Besan ka Cheela/ Savory Gram Flour Pancake

Thanks a ton to all my blogger friends who welcomed me back in my last post but am still at home with parents and family. Though it’s been long that am here but am not complaining, and I guess no one in my position would have complained too. After taking care of an over active baby and a maddening schedule this stay at Baper bari (father house) is like a breath of fresh air to me. Here I can wake up late and once I decide to leave the bed I can again laze around with my morning Cuppa, can eat great food cooked by Maa, can spend time with friends and I can do all these without ever worrying about the baby as I know he is in good care of his Didan (grandmother). Works are there and sometimes it include lot of travel but coming back to family and steaming hot comfort food always refresh my tired soul. And the cherry on the cake is Hubby is also away on another abroad trip so this elongated stay comes without any guilt pang….Do I need more reasons to be on the ninth cloud? Am going to enjoy this stint some more as one important work of mine is still pending. Though everyday am eating great food but Cooking has taken a back seat and am only entering the kitchen to cook on some special request from younger brother. Today after a couple of failure attempts finally I had successfully baked my first yeast bread and watching the dough inflate I literally jumped like a little kid. Yesterday I made these besan ka cheela or savory pancakes made with gram flour for breakfast. This is a very common breakfast item at our household and parents liked it very much as well.

Gram flour or chickpea flour contains more protein compared to other flours and is gluten free. This is also known for its anti-diabetic properties. It is an ancient item in beauty treatment mostly used as an alternative to soap to cleanse face and body. Cheela or chila is a soft pancake very common in northern part of India. Apart from Besan, cheelas are also made with yellow lentils. These are very light and could be made in a jiffy. Being the vegetable lover I am I always add very finely shredded veggies and fry them in non stick pans. Here is the recipe.

Besan Cheela

(makes 5)

Ingredients:

Gram Flour (besan): 1 cup (while editing the HTML this got deleted, sorry for the inconvenience)
Shredded carrots: 2 tbsp

Shredded beans: 1 tbsp

Chopped tomato: 2 tbsp

Chopped onion: 2 tbsp

Chopped green chillies: 2 no.s
Carom seeds (ajwain): ½ tsp
pinch of bi-carb of soda
Water
Salt
oil to fry

Method:
Except water put everything in a big bowl.

Add water to make a thin batter like pancake (approximately 11/4 cup). Check the seasoning.

Heat a non stick pan and grease with few drops of oil.

Pour a ladleful of the batter and swirl the pan to coat the bottom of the pan. Cover and cook on low for 30 second or till the sides of the pancake leave the sides.

Pour few more drops of oil at the sides and cook on both sides till lightly golden brown.

Serve hot with ketchup or any chutney of your preference.

Serving ideas:
I sometimes enjoy it with leftover coconut chatni and that tastes heavenly.

savory tomato chutney (recipe coming soon) tastes heavenly with this.

Besan cheelaTastes great with some gravy dish too.

Here is another version of cheela made by Sandeepa. 

Sending this to Priya's Pancake event.