Besan Chilla

These are simple to make, nutritious pancakes made from gram flour or chickpea flour. A very good baby food, you can make them plain and stuff it with fillings (see my paneer chilla here) or you can just add veggies of any sort directly to the batter to make chunky, filling pancakes! I mostly make it like below but sometimes I also add spinach and mozzarella cheese to make another variety of these gorgeous golden beauties :)

The water I have mentioned in the below recipe is approximate - you may have to add few more teaspoons to get the required consistency. It shouldn't be too runny neither too thick. Good enough to spread it around like a dosa. Since my baby enjoys this as much as me the below recipe yields chillas that are very mildly spiced. You can play around with the ingredients and come up with your version. This is just the basic way in which I usually make. 

The below quantity will give you three medium chillas - good enough for one person. I have made a very simple filling of steamed veggies sautéed with some curry masala and salt. Also added some grated cheese. You can have the chillas plain with some pickle or tomato sauce or chutney or add a filling of your choice. Have fun experimenting!

Besan Chilla - Recipe:

Ingredients:

• Chickpea flour / besan - 1/2 cup
• Salt - to taste
• Red chili powder - 1/4 tsp
• Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
• Asafoetida - a small pinch
• Onion - 1 small finely chopped
• Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
• Ghee /oil - 1 tbsp
• Water - about 1/3 cup
• Cilantro - few sprigs finely chopped

Method:

• Combine the gram flour, salt, turmeric, red chili powder, chopped cilantro and set aside.
• Heat oil in a small non stick pan. When it is hot, add the mustard seeds. When the seeds splutter add the chopped onions and asafetida. Saute well till the sides of the onion begin to brown.
• Turn off the heat and add the fried onion to the gram flour mixture and combine.
• Now add water gradually to this mixture. First make a thick paste and keep stirring to remove any lumps. Then add more water to thin the batter and get the required consistency.
• Grease a tava or non stick frying pan with some ghee or oil. When it is pretty hot add a spoonful of batter and then in concentric circular motion, starting from the centre, spread the batter into a nice round pancake. Let it cook for few minutes.
• When the bottom side begins to brown flip it over and cook for few more minutes. Serve hot.