Salty Spinach Crackers (Palak Mathri)- A twist to the traditional Diwali Snack

10:22 AM

India is known as the land of festivals with a large number of religious festivities and celebration each having its own importance and meaning in our day to day lives. Diwali is a special time in the life of many Indians. Diwali is almost associated with vibrant clothes, colors, lights, firecrackers lighting up the sky and the variety of sweets and snacks. The household looks decorated with beautiful pattern of Rangoli wit use of vibrant colours.

The most quintessential part of any festival in India is the Food. During Diwali many types of savoury and sweet dishes are prepared in many households. We at #Foodie Monday Blog Hop event Team decided to try the savoury snacks prepared in households. The theme for this event has been suggested by my talented friend Rupal Patel, who lives in Texas with her family and blogs some amazing recipes in her Blog www.goodfoodgoodmoodbyrupal.blogspot.in where you can have access to some of the most amazing traditional and fusion cooking with style and taste.

Mathri is one of the favorite Indian tea-time snacks. It’s a crumbly, salty and savory Indian biscuit that’s perfect for serving alongside a hot cup of chai. Typically, mathris are deep fried and made with all-purpose flour. And this is the reason why many health conscious persons donot like to try this super snack. So I decide to give this traditional savoury snacks a makeover by making it healthy easy to make – you just bake these little biscuits in an oven with whole wheat flour in place of all purpose flour . The Oven Baked Mathris are flaky and tasty and one can have it without any guilt pangs.

Mathris have a very distinct flavor due to the presence of carom seeds (ajwain in Hindi). Carom seeds are known to help with digestion . I have added some Rosemary and Spinach leaves in it making it more of an digestive biscuit… only a way tastier.

Ingredients

Whole Wheat Flour - 2 cups
Semolina – 1 cup
Ghee/Oil - 4 heaped tbsps
Rosemary- 1 tsp
Carrom seeds-( Ajwain)-1tsp
Salt to taste
Spinach leaves – 2 bunch
Cold water

Let's Learn how to cook Mathris:

Clean and finely chop the spinach leaves and keep it aside.
Sieve the all purpose flour, Semolina and salt 2 to 3 times.
In a bowl, add flour,semolina, rosemary, carom seeds, chopped spinach , ghee (or oil) and salt and combine well. The mixture should resemble fine bread crumbs. Slowly add cold water and knead into a stiff yet pliable dough. Keep it inside a cling wrap and refrigerate for minimum 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180 degree.
Take out the dough from the refrigerator and keep aside for 5 minutes. Divide the dough into two parts. Now start rolling the dough keeping between two sheet of baking paper with some flour for dusting.
Roll into a circle of thickness of your choice and with the help of cookie cutter , take out small circular Mathris. Prick all over with a fork.
Arrange in a baking tray and apply a brush of ghee on all the Mathris and bake on 180 degree for 10 to 12 minutes.
Take out from oven and let it cool on wire rack for some time. Your health Tea time mathris is ready to be relished.
Store in airtight containers. Serve them with tea.