Methi Recipes - Side Dish

Methi Alo Masala

I cook greens at least twice a week. Earlier it was only spinach and methi. Only recently I started using beet greens, swiss chard, turnip greens etc. Even though methi is bitter we all like it in our family. Our favorites are the methi theplas, sambar in the beet greens sambar method and another dry curry using channa daal and methi leaves.

Recently I saw a recipe for aloo methi subzi in Sailu's blog. That day I was going to cook methi anyway, so I decided to try Sailu's recipe itself. It was very simple to make and tasted awesome too. Very different from the methi recipes I make. I pretty much followed her recipe but for some minor changes.

I used around 2 cups of methi. The methi which we get here in US is not as tender as the ones which is available in India, it's very big like curry leaves. Sometimes it can be very bitter. So my mother in law gave me this tip of frying the cleaned, rinsed and drained leaves in little ghee to reduce the bitterness. But Sailu's idea of sprinkling salt and sugar on the methi leaves and squeezing out the liquids also works like a charm. I also fried the methi along with the tomatoes. Since the methi is not
tender, it will not be cooked properly if added in the end. The methi masala tasted very good with chapathis. This serves 2 adults.

Methi Chola Masala

The very same day I also saw another recipe for a methi chole in her blog. I bookmarked it immediately and tried it last week. This is yet another easy to prepare side dish for bhaturas and rotis. Another speciality of this dish is, it does not use onions or garlic, and yet it tastes great. If you use canned chick peas like me, this dish can be prepared in no time. In this recipe also I used more methi than specified (3 to 4 cups loosely packed). I used one 15.5oz can chick peas, which is approximately 1 and 1/2 cups of cooked beans. I also used oil instead of ghee for frying the spices. This measurement serves 2 adults.

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20 COMMENTS

  1. Roma

    I liked the idea of methi chole very much. Nice way to add nutrition to traditional recipes.

  2. Alka

    Methi aloo and methi choley are both my fav. ones,and sailus recipes always work fine.Yours look really lovely 🙂

  3. Valerie

    Thank you for the link and I’ll be looking for the methi leaves at a couple of local Indian grocery stores.

  4. Vaidehi

    wow!! both dishes look so tempting and healthy too… so colorful

    chakali

  5. G.Pavani

    looks yummy n mouthwatering yaar..

  6. Soma

    This dish look so gorgeous! I love methi too. u r right about the stiff methi u get here. once I had sprinkled methi seeds in a pot, and they grew like weeds near a window. they were so nice & fresh.

  7. hema

    superb and spicy side dish madhu. good company of roties even goes with rice i guess. looks perfect.

  8. kamala

    I too bookmarked this from her blog Madhu…WIll try out soon.Looks so yummy

  9. Vaishali

    Such gorgeous methi recipes, Madhuram, and amazing pictures too. I love the idea of using chickpeas with methi which is quite possibly my favorite green.

  10. Valerie

    This looks delicious. I don’t know if I can get methi leaves here (Canada), but I use the seeds all the time in my cooking. Yummmmm.

    I’m looking for a vegetarian samosa recipe. Can you or any commenters help out? I’m only looking for the filling, as I know how to make the pockets. Thanks.

    Hi Valerie, you can get methi leaves in Canada. I lived in Winnipeg for somtime and I used to get it in the Indian grocery store and Superstore. You can also look for frozen methi leaves in Indian grocery stores. Check my friends blog for perfect samosas.
    http://ammaluskitchen.info/2008/06/06/the-samosa-scrumptiously-yours/

  11. Sunshinemom

    I love your methi dishes! They look so good. I too sprinkle salt and leave it aside to get rid of the bitterness. Aamchoor added also helps. I make aloo methi very often – almost once in two weeks! The pictures never come out well enough to blog.

  12. Uma

    Both dishes look so delicious Madhu! Perfect with rotis. 🙂

  13. Cham

    Looks yummy all methi dishes 😛

  14. Priya

    Wow wat a healthy side dishes..am drooling over methi chhole..looks delicious..

  15. Happy Cook

    This looks so yumm.
    Would love to eat them with roties.

  16. Sweatha

    Sorry for troubling again,Saw the biscotti comment now only.I will send it across today itself,thanks for including.They were mostly dry I felt because,they were twice baked and were like toasted,but I must say they were moist especially the part around cherries,as the cherries i used were sugared.So I would say 90% dry -10 % moist. Atleast mine were 🙂 Hope I satisfied the question.

  17. Bharti

    Lovely..I’m a methi lover. Never seen methi with channa, would love to try it out.

  18. Sweatha

    Madhu,
    Saw ur comments now only.I had doubts regarding marshmallow and jello.Thanks.As for the cake when cooled,it becomes a bit chewy and also would be a bit dry if you have reduced the amount of water drizzled(I experimented 😀 ), apart from that no other reasons I found
    Thanks again for informing me about the jello and marshmallow 🙂 I took the easy way out by using these.

  19. Sweatha

    Spicy and tangy.Methi leaves are very good.Nice dishes

  20. Sailaja

    I’m glad you enjoyed the recipes. I’m a methi leaves freak and when these leaves are available in abundance I tend to add them in most of my cooking. ::)