Homemade Kasoori Methi(Dried Fenugreek)

We all use tons of kasoori methi in our cooking I am sure. I use it for every chicken dish I prepare(Indian of course!), all the paneer dishes, punjabi curries and daals have kasoori methi in them. I absolutely love the flavour. I don’t know how much I have spent over the years to buy the packaged kasoori methi. Last couple of times I bought the packages, they have more stems than leaves and I noticed a few tiny pebbles in them as well. I asked mom to send me some from India and she was like, are you kidding me?! You guys get better stuff here than we do in India! So I was forced to make my own kasoori methi which is another interesting story. I had bought a fresh bunch of methi one Saturday and it was lying in my fridge for over a week. Thankfully, the leaves didn’t go bad at all. I had my menu ready for next week so again, I wasn’t able to use methi leaves. I didn’t want to stash them in the freezer as I already have a few packages of frozen methi in there. So I thought let me try to dry them and see how it goes. If it works, great. If it doesn’t, I only have to lose 99 cents! And I washed the leaves and dry them in microwave and bingo! Got myself kasoori methi! The aroma and the richness of the color were so amazing, I don’t think I will ever go back to buy the packaged stuff again. I instantly called mom in India and told her my success story and ask her to make her own kasoori methi as well! Fortunately for me, the local store had methi on sale, 2 bunches for $1 and yes, you guessed it right! I rushed to buy fresh methi just to dry it out!

I ended up with quiet a good amount of dried methi out of one bunch. Try for yourself friends. I am sure you will never ever go for the store bought stuff again.

Fresh methi

Wash the leaves, shake off the excess water, place them in microwaveable plate. Microwave on high for 2-3 minutes, then turn the leaves around and proceed till you get nicely dried methi leaves.

Dried Methi