Besan and Oats Chilla aka Savory Pancake

 (From Banu's Cookbook)

Besan Chilla or Puda is not a new recipe. But I just changed a few things in this recipe to suit me and thus posting it here. 

Ingredients:

1/2 Cup Besan aka Chickpea Flour

1/2 Cup Oat Flour

1 Tbsp of Chia Seeds 

1 Egg

1 inch Ginger

2-3 Green Chillies or per your taste

1 Large Roma Tomato

1 Cucumber Grated

1 Large carrot Grated

1/2 of Large Red Onion Chopped finely

Handful of Cilantro chopped finely

1 tsp of Tumeric

1 tsp of Cumin Powder

1 tsp of Jaggery powder or brown sugar

Salt to taste

Oil for cooking

1 to 1 1/4 cups of water

Method:

1. In my Vitamix blender, I blended the egg, water, both the flours, tomato, ginger, turmeric, cumin and salt well until there were no lumps left in the batter.

2. I poured the batter into a bowl. To this I added the grated cucumber, carrot, chopped red onion and Cilantro. 

3. I added the Jaggery powder and added a bit more water to make it thick yet pouring consistency. 

4. Heat a nonstick pan and spread some oil on it. Spread the batter as thinly as you can. Cook it well on both sides on medium heat. It will take some time, but it will get cooked well and become crispy.

5. Serve it hot with some pickle and yogurt. 

Notes:

1. You can add Rolled oats - instead of oat flour, the batter will be a bit more textured as the rolled oats will not be super smooth. 

2. You can add other vegetables like spring onions, grated zucchini, bell peppers etc. The more veggies you add, it might be harder to spread it thin. So chop the veggies as thin as you can. 

3. If the chilla or pancake is spread thin, it will become nice and crispy and not soggy and gooey. That is the key and plus the heat is critical. Do not cook it on high heat. 

4. You can skip the egg if you want to keep it Vegan and instead add some nut butters like almond or peanut butter. It will taste very well too and still give you some additional protein.

5. You can do roll up omlette style with these pancakes with avocados in the middle. 

6. You can serve it some chutney or curry too. 

7. You can skip chia seeds or add some flax seeds if you prefer it or flax meal.