Calories in Methi Paratha

Methi paratha is not a stuffed paratha: the chopped leaves go into the dough. The standard recipe behind the figure kneads 80 g of atta with 50 g of fenugreek leaves and 80 g of onion, uses 10 g of oil in all and makes 3 parathas. One paratha therefore has 27 g of flour and only 3.5 g of oil, which is less than a teaspoon. That small amount of fat is what the 135 kcal rests on. Parathas shallow-fried in the usual home way, or served with butter at a dhaba, sit well above it.

The energy split is unlike most parathas. Carbohydrate supplies 61%, fat 27% and protein 12%, where the plain paratha in the same comparison gets more than half its energy from fat. The flour provides most of the calories, and the leaves and onion add volume, some iron and calcium, and much of the 4.6 g of fibre, for very little energy. The methi is not what makes it light, though. The recipe is light because it is sparing with oil.

One methi paratha is about 6% of a sedentary man's daily energy requirement and 8% of a woman's. Two come to 270 kcal with 7.8 g of protein, and three to 405 kcal with 11.7 g. That leaves room on the plate for curd, dal or an egg, which the meal needs: the protein in the paratha is modest. Because the greens are already in the bread, a simple bowl of curd completes it. Among the 15 breads compared, only the methi thepla is lighter, at 126 kcal.

The low figure belongs to the recipe, not to the name. A methi paratha fried in 2 teaspoons of ghee comes to about 225 kcal, far from 135 kcal. The leaves do contribute some iron, but plant iron is not absorbed as readily as iron from meat. Fenugreek is sometimes promoted for blood sugar; a paratha is not a treatment, and anyone with diabetes should follow the plan their doctor or dietitian has set.