Besan Chilla With Vegetables

Deciding what to make for breakfast every day, especially something that’s healthy, tasty, quick, and easy, is really tough. It becomes even more challenging if you are a vegan or vegetarian. Today, I am sharing an easy breakfast recipe from India called Besan chilla or besan cheela. In some regions of India it’s also called besan pudla. Because of the way it looks, people also call it a vegan omelette. It’s a vegan and gluten-free breakfast recipe.

Besan is the Hindi word for chickpea flour and chilla is the word for pancake. These vegan chickpea flour pancakes are generally served for breakfast but are also enjoyed as a snack. If you want to eat healthy without compromising on taste then Besan ka Chilla is a good option.

Ingredient notes and substitute suggestions

Chickpea flour: You can easily find it in Indian grocery stores. It’s also called besan or gram flour. If you don’t like the taste of chickpea flour, slightly roast it in a pan on low heat until it becomes fragrant and starts changing color, before using it in the recipe. Chilla can also be made with other flours like oat flour, pearl millet flour (bajra), sorghum flour (jowar), lentils flour, whole wheat flour, or rice flour. Leafy greens: I have used spring onion and cilantro. You can also add spinach, fenugreek leaves, dill, etc. Onion: Red onions are the best for Indian recipes but if you don’t have that, use whichever variety is available to you. Vegetables: You can use vegetables of your choice. Some vegetables that go well in cheela are carrot, beetroot, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, bell peppers, tomatoes, etc. Just make sure to shred or chop the vegetables very finely. You can also add pureed vegetables to the batter. Bean sprouts: Optional, but they make these besan ka chillas more nutritious and tasty. I have used mung bean sprouts but you can use other sprouts too. Green chilli: Skip if you don’t like spicy food. Or, remove some seeds of green chillies to make them less spicy. Carom seeds: Indian mothers and grandmothers always remind to add carom seeds to cheela batter as it makes chickpea flour easily digestible. This is an Indian spice that’s called ajwain in Hindi. You can find it in the spice section of any Indian grocery store. Turmeric powder: This spice not only gives a nice yellow color to the dish but also adds a lot of health benefits to it. Coriander powder: It’s the powdered form of dried coriander seeds and you can easily find it in Indian or Middle Eastern grocery stores. Oil: Feel free to use any cooking oil of your choice. Non-vegans may also use ghee.

Step 1: Put chickpea flour, turmeric powder, coriander powder, ground black pepper, salt, and carom seeds in a large bowl. Step 2: Whisk until everything gets mixed well. Steps 3 and 4: Add around ¼ cup of water at a time and whisk until the besan batter gets a consistency slightly thinner than a pancake. Make sure that there are no lumps in the batter. Step 5: Add shredded carrot, chopped onion, green chilies, spring onion, cilantro, grated ginger, minced garlic, and bean sprouts. Step 6: Mix well. Step 7: Add more water, if required, to adjust the consistency of the batter. Step 8: Heat a non-stick pan and brush it with a little oil. Step 9: Take around a ladle full of batter and pour it into the pan. Evenly spread the batter with the backside of the ladle to make a medium-sized pancake. Step 10: Cover the pan with a lid. Cook on medium heat for around 4 minutes or until the bottom side of the chilla turns golden brown. Step 11: Flip the chilla with a flat spatula. Step 12: Cook the other side too for around 2 minutes or until the other side also gets brown patches and gets nicely cooked. Take out on a plate. Your healthy and tasty vegetable chilla is ready to be enjoyed!

You can sprinkle some chaat masala on cheela to make it taste even better. It can be served with chunteys like coriander chutney, mint chutney, Tomato Chutney- Bengali style , green mango chutney, tomato ketchup, or any other dip of your choice. Non-vegans may also serve besan chilla with some plain yogurt or raita like aloo ka raita, cucumber raita, onion raita, or mung bean sprouts raita. You can also enjoy it with tea, coffee, or any juice. If you want to store cooked besan chilla, stack them one over the other and wrap in a beeswax or cotton food wrap. Put them in an airtight container and refrigerate for maximum 2 days. You can also refrigerate the batter for 2-3 days in an airtight container. It’s better if you make the batter by mixing just the chickpea flour, water, and spices. Add the vegetables, sprouts, and greens only when you want to make chillas. Reheating: To reheat cooked chillas, either microwave for a few seconds or, reheat in a hot pan on the stovetop from both sides, until heated well.

However, I prefer chilla with vegetables more than plain chilla. You can also try making different varieties of chilla, I am sharing some ideas below:

Add puree of any blanched vegetables like spinach, beetroot, or peas to make chillas more nutritious. If you are a vegetarian, add grated paneer to make it richer in protein. Vegans may add grated tofu. Instead of water, you can also mix any leftover dal with chickpea flour to make the batter.