Methi Dhebra – Fenugreek Dhebra
Dhebra is the perfect snack or dish to enjoy with tea. They are flatbreads made with gluten free flour, sometimes a combination of flours and fenugreek leaves, some other spices.
We call fenugreek leaves methi leaves, so often the dish is called Methi na Dhebra. There are so many ways you can serve these either with yogurt, cilantro chutney, chundo a type of pickle made with unripe mango and its sweet and sour in taste and a side of tea.
Apparently, Dhebra can be made with other ingredients and variations too.
One of the ways, dhebra can be prepared by deep frying smaller discs. The one I am sharing today is made by roasting it like flatbreads slightly larger than the fried ones on a griddle. These are more regularly prepared and enjoyed compared to the fried version. Partly the other difference is the fried version is slightly thicker and the pan roasted ones are thinner in size.
Methi Dhebra is prepared with a combination of various flours, specially bajra flour and whole wheat flour. Other than that, I love adding finely ground corn meal sometimes. You can also add sorghum flour. It’s flavored with garlic, green chilies, ginger and few other dry spices. They are slightly sweetened with jaggery. We also add yogurt that gives it nice flavor and helps them in moistness.
We often joke that Gujaratis never travel without dhebra or thepla. While growing up every Gujarati kid might have depside their mums packing dhebra for a trip, but now in my adulthood I do the same. I packed thepla couple of times for my trips. My sister and I packed some of it with pickle when we traveled to Thailand few years ago and then I packed up some thepla when we traveled to St. Croix last year. Trust me Dhebra and Thepla taste extra special with views.
The reason they are considered great travel food, because they stay fresh at room temperature for a couple of days and you can have them as snack, or breakfast or just light lunch. We make it for dinner. Yes.
Difference between Dhebra and Thepla?
Both recipes are from Gujarat. The major difference in the recipe is that Dhebra is made with a combination of gluten free flours like bajri pear millet or finely ground corn meal. The second most difference is Dhebra can be deep fried or pan fried, while thepla is predominantly pan fried.
Dhebra have very robust earthy flavor profile due to the use of Bajra flour. They get their darker color due to use of jaggery and bajra flour. Like corn tortilla and flour tortilla they have different texture.
Thepla can be made with lots of addition of vegetables like dudhi (squash), zucchini, palak, methi.
What is Methi and how to use it?
The main star of the recipe is ofcourse Methi. Methi is also known as Fenugreek leaves in English. Just like other greens, methi comes in bunch with stems still attached to it. Methi has these small leaves and only leaves are used in any given recipe. You pick out all the leaves, tedious task and then discard the stems of course. Thoroughly wash methi leaves in water. Often it has mud stuck to it. So, wash it 1-2 times if needed. Spread them in a colander or clean dish towel and let the water dry a little bit, roughly chop up the leaves with knife.
The dried version of fenugreek leaves are also available, where you literally have nothing to pluck or clean as its already in dried leaves form. Although, I have never used dried leaves also known as kasuri leaves for this recipe. Always use fresh methi leaves as it enhances the taste so much better. In India, Fenugreek is only available during winters. So this is more of a winter dish. But in USA, we find methi leaves very easily all year round. Growing methi leaves is also very easy at home. Fresh methi leaves have so many amazing health benefits but we are not going to delve into it in this post.
Best way to enjoy it
- With pickle, chundo or chutney and hot cup of chai
- Plain yogurt or Dahi Tikhari
- Ghee or Makhan (homemade butter)
Storage
Bajri Methi Dhebra stays good up to 3-4 days, so they are great for traveling. Store them in an air-tight container at room temperature or in the fridge. Just reheat them before eating. They freeze well too.
Methi Dhebra
Ingredients
- 1- 1 ½ cups pearl millet/bajra flour
- 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
- 2 cups fenugreek leaves roughly chopped
- 1 tbsp green chilies finely chopped
- 2-3 cloves garlic paste/grated
- 1 tbsp ginger paste/grated
- 2 tbsp sesame seeds
- ½ tsp turmeric powder
- Salt to taste
- 2 tbsp jaggery
- ¼ cup plain yogurt
- 2 tbsp oil plus more for cooking
Instructions
- Knead dough – In a mixing bowl, add both flours, chopped fenugreek leaves.
- Add dry spices like turmeric powder, sesame seeds, ginger, garlic paste, finely chopped green chilies, salt, and jaggery. Give it a mix and add oil and yogurt. Mix some more. Add ¼ cup of water, start with few tbsp at a time and see if you require more. Let the dough come together. You might need more water or less water. Knead soft dough. Run some a tsp of oil on the prepared dough and cover the dough with a kitchen towel and keep it aside for at least 10-20 minutes if you have time on hand.
- Divide the dough into equal sized rounds. Take one round at a time, lightly press it to flatten it. You can also dust some dry flour on it if its slightly sticky to roll out. Gently and lightly roll out a circle about 0.5 cm. Thickness can be personal preference. Some people keep it slightly thicker or like me a little thinner.
- Roll out few more and keep them in single layer. Keep the dough covered from drying out.
- Pan-fry/Roast them. Heat a skillet or pan on medium heat, once the skillet is hot add one rolled out dhebru at a time and pan roast it. Once you see light bubbles, flip it and cook it on the other side. After few seconds apply some oil on it and flip it again and press gently using spatula and cook until you see some brown spots on the bottom side. Apply some oil again on other side and flip and cook on that side too. Press lightly have some browning with the help of spatula.
- Cook remaining rolled out pieces.
- Serve them hot or warm with side of chundo or cilantro chutney and tea. They taste good with plain or spiced yogurt too.
Notes
- Fenugreek Leaves are slightly bitter in taste, but super healthy. That’s why jaggery balances out some of that.
- If the dough is sticky, you can use dry flour and be gentle while rolling it out.
- Bajra flour or pearl millet is gluten free. Sometimes rolling it can be challenging.
- You can also use tortilla press to roll them out.
- We pluck out the leaves of methi/fenugreek. Then wash it thoroughly with water couple of times to get rid of dirt. Then roughly chop it.
- You can use combo of flours like sorghum, fine corn meal etc.