Aloo Methi sabzi (Fenugreek potato stir-fry)

Aloo Methi sabzi or potato and fenugreek leaves stir fry is another gem from the North Indian cuisine. The aloo-methi has a lot of flavour with the bitterness of methi and softness and sweetness of potatoes. This is the reason why this Punjabi dish is cooked with minimal ingredients. Only a handful of goodies go into this rich, aromatic yet humble dish. 

I have grown up seeing my mother make most of the sabzi(s) (stir fry veggies) in the mustard oil just like my late grand mother. Which made me wonder why mustard oil for veggies? When I started cooking and sometimes used to make sabzi in normal cooking oil I could feel the difference. The taste of mustard would be missing and the stir fry vegetables would seem flavorless.

Cooking in slightly burnt mustard oil adds its own pungent bitterness to a stir fry and makes the dish all the more flavorful with its taste of mustard.

Methi or fenugreek has its own bitter dense fragrance. It is one of my favourite food fragrance and I can tell any dish only by smelling at it that it has got sookhi methi or kasoori methi (or dry fenugreek leaves roasted and crushed).

This green vegetable is packed with nutrition and is a rich source of iron, folic acid and fiber. It is available in Delhi in the winter season.

Taking a stroll down my parents' home I can smell the fragrance of methi being prepared for breakfast as methi parathas (See my mother-in-law's methi paratha recipe here) or as a veg stir fry or being added to curry or daal to lend it a bitter, aromatic and roasted flavour.

Here is the complete recipe to make this super quick and simple dish that evokes the memory of a cold winter morning from my childhood, just how my mother makes it!

Ingredients:

Methi leaves 3-4 cups, plucked, washed and chopped

3-4 medium-sized potatoes, cubed

2 medium-sized tomatoes, finely chopped

3-4 tbsp mustard oil

2-3 green chilies, chopped

1 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp red chili powder

salt, to taste

Cooking time: 30min

Preparation time: 15min

Serves: 4

Method:

1) Take a big wok and pour in 2-3 tbsps of mustard oil. Let it burn a little and then turn of the gas.

2) Carefully put finely chopped tomatoes and green chili into it. Turn on the gas and saute it on medium flame.

3) When the tomatoes seem to have got a paste-like consistency, you will notice the oil has separated from it. At this stage add in salt, red chili powder and coriander powder. Stir.

 4) Time for the cubed potatoes to go in. Mix well with the tadka. On low flame, cover for 3-4 min for the potatoes to soften, stir in between to avoid potatoes from burning.

5) Now add in the methi leaves! Stir well and cover for 5-10 min, stirring every now and then.

Aloo-methi sabzi is ready!

Serve hot fresh chapattis or paratha!

How do you like to cook your methi sabzi? What are the other ways you use these wonderful fenugreek leaves? In making puri, paratha or mathri? Or do you love adding kasoori methi to your daal makhni and soups?

Please do share your thoughts about this recipe with me.

Thanks for reading! :-)

Methi Paratha / Fenugreek leaves flatbread

The fragrance of methi or fenugreek leaves is my second most favourite among all the fresh 'greens' fragrances after dhania or coriander leaves.

It takes me back to my home and evokes the nostalgia of Delhi winters when my mother would make parathas or aloo methi sabzi (potato fenugreek stir fry) after carefully plucking out the freshest of the leaves from huge bunches of methi.

The deep pungent smell of methi wafting from the kitchen would be the best surprise for me once I entered home after school. My siblings and I would devour it with fresh chapattis straight off the tawa lovingly smeared with homemade white butter by my mother. And she is still the same today. I love how she loves to feed us fresh, hot and bubbling food. In feeding she finds her contentment, I believe. And I find mine in eating. :-p

It is not often that I use methi in my kitchen, despite it being so full of nutrition and my favourite. Laziness is the reason. It is hard work to sit and pluck out leaves for an hour and then to wash them. But I find it difficult to move away from those fresh bunches sitting with other greens in the grocery and therefore chuck a few bunches into my shopping cart with a big smile.

Fenugreek leaves have a strong aromatic fragrance and flavour. Being a green vegetable, it is packed with variety of nutrients such as Iron and Folic Acid.

Fenugreek leaves are dried and used later as kasoori methi powder, and sprinkled over a variety of Indian stir fry veggies and curries, especially daal makhni.

This winter I got it for the first time and thought of making husband's favourite methi parathas, recipe courtesy my mother-in-law. It is a simple and fast breakfast option, given you have your fenugreek leaves plucked and washed and also the dough prepared beforehand.

Here is what I do (after seeing how my mother-in-law makes it):

Ingredients

Methi leaves

Flour

Green chili chopped

Salt & red chili powder to taste

Water

2-3 tbsp Ghee (melted)

Method

Mix all the ingredients with your hands. Add water slowly and carefully, and knead into a smooth dough that doesn't stick to your hand.

Refrigerate for 1-2 hours. I find it easier to handle and work with the dough which has taken its time to set. After refrigerating, I believe, it is not so sticky and is easier to flatten out.

Make small balls with the dough and start rolling it out in the shape you like.

Shallow fry the rolled out paratha on a tawa.

Serve hot and fresh with curd or achaar or pickle.

Do try this and please let me know how you like this recipe through your sweet comments. I would love to read what you think.