Methi muthiya is a Gujarati dish with fenugreek leaves, mixed flours, in addition to spices as main ingredients in the recipe. It can be steamed as well as deep fried.
It can be made during the winter, when fresh methi leaves are in season, as a tea-time snack.
Check out my Khaman recipe and patra recipe which you would love obviously, if you like this.
We are nearing the end of the year and I wanted to share some recipes for a long time now, especially this methi muthiya.
In fact, from the time I saw this as an ingredient in Undhiyu, a winter special recipe using seasonal vegetables.
Which I wanted to try as well but the number of ingredients in the recipe, one or two were always missing.
Nevertheless I will be posting that next winter, but for now, l thought will try this and post.
Got these fresh methi during my recent visit to Mustafa center, mainly for trying muthiya.
Ingredients
Below are the simple ingredients you need to make this tasty Gujarati dish.
- Methi leaves - Fresh or frozen, I used fresh.
- Flours - Wheat flour, besan and sooji (semolina/ rava)
- Spices - Red chilli powder, coriander seeds pwoder, roasted cumin seeds powder (bhuna jeera powder), fennel seeds powder, Turmeric.
- Other ingredients for flavor - Sesame seeds, asafoetida, ginger paste.
See recipe card for full list and quantities.
Instructions
Let's see how to make methi muthiya with step by step images.
1. Measure firstly and wash the fenugreek leaves well. Chop it roughly and then take it in a mixing bowl.
2. After that, mix with ¼ teaspoon salt and keep aside for 10 minutes.
3. Once done, you will see the leaves has left out water. (Refer note 1)
4. To it, add wheat flour, besan and semolina to it along with spices, asafoetida, sesame seeds, oil, sugar, ginger paste, cooking soda as well as required salt.
5. Mix well firstly, do not add water now.
6. Then add water as needed and knead to a non-sticky dough.
7. Keep aside covered for 10 minutes, not more than 15 minutes.
8. After that, knead to make it smooth. I divided into two portions.
Make deep fried methi muthiya
1. Take a gooseberry sized portion of the dough firstly.
2. Then press inside your firsts to get an oblong shape. (Refer note 2)
3. Repeat furthermore to finish all the dough portion, same way.
4. Heat oil in a pan enough to deep fry the methi muthiya, but take care not too hot. Then, slide into the oil and cook in medium heat or low heat.
5. Once bubble ceases stir to turn the methi muthiya for even cooking from all sides.
6. Fry furthermore until golden in color. Finally, drain from oil over a paper towel.
Methi muthiya steamed
1. Take the other part of dough and divide into two portions firstly (grease your hands). Then shape into oblong logs. After that, place in a greased steamer plate.
2. Meanwhile boil water in a steamer/ vessel. Then, place the steamer plate inside.
3. Steam covered for 15 minutes or until it is cooked through inside. Check by inserting a knife or skewer inside to see if it comes out clean, indicating it's done.
4. Cool it furthermore and slice them into thick roundels, carefully.
7. Then, heat a pan with oil and splutter mustard. After that, add asafoetida, sesame seeds and curry leaves.
8. Furthermore, give it a fry and place the sliced methi muthiya.
9. Roast in medium or low flame until the crust is golden and crisp. Carefully flip and toast until the otherwise also gets golden in color. Methi muthiya is ready!
Enjoy soft methi muthiya with a cup of hot tea. I had it with my favorite adrak wali chai 😍👌🏻.
Substitutions
- Methi leaves - instead of fenugreek leaves, you can use any vegetables like doodhi, spinach greens.
- Gluten free- You can skip wheat flour as well as sooji, use gluten free flours like millet flour, rice flour etc. Use coarse ground besan in that case for a good texture.
The recipe is naturally vegan. If you are allergic to sesame seeds, you can sure skip it.
Variations
Giving the visitor ideas on how they can change this recipe to better suit their dinner guests, or their cultural cuisine, is a great way to increase the chances they make the recipe
- Spices - Instead of red chilli powder, you can also use green chilli paste. Also for flavour, you can use any of your favorite instead of fennel seeds powder. For example ajwain.
- Garnish - For steamed version, I have used sesame seeds but you can skip it and simply use just mustard and curry leaves. You can also add some fresh grated coconut.
See this wonderful post by Srujan for more insights on what flour types to use in which proportion. Mine is adapted from Tarla dalal as well as her post.
