Methi and Green Garbanzo Paratha

In India the onset of southwest monsoon season is heralded by evening showers after gruelling summer day during the months of May-June. The fragrance when rain showers quench the thirst of the sun-parched earth is to be experienced to be believed. This is one of most cherished and missed memories of my days back home in India. Any guesses, why the blog is named "Indian Monsoon"?

Now what has the smell of wet earth got to do with methi leaves. Well, to me, the fragrance of these methi leaves is so similar to the fresh smell of the rain-drenched earth, mud and all its vegetation. This leafy green vegetable exudes its aroma from the minute you start chopping it. And its taste - wonderful so as to rival its fragrance. Methi leaves is one of my favourite leafy greens.

Indira of Mahanadi declared 'green leafy vegetables' for JFI for May and what better month when April 22 is Earth Day. Very aptly chosen ingredient, indeed. I was more than elated to find a bunch of methi leaves to cook with for this event. So this recipe is one of my contributions to the JFI-WBB: Green Leafy Vegetables event.

I normally make plain methi leaves paratha but this time I added green garbanzo beans to the dough. The green garbanzos is available in Trader Joe in the frozen section.

Ingredients

1 bunch Methi leaves- washed thoroughly and chopped
1/4 cup Green Garbanzo Beans (frozen ones)
1 cup Whole wheat flour (atta)
1 tsp Carom (ajwain or omam) seeds
Salt (to taste)
Red chilly flakes or powder (to taste)

Procedure
Pressure cook the green garbanzo beans with pinch of salt and very little water. You can also microwave these beans till they can be mashed between your fingers. After cooking the beans, mash them well and reserve the water that was used for cooking them. Meanwhile trim and wash the methi leaves. I use part of their stem too. A word about washing methi leaves- you have to immerse these trimmed leaves and stalks in a lot of water several times. Each time you change the water you will see the grit and clay, which was stuck to the greens, settling to the bottom of the bowl you are immersing these greens in. I repeat this process till I see no more sediment at the bottom of the bowl. Then chop the leaves and their stalks finely.

Take the whole wheat flour in a wide mouthed bowl (easy for kneading), add the red chilly flakes, carom seeds and salt. Mix them well with your fingers, then add the mashed green garbanzos and chopped methi greens. Start mixing the all the ingredients with your fingers and add the reserved water used for the beans. Knead the dough and add more water if necessary till you get a dough ball you can make chapattis out of. Keep the dough ball covered for about 10 minutes.

Heat a griddle (tava) and meanwhile roll out chapattis out of the dough. I didn't add any oil while rolling out. Use plain wheat flour to prevent the dough from sticking just like the way you would be rolling for chapattis. Put the rolled out paratha on the tava, after about 1-2 minutes turn. As soon as these parathas hit the hot tava, the fragrance of methi leaves just perfumes your senses. This side would have just started to cook and slightly brown. Smear this side with oil. You can use as little or as much oil as you prefer. I use the back of an oil dipped spoon for this. Again turn the paratha and repeat the oil smear on the other side. Once evenly browned remove the paratha and store in a hot case lined with kitchen towel or paper napkin till you finish cooking all the parathas.

We ate these parathas with a bowl of homemade curd (yogurt) and Indira's Lime Pickle which I had made a few weeks ago. An excellent meal with the goodness of the beans and of course the greens.