A touch of Christmas with methichi bhaji

Hello, friends, food lovers, and community members! This might be an entry for @qurator's Hive Top Chef contest, themed "Leaves." In India, I have an abundance of greens and leafy vegetables available. My neighbor's garden alone is full of moringa, taro, and green pumpkins. But yesterday was market day many different availabile there. I bought many different, but still one of our favorites I would like to share with you. That is known as fenugreek or Methi. In India when the first green leaves form we call it bhaji.

Today, I want to highlight a unique green leaf commonly known as fenugreek in Western countries, but in India, we refer to it as methichi bhaji. This leafy green is a staple in Indian cuisine and is renowned for its numerous health benefits. It helps control diabetes, cholesterol, digestion, and inflammation. Additionally, it is rich in antioxidants, supports hair, skin, and heart health, and is known to promote milk production in lactating mothers. It's not only tasty but also packed with essential minerals.

Typically, fenugreek leaves are grown commercially and harvested after 20 to 25 days. However, today I am using methi leaves that were harvested just 7 days after planting.

varieties of green leaves are available in the market.

Along with other veggies, I bought this methi leaves which are very delicious, healthy, and organic. Very rare to find it. It grows very special way in the sand. We tried it in our garden but the neighbor's dogs made a mess so we gave up.

They are tied in tiny bundles.

I opened them one by one and checked for any insects or dirt.

They are 99% safe no insects but some sand may be on the roots

I washed them thoroughly.

When I piled them on a plate I got an idea.

See my nice Christmas tree, just dropped a few pomegranate kernels and dal over. With star made of a lime slice.

here are the ingredients:
3 cups of methi bhaji
1 whole garlic bulb
2 small onions
2 green chilies
1/4 fresh coconut
2 tsp coconut oil
salt for taste.
2 tomatoes.

Prepare all ingredients
Chopped onions and chilies
peeled garlic
grated coconut and
trimmed methi

Here are all the ingredients I used except the salt

I poured 2 tsp coconut oil into the pan

Then garlic and chilies

Put onion and stirred until translucent.

Added methi

Stirred well

Added coconut.

After mixing the mixture properly

Added salt Around 1/2 tsp.

covered and cooked on low heat for around 3-4 minutes.
and turned off the stove.
I wanted to serve it for dinner with rice and kokum kadhi. Previously I posted about that in detail.

In a mixer added 1/2 fresh tender coconut 3-4 garlic cloves and 1 green chili

Ground it until fine paste.

Strained the paste

.

Added some kokum juice (kokum juice was very concentrated) so I used 1 tsp and salt to taste

Kokum Kadhi is ready
The dinner served like this

Methi bhaji with some tomato slices.

and plain rice plate with Kadhi and methi bhaji, tomato slices.

Here is the full dinner
The most delicious dinner yet since coming to India.

Thank you for stopping by.