Besan Chilla Recipe with Vegetables

Chilla recipes are great for any purpose. Whether you are looking for healthy alternatives to lose weight or yearning for some tasty breakfast for lazy Sunday mornings, besan ka cheela fits all! What more, it is one of the easiest recipes that you can make well under 30 minutes. And yes, this is purely vegan. If you are on a vegan diet, go for this vegan snack to satiate your taste buds.

Besan chilla is so fulfilling that you can have one or two of them in the morning (late morning hours of Sundays!) and can do without lunch. You won't feel hungry till evening! Well, that's not a very good advice for those who have been trying to lose weight as they must eat small meals every 2-3 hours. But for most of us, Sundays are cheat days and thus we can enjoy a healthy and tasty besan chila without any guilt! These besan chillas have lots of vegetables in them and are made in only 1-2 tsp of oil. Why regret having them? And besan is very healthy. If you don't believe me, read what this Dietician has to say about how healthy is besan?

Enough about besan and benefits of having besan chillas on Sunday mornings! let's now have the easy recipe for besan chilla so that you can make it and enjoy it just like I do :)

Get these Vegetables for Healthy Besan Cheela

Whatever vegetables you can find in your fridge, get them onto your kitchen counter top! I have used the following and my besan chillas tasted heavenly:

• Carrots
• Beans
• Capsicum
• Onion
• Spring onion
• Spinach
• Coriander leaves

Quantity doesn't matter a lot in this besan chilla recipe as far as veggies are not so much in amount that they overpower the taste of besan. I had taken 1 small carrot, 4-5 beans, 1/2 capsicum, 1 medium onion, 2 spring onions, a handful of spinach and a few sprigs of coriander leaves. You can add to this list of vegetables if you want to. Vegetables like baby corn, mushrooms, sweet corn, etc. too go well with such types of besan chilla recipes made with vegetables.

Other Ingredients for Besan Chilla Recipe

Apart from vegetables, you would of course need the following ingredients for besan chilla :

• Besan (Gram flour)- 1-2 cups (decide quantity on your own depending upon how many chillas you want)
• Red chilli powder- 1/2 tsp
• Turmeric powder- 1/2 tsp
• Cumin powder- 1/2 tsp
• Coriander powder- 1/2 tsp
• Garam masala powder (optional) - 1/4 tsp (there are so many flavours of vegetables that this spice is, in fact, not needed in my besan chilla!)
• Salt- as per taste
• Ginger (grated)- 1-2 tsp
• Water
• Oil to shallow fry besan chillas

How to make Besan Chillas with lots of Vegetables

It's easier than you think.

• Soak the spinach and coriander leaves in water for 5-10 minutes so as to get rid of all the dirt. Wash them properly and then chop them finely
• Wash and cut all the other vegetables in as small pieces as you can. I have used a manual vegetable chopper to cut the veggies and therefore making it a matter of few minutes. I told you, this easy recipe of besan chila can be made really fast. Most of the time consumed in this recipe is for chopping the vegetables. Using a chopper cuts this time to almost half.

• Once the vegetables are ready, keep them aside.
• Take the besan in a bowl and add all the dry spices to it- turmeric, chilli powder, cumin powder, coriander powder and salt. Add garam masala too if you are using it.
• Now mix the besan and dry spices well.

• Add all the chopped vegetables and grated ginger to this besan mixture.
• Combine them well so that if there is some water in the vegetables, that is used up.

• Now, add some water to this besan-vegetable mixture. Do this slowly and keep on stirring while adding water to besan.
• Your batter for besan chila should not be very liquidy or too tight. It should have a consistency just like that of dosa batter.

• Now place a non stick tawa or pan on gas stove.
• Pour in 1-2 teaspoon of oil into the pan
• When the oil is moderately hot, lower the flame and spread the oil all over the pan
• With the help of a big spoon or a ladle, take some besan chilla batter and pour it into the pan. Immediately spread the batter as if you are making a dosa.

• Cook the besan chilla on low flame. This is essential because if you make it on high flame, besan will not cook properly from all sides and will give a raw feeling while eating.

• If needed, you can add some more oil.
• After a couple of minutes, try to lift the besan chilla from one side with the help of a flat spatula.

• If you find it easy to lift the chilla, lift it completely and flip sides so that the other side of the chilla can be cooked.
• If the chilla sticks to the pan, give some more time to it to cook. After a minute, check again and flip side.

• Cook it on low flame and check if it has been cooked properly by lifting up a side using spatula.

• When it is done, take it out of the pan and place on a plate.

Serve the vegetable besan chilla with your choice of chutney or sauce. Besan chillas go well with green chutney made with coriander and mint leaves. If nothing, have it with tomato ketchup or you can have a besan chila without any accompaniment. They taste good anyway!