Recipe: Methi Nu Thepla (Indian Vegan Bread with fenugreek greens)

Methi Theplas are of Gujarathi origin and keep well for a couple of days and hence are highly favoured on rail and road journeys. Regular phulkas don't taste as good when cold and bhasi puris aren't the healthiest of options.

When I lived in Hyderabad and Bombay, a lot of bakeries and groceries carried these theplas in packets of 5 with some green chilli pickle and it was an excellent option to keep in my fridge for breakfast or as roti substitutes for lunch and dinner, especially since I hated the washing up that came with making rotis for one or 2 people and hated the effort involved in making rotis for a whole load of friends. As is clearly evident, I come from a rice eating family :)

My mum gifted my husband a roti maker for his last birthday with admonishments to ME to use it and make the poor deprived North Indian guy rotis, with every meal. Well this gadget really has helped, as I just make the dough and the little dough balls for 2-3 days, then I put the dough ball into the roti maker. A litle pressing and flipping and the roti is ready. Nice and evenly circular. Rotis I can put pictures of here on my blog without praying for at least one tocome out perfectly shaped. No chakla, belan, tongs, tawa and a mess of flour to clean up after each meal. Its a real blessing and now that I've got the hang of it, I'm experimenting with varieties of rotis.

Remembering the theplas I enjoyed,  I decided to try to make them myself using a friends recipe I had written down ages back, but never got round to trying..

Ingredients:
2 cups wheat flour
1 cup methi leaves ( I used half a cup of kasuri methi and rehydrated it) - coarsely chopped

1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp jeera powder
1/2 tsp corriander powder
1 tsp chilli powder (you can adjust this for taste if you like)
salt to taste
2 tsps oil for the dough (you can use olive if you prefer)
oil for frying - optional

Method:
Mix all the ingredients including the oil for the dough.
Add enough water to make the dough - same consistency as rotis (I also used the water in which I rehydrated the methi)

Make dough balls, roll into rotis and fry on both sides till golden brown spots appear.
You can use oil when frying to make it more authentic :)
I prefer to fry without oil in a non stick pan and our roti maker is also non stick, so I don't use any additional oil.
Theplas can be served hot or at room temperature with pickles.
They can be packed in foil for picnics or journeys and enjoyed later.

 

I served the theplas with pickle and aloo bhartha (Indian mashed potatoes) 

I'm submitting this recipe for the Roti-Bhakhri-Poli-Thepla-Puri-Rotla leg of Joy of Cooking's Complete My Thali - Event