Foxtail millet parathas green through with fresh methi, faintly bitter, faintly sweet, cooked in mustard oil until the leaves catch and crisp at the edge.
Ingredients
From the TrooFoodz pantry
- Sprouted Foxtail Millet Flour 2 1/4 cups
Fresh
- Fresh methi leaves, picked and chopped 2 cups packed
- Onion, finely chopped 1 small
- Green chillies, minced 2
- Ajwain 1/2 tsp
- Coriander powder 1 tsp
- Salt 1 tsp
- Warm water 3/4 cup
- Mustard oil, for cooking 4 tbsp
Method
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Draw the bitterness
Rub the chopped methi with half the salt and set aside 10 minutes, then squeeze firmly. This pulls out the harshest of the bitterness and a good deal of water.
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Fold in the greens
Mix the squeezed methi, onion, chillies, ajwain and coriander powder through the Sprouted Foxtail Millet Flour before any liquid goes in, so the leaves distribute evenly.
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Hydrate slowly
Add warm water in small additions. Foxtail millet flour is fine-milled and takes up water fast, so it is easy to overshoot into a sticky dough.
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Rest ten minutes
Cover and rest. The dough firms noticeably as the flour finishes absorbing, and rolls far more cleanly afterwards.
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Roll thin
Roll to 16 cm between two sheets of parchment, dusting sparingly — too much loose flour will scorch in the mustard oil.
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Smoke the oil
Heat the mustard oil in a separate ladle until it just smokes, then cool slightly before using. This takes the raw pungency off.
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Cook and press
Cook each paratha on a hot tawa, spooning the oil around the edge and pressing with a cloth until both sides are golden with dark green flecks.
Why this works
Salting the methi is a straightforward osmosis trick: it removes water that would otherwise slacken the dough, and mellows the bitter compounds in the leaf. Smoking mustard oil before use converts its sharp raw note into something rounder that suits the mild foxtail millet.
Make it your own
- Fresh methi → Kasuri methi Use 4 tbsp crushed; drier, deeper, less bitter.
- Mustard oil → Ghee Softer and richer, without the pungent edge.
- Sprouted Foxtail Millet Flour → Sprouted Little Millet Flour A touch nuttier and marginally softer to roll.
