.

Methi Thepla

Ingredients:

• 1 cup fresh, chopped fenugreek leaves (aka methi leaves)
• 1 cup whole wheat flour (atta)
• 1/2 cup besan flour (chickpea flour)
• 1/4 cup multigrain flour or whole wheat flour (I used amaranth flour)
• 1/2 tsp red chili powder
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1/2 tsp cumin powder 
• 1/2 tsp coriander powder
• 1/2 to 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp sunflower oil
• 1 inch fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
• 4 green chilies, chopped
• 5 tbsp plain yogurt or water, for kneading the dough
• Oil or ghee for pan frying the thepla

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flours with the dry spices and salt
2. Add the fenugreek leaves to the flour mixture and stir to combine
3. In a small bowl or magic bullet, mix the yogurt, oil, ginger and chilis. Blend until smooth
4. Add the yogurt mixture to the flour mixture and knead until you have a smooth dough. Resist the temptation to add extra water or curd, as the fenugreek leaves release water as you knead the dough
   
5. Divide the dough into 12 medium sized balls 
6. Sprinkle flour on a clean counter, and roll out the thepla, one at a time until about 5 to 6 inches in diameter. The thepla should not be paper thin, but should not be very thick either - about the thickness of a crepe: 2-3 mm. As you are rolling the thepla, keep the other bits of dough under a clean tea towel or an upside-down bowl to save them from drying out. Keep the rolled, uncooked theplas under a cloth as well for the same reason.
   
   To fry the thepla: 
7. Heat a medium sized skillet on medium-high and add a little oil or ghee to coat the bottom
8. Fry one thepla in the hot skillet for 2-3 minutes, until the bottom is cooked. Add a little more oil into the skillet, and fry the other side
9. Repeat this, until you have fried all the thepla.
10. Serve warm either dipped in masala chai, or with mango pickle, or just on their own. 

See the original recipe here.