Theplas/Methi parathas/Fenugreek flatbread from Gujarat

I love Gujarati cuisine for all its sweet-spicy taste. Thepla, khandvi, chhundo, khaman dhokla….wow am drooling :d. Thepla or the methi parathas being the famous are 1 of my favorites. This reminds me of our exciting train journey where we used to carry these yummy thelpas with tomato pickle and plain yogurt – it had its own unique charm adding to theplas. I think it’s quite a common practice for any gujarati to carry theplas for their trips/journey for the basic fact that it has shelf life and tastes equally good as it was on the day of preparation.

Though the fenugreek leaves/methi leaves have a distinct bitter taste, this becomes negligible with rest of the spice mix in this particular recipe. I feel this is a terrific way to get our kids eat the greens. Pizza is a magic word for my son so I slice a thepla into 4quarters (something like a regular pizza) and serve each quarter as a pizza ;). I have heard that in areas where you don’t get methi leaves/fenugreek leaves you could also make it with zucchini, carrot, lauki (though I haven’t tried)

Well, many of them use a mixture of gram flour and wheat flour for preparing this dish but as we are not a big fan of gram flour, I have just used wheat flour and also eliminated the usage of ginger garlic paste as in the standard recipe for making this simple parathas.

Here goes the recipe for 10 theplas approximately….

Ingredients

Wheat flour – 2 cups

Methi leaves/fenugreek leaves finely chopped – 1bunch

Cumin powder/ Jeera powder – 1tsp

Red chilly powder – 1/2tsp

Green chilly finely chopped – 1 or 2

Turmeric powder/haldi – 1/2tsp

Pinch of asafoetida

Salt to taste

Water

Oil/ghee

Method

• Put all the ingredients except oil in a large mixing bowl or a thali and mix together adding little water at a time. Knead well so that the ingredients blend well together to make soft and smooth dough.
• Cover and keep this finished dough aside for about 20-30min to rest.
• Make even size balls from the dough. Very lightly flour the rolling board and roll each ball using a rolling pin into round shape say around 6-7” diameter.
• Meanwhile heat the griddle, put the rolled thepla on the griddle and do the first flip when you see tiny bubbles rise on the top surface of the thepla. As soon as you flip, spread some oil/ghee on surface of the thepla. Flip again in about 30sec and drizzle oil/ghee on this surface too. The thepla is done when it’s crispy and golden brown on both the sides.

Hot hot theplas are ready to be served with chhundo and yogurt or with your favourite pickle or chutney J

Variations: You can mix the dough with curd instead of water to make soft parathas.

I would like to thank all my readers for taking interest in reading my blog and appreciating all my cooking trails - this is really encouraging me to tryout new things and post more frequently. Thanks a lot for encouraging me!!!

Will be back with another chatpata recipe soon, till then have a fabulous week ahead!!!