Storage
You can store the steamed muthiyas after cooling down completely, upto 3 days. Freeze the steamed muthiyas for a month and to use it, defrost it in the fridge and then deep fry or shallow fry as needed.
I do not recommend storing the dough as such though.
Top tip
- Measure the leaves packed firstly and always make sure to wash it well.
- Actually, I made without draining the liquid that drains from methi leaves and but no bitter taste. Just make sure to balance the spice and add sugar. If it is not spicy, or salt is less, it may be bitter. Also do not chop too much, just rough chopping is enough.
- Make sure to boil the water in steamer before you place inside.
- Deep frying in low or medium flame ensures cooking from inside.
- Do not worry about your fist impressions, while you fry, it puffs up and looks smooth.
What is methi muthiya meaning?
Methi means fenugreek leaves and muthi in Gujarati means fist. Since we shape it with our firsts, it is called methi muthiya.
Something like pidi kozhukattai which always comes to my mind 😃.
FAQ
You can serve muthiya with spicy green chutney or even sweet chutney depending on your preference.
Recipe card
Methi muthiya recipe
Ingredients
- ½ cup Besan split chickpea flour/ gram flour
- 1 cup Methi leaves Fenugreek leaves, measure packed tightly
- ½ cup Wheat flour
- ¼ cup Sooji Semolina
- 2 tablespoon Oil to add in dough
- 2 tablespoon Sesame seeds white
- 1 teaspoon Ginger paste
- 1 teaspoon Sugar
- 1 teaspoon Coriander powder
- ½ teaspoon Red chilli powder Spicy variety or 1 teaspoon green chilli paste
- ¼ teaspoon Roasted cumin seeds powder Bhuna jeera powder
- ¼ teaspoon Fennel seeds powder optional
- ⅛ teaspoon Turmeric
- ⅛ teaspoon Asafoetida
- 1 pinch Cooking soda
- Salt
- Oil to deep fry
To temper for steamed muthiya
- 1 tbsp Oil
- ¼ teaspoon Mustard
- 1 teaspoon Sesame seeds
- 1 pinch Asafoetida
- Curry leaves few
Instructions
- Measure firstly and wash the fenugreek leaves well. Chop it roughly and then take it in a mixing bowl.
- After that, mix with ¼ teaspoon salt and keep aside for 10 minutes.
- Once done, you will see the leaves has left out water. (Refer note 1)
- To it, add wheat flour, besan and semolina to it along with spices, asafoetida, sesame seeds, oil, sugar, ginger paste, cooking soda as well as required salt.
- Mix well firstly, do not add water now.
- Then add water as needed and knead to a non-sticky dough.
- Keep aside covered for 10 minutes, not more than 15 minutes.
- After that, knead to make it smooth. I divided into two portions.
Make deep fried methi muthiya
- Take a gooseberry sized portion of the dough firstly.
- Then press inside your firsts to get an oblong shape. (Refer note 2)
- Repeat furthermore to finish all the dough portion, same way.
- Heat oil in a pan enough to deep fry the methi muthiya, but take care not too hot. Then, slide into the oil and cook in medium heat or low heat.
- Once bubble ceases stir to turn the methi muthiya for even cooking from all sides.
- Fry furthermore until golden in color. Finally, drain from oil over a paper towel.
Methi muthiya steamed
- Take the other part of dough and divide into two portions firstly (grease your hands).
- Then press inside your firsts to get a large oblong shape.
- After that, place them in a greased steamer plate.
- Meanwhile boil water in a steamer/ vessel. Then, place the steamer plate inside.
- Steam covered for 15 minutes or until it is cooked through inside. Check by inserting a knife or skewer inside to see if it comes out clean, indicating it's done.
- Cool it furthermore and slice them into thick roundels, carefully.
Temper
- Then, heat a pan with oil and splutter mustard. After that, add asafoetida, sesame seeds and curry leaves.
- Furthermore, give it a fry and place the sliced methi muthiya.
- Roast in medium or low flame until the crust is golden and crisp.
- Carefully flip and toast until the otherwise also gets golden in color. Methi muthiya is ready!
Video
Notes
- Make sure to fry in low flame or medium flame to ensure the inside is cooked.
- Wait until the steamed dumplings are cooled before slicing. Otherwise it will break. Use sharpest knife.
- If you have not chopped the leaves properly, it will break while slicing.
Leave a Reply