Besan Chilla with vegetables

What’s besan chilla?

Besan Chilla is a type of Indian Pancake which is made with chickpea flour batter flavored with Indian spices and sometimes vegetables too.

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.

Ingredients needed

For this besan cheela recipe, you will need the ingredients shown below:

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.

How to make besan ka chilla (step-by-step instructions)?

For making this vegetable besan chilla recipe, follow the instructions given below:

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!

How to serve?

Serve this savoury pancake hot or warm. 

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.

Storing and reheating tips

Storing:

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.

Recipe tips and tricks

• Don't add all the water in one go, start by adding ¼ cup of water at a time and then a few tablespoons at a time until you get the desired consistency.
• You can also add the puree of any blanched vegetable like spinach, beetroot, or peas to the chilla batter.
• Non-vegans may also add grated paneer to the batter. Vegans may add grated tofu.
• Instead of water, you can also use leftover dal to make chilla batter.
• Some people don’t like the taste or smell of chickpea flour. If you slightly roast the chickpea flour in a pan before mixing it with water, that raw taste of chickpeas will go away.
• To flavor the cheela batter, you can also add other spices like cumin seeds, red chili powder, or garam masala.
• Make sure not to overheat the pan before pouring the batter. If the pan is very hot, the batter will get cooked as soon as you pour it on the pan and then it will be difficult to spread it.

Variation suggestions

The basic besan ka cheela is made just by mixing chickpea flour, water, salt, ginger, garlic, and a few spices like carom seeds, coriander powder, and turmeric powder.

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.

Where else can chickpea flour be used?

Chickpea flour or besan is used in a lot of Indian recipes. If you are not sure where else to use this ingredient, then do check out the following recipes in which chickpea flour is used:

1. Burmese Khow Suey
2. Lauki ke kofte
3. Tandoori aloo

More easy Indian breakfast recipes

If you liked this recipe and are interested in exploring more easy Indian breakfast recipes then don't miss to check out the following links:

1. Bread Poha
2. Vermicelli upma
3. Vegetable Paniyaram
4. Sweet paniyaram
5. Rava Uttapam
6. Sabudana Khichdi
7. Paneer sandwich
8. Potato sandwich