Creamy Methi Malai Matar
Methi Malai Matar is a popular Indian Subji, made with fresh methi leaves, green peas, and creamy aromatic sauce.
Methi Malai Matar is a popular winter dish made specially during the methi season. In winters, we get abundance of green leafy methi. So, we eat a lot of dishes prepared with methi leaves.
I love this subji so much, fresh methi leaves are everything in this recipe. Green peas are also famous around this time of the year.
We make Methi muthia, Methi Dhebra, so many other recipes from methi. Then there is Aloo methi or Bataka methi nu shaak, my mom also made a nice methi eggplant shaak. I miss simple homecooked meals.
Methi Malai Matar consists of methi leaves, fresh or frozen green peas, and an aromatic sauce made with cream and ginger, garlic, onions, tomatoes and cashews. Methi means fenugreek leaves, Matar means green peas and Malai means cream. The combination of these ingredients makes this dish so delicious.
In this recipe we use fresh methi leaves, they are a must. Dry fenugreek leaves aka kasuri methi does not cut it. Fresh methi leaves have slight bitterness to them. Some people don’t like it but its very healthy green, so our moms tend to make sure we enjoy it in some or the other form. In this dish, bitterness of methi is balances out by creamy sauce and sweetness from green peas.
This dish is indulgent because of the cream, but I do not use so much cream. Cashews can also make it creamy and luxurious without compromising the taste. It’s not something we eat on regular basis. We make it for special occasions, or if someone is visiting us.
Some people make a white sauce, and my recipe is not white in color. Both will taste similarly good. It depends on use of certain ingredients that add in the colors.
Additions or Substitutions
I would highly recommend not to substitute main ingredients that make the dish like Methi leaves, peas etc. But you can some other ingredients and make it as per your liking. Things you can add additionally, paneer, tofu, mushrooms, carrots, corn.
Ingredients
The base sauce is made up with aromatics like ginger, garlic, chili, onions and tomatoes. Do not use tomatoes if you want a white sauce.
Additionally, I have used cashews. If you do not want cashews, you can use white watermelon seeds, or almonds. It helps make dish indulgent and creamy and gives good texture to the sauce.
There are some whole spices used, and cream in the sauce. You can add to your liking.
Fresh Methi Leaves – Always use fresh methi for this recipe, the dry methi does not taste similar. It’s the main ingredient of this dish too.
Green Peas – I have used frozen for this recipe but either freshly shelled or frozen works. Freshly shelled will take extra time to cook.
Tips
Boil peas and methi in hot water. Frozen Peas will take 5-7 minutes and methi, just submerge it and immediately remove it. Methi is naturally bitter in taste, so this way it removes some bitterness. You can add tiny bit of sugar to the dish if methi leaves are too bitter.
Additionally, if you are using fresh peas, please cook it until they soften up in hot water.
Vegan – Instead of cream, use coconut milk. The taste will be equally creamy and rich.
Methi Malai Matar
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cup Methi Leaves fresh
- 1 cup green peas
Sauce
- 2 tbsp oil
- 1-2 green chilies
- 2-3 garlic cloves
- 1 inch ginger chopped
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 1 medium tomato chopped
- 6-7 cashew nuts
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 green cardamom
- Salt to taste
- 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp red chili powder
- ½ tsp garam masala
- 1 tsp coriander-cumin powder
- 1/3 cup Heavy Cream
- ¼ tsp cardamom powder
- 1 tsp kasuri methi
- cilantro for garnish
Instructions
- In boiling water, add peas and cook them until they soften up. Remove them by strainer and then add washed methi leaves in the same water just for 2 seconds and remove them too. Discard the water.
- Heat oil in pan on medium heat. Once the oil is hot, add green chilies, chopped ginger, garlic, and saute for a minute. Then add, onions. Cook the onions until they are translucent. Add tomatoes followed by onions. Cook the tomatoes and add cashews too and once everything is cooked down a little bit, let it cool down. If you plan on making white gravy, then leave out tomatoes.
- Blend this mixture with some water to a smooth paste.
- In the same pan on medium heat add oil, once it’s hot add cumin seeds. Let them splutter and add bay leaf and cardamom pod then add the blended paste and cook it for few minutes.
- Add about ¼ cup water to the mix.
- Add the spices and seasonings to the mix. Give it a stir and add methi and peas.
- Add cream and let it simmer for few minutes and add cardamom powder along with kasuri methi Garnish with chopped cilantro.
- Serve with rotis, naan or rice.