Vegetable Paniyaram is a very easy, quick, and tasty breakfast recipe from South India. It can also be enjoyed as a filling snack or packed in the lunch box for office or school snacking.
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Last year when I went to India, my mother gifted me a very useful item for my kitchen – a Paniyaram maker.
My mother, who is a retired teacher understands that it’s not easy to manage the kitchen with office every day. However, she always encouraged us to eat home-cooked food for maintaining a healthy life.
The reason for gifting me a Paniyaram maker was also the same. She herself has used it a lot in her kitchen so knows how useful it is to make a quick and healthy breakfast every morning.
For us, my mother is a treasure of, delicious, easy to make recipes and tons of tips not only for cooking but everything in life. Just talking to her for a few minutes, makes life easier.
Jump to:
What is Paniyaram?
Paniyaram is a very tasty and easy to make South Indian dish that is generally eaten in breakfast but can also be enjoyed as a healthy and filling snack.
It is also known as appe, guliyappa, and a lot of other names.
Variation suggestions
There are different variations of Paniyaram and it’s generally prepared with soaked and ground lentils and rice, or semolina. You can also make it using a leftover batter of idli or dosa.
In this recipe, I have added chopped vegetables to semolina batter but you can get all creative and make different versions. Like my sweet paniyaram version dates and coconut paniyaram recipe. Some more variation suggestions are given below:
- Add puree of vegetables like spinach, pumpkin, tomato, etc
- Corn and spinach paniyaram
- Tomato and cheese paniyaram
- Chocolate and berries paniyaram
- Fruits and nuts paniyaram
Today, I am sharing the recipe for simple vegetable Paniyaram made with semolina.
Ingredients required and substitute suggestions
To make vegetable paniyaram, you need the following ingredients:
- Semolina
- Chopped vegetables: Use vegetables that don't need a lot of cooking time like cabbage, carrot, bell pepper, spinach, etc.
- Fresh coriander leaves: Use any fresh herb of your choice.
- Yogurt: Plant-based/ dairy
- Water
- Ground black pepper: You can use more spices to season the batter.
- Cooking oil: Use any neutral-flavored oil
- Green chili peppers
- Curry leaves: Fresh/dried
- Grated ginger
- Baking soda: Fruit salt can be used too.
How to serve?
Enjoy vegetable paniyaram with your favorite dipping sauce or a cup of tea or any other favorite beverage of yours. Some of the dips that I love to serve with Paniyaram are:
You can also serve it with tomato ketchup.
Where to buy Paniyaram maker from?
You will find a Paniyaram maker in most of the Indian stores which keep utensils. It's also available online in almost every major online store. Just make sure that it’s nonstick and has a lid too.
If interested, you can check amazon for paniyaram maker here.
A paniyaram pan can also be used to make a healthy version of many other dishes which are generally deep fried like malpua, pakore, bati, vada for dahi vada etc.
More easy breakfast recipes
Struggling to decide what to cook every morning? The following recipes might be helpful for you:
- Savoury muffins with tomato, corn, and caramelized onions
- Bread poha
- Besan chilla
- Vegan chocolate chip banana bread
- Vegan oatmeal cookies
- Blueberry banana smoothie
Step by step photo instructions
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Recipe
Vegetable Paniyaram
Equipment
- Paniyaram maker
Ingredients
- 1 cup semolina
- 0.5 cup plant-based/ dairy yogurt optional but recommended
- 0.5 cup finely chopped red onion
- 0.25 cup finely chopped carrot
- 0.25 cup finely chopped cabbage
- 1 teaspoon grated ginger
- 1 teaspoon finely chopped green chilies adjust as per taste
- 0.25 cup chopped coriander leaves
- 6 chopped curry leaves
- 0.5 teaspoon baking soda
- 0.5 teaspoon ground black pepper adjust as per taste
- Salt as per taste
- Cooking oil to grease the pan
- 1.25 cups Water adjust to get pancake batter-like consistency
Instructions
- Mix semolina, yogurt, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Add around 1 cup of water, mix and keep aside for around 10 minutes.
- After 10 minutes, semolina will soak most of the water so add more water to get a pancake like consistency.
- Add baking soda and mix.
- Next, add all the vegetables and mix again.
- Grease a paniyaram pan with little oil and pour some batter in the paniyaram moulds. Cover the pan and cook for around 3-4 minutes on medium flame or until the top part of paniyaram becomes dry and the bottom turns golden brown. Flip them over, cover the pan again, and cook the other side for around 2-3 minutes.
- Take out in a bowl and enjoy with your favorite dipping sauce.
What if I dont have that maker?
Hi Sophia. For making paniyaram you need to need to have a paniyaram maker but you can also use paniyaram batter to make small pancakes like uttapam.