besan chilla recipe with step by step photos – besan cheela is a savory and tasty pancake made with gram flour (besan), spices and herbs. grated veggies can also be added to make the chilla recipe more nutritious.
i make besan ka cheela often, but some how never managed to add the recipe. usually i make the recipe shared here, but at times i also add grated cabbage and carrot.
a basic cheela recipe would be with just the spices sans any onions or tomatoes. there are a number of variations that can be done to a basic chilla recipe. you can also have a look at this tomato omelette recipe which is similar. apart from veggies, you can even add greens like amaranth, fenugreek (methi) and spinach (palak).
few more chilla recipes are:
- oats chilla
- rava chilla (made with sooji or cream of wheat)
- moong dal cheela
we do prefer tomatoes in all our recipes and they taste too good in a cheela, so i add them. but skip if you do not like. if using tomatoes, do make sure you chop them finely. you can even grate the tomato and add.
besan cheela is one of the quick breakfast or brunch or evening snack one can make. you just need to mix everything and prepare the cheela. these besan chilla also make for a healthy tiffin box snack.
serve besan ka cheela plain or accompany with coriander chutney or sweet chutney or tomato ketchup.
how to make besan chilla
1. take 1 cup besan in a mixing bowl.
2. add ¼ cup finely chopped onion, ¼ cup finely chopped tomatoes, ¼ cup chopped coriander leaves, ½ tsp finely chopped ginger, ½ to ⅔ tsp finely chopped green chilies. do chop all the above ingredients finely. if chopped even in slightly large pieces, it becomes difficult to spread the chilla in the pan.
3. now add the following spices – 2 to 3 pinches of turmeric powder, ½ tsp carom seeds/ajwain and ¼ tsp red chili powder. use cumin seeds if you do not have carom seeds. also add salt as per taste.
4. add ½ cup water first.
5. with a wired whisk begin to mix everything. if the batter looks thick, then add 1 to 3 tbsp more water. i overall added ⅔ cup water. depending on the quality and texture of besan, addition of water will be more or less.
6. mix to a smooth flowing consistency in the batter. break lumps if any while mixing batter.
cooking besan cheela
7. heat a tawa or a flat pan on a low flame. you can use an iron tawa or a non stick pan. if using iron griddle or tawa, then spread a bit of oil on the tawa. let the pan become medium hot. then take a ladle full of the batter and pour on the pan.
8. gently with the back of the ladle, begin to spread the batter.
9. spread lightly and gently so that the cheela does not break.
10. on a low flame cook the cheela till the top begins to look cooked.
11. then drizzle ½ to 1 tsp oil on the chilla at the edges and all around. skip oil if you want to prepare oil free chilla.
12. continue to cook till the base gets light golden.
13. flip and now cook the other side of cheela.
14. cook this side till you see golden spots on the besan cheela.
15. fold and serve chilla hot or warm. besan chilla are best had hot. but if you are not able to serve them hot, then place them in a casserole. they remain warm and can be served later.
16. serve besan cheelas plain or with mint chutney or any chutney of your choice or with tomato sauce. for more besan recipes, you can check this collection of 45 gram flour recipes.
more breakfast recipes
- aloo paratha
- rava dosa
- pancake recipe
- pesarattu dosa
- adai dosa recipe (delicious protein rich pancake)
besan chilla recipe
INGREDIENTS
- 1 cup besan (gram flour)
- 1 small onion, finely chopped OR ¼ cup finely chopped onion
- 1 small tomato finely chopped OR ¼ cup finely chopped tomatoes
- ¼ cup chopped coriander leaves (dhania patta)
- 1 small green chili. finely chopped OR ½ to ⅔ teaspoon finely chopped green chilies
- ½ inch ginger finely chopped OR ½ teaspoon finely chopped ginger
- ½ teaspoon carom seeds (ajwain) OR cumin seeds (jeera)
- 2 to 3 pinches of turmeric powder (haldi)
- ¼ teaspoon red chili powder (lal mirch powder)
- ½ to ⅔ cup water or add as required
- salt as per taste
- oil as required
INSTRUCTIONS
making besan chilla batter
- take 1 cup besan in a mixing bowl.
- add all the ingredients except water and oil.
- now first add 1/2 cup water.
- with a wired whisk begin to mix everything. if the batter looks thick, then add 1 to 3 tbsp more water. i overall added 2/3 cup water. depending on the quality and texture of besan, addition of water will be more or less.
- mix to a smooth flowing consistency in the batter. break lumps if any while mixing batter.
making besan chilla recipe
- heat a tawa or a flat pan on a low flame. you can use an iron tawa or a non stick pan. if using iron griddle or tawa, then spread a bit of oil on the tawa.
- let the pan become medium hot. then take a ladle full of the batter and pour on the pan
- gently with the back of the ladle, begin to spread the batter.
- spread lightly and gently so that the cheela does not break.
- on a low flame cook the cheela till the top begins to look cooked.
- then drizzle 1/2 to 1 tsp oil on the cheela at the edges and all around.
- continue to cook till the base gets light golden.
- flip and now cook the other side.
- cook this side till you see golden spots on the besan chilla.
- fold and serve chilla hot or warm. besan chilla are best had hot. but if you are not able to serve them hot, then place them in a casserole. they remain warm and can be served later.
- serve besan chilla plain or with any chutney of your choice.
RECIPE VIDEO
NOTES
- for small kids, skip the green chilies and red chili powder.
- recipe can be doubled or tripled.
- grated veggies can also be added.
- you can also add greens like amaranth, fenugreek leaves and spinach.
- spices can be altered as per your taste.
Hello Dassana!
I followed your suggestion and made this chilla.
I skipped the chilies as I don’t like spicy food (and I’m on an indian website… I’ll have to adjust to that!), and ended up adding quite a lot of tomato, onions, and coriander, making it very rich.
It took me ages to chop them as I had never chopped anything before, but now I got the hang of it. Gotta start somewhere!
I did use fresh ginger, powder turmeric, and cumin seeds, but I put too little in it because I feared not liking the taste. Next time I’ll put more, I really like ginger despite it being spicy; I kept eating some raw pieces, very unique flavour, never had it here. The turmeric is incredible, just a little pinch made it all yellow!
I was suggested to add a pinch of baking soda to make it fluff a bit more.
I managed to find the right consistency after adding extra water, and I was a bit scared when pouring the batter, as I have never cooked something like this and it would be easy to make a mess or burn it. I didn’t! Turned out really nice and rich in flavour! (OK, maybe I did burn the first one a bit…)
We ate them for dinner, we liked it and it fills really quickly; easy to make and nutritious, and I liked the besan flour used this way.
Even my indian colleague liked it, I have her approval 🙂 she calls it dosa.
Thanks for the recipe and the suggestions, next time I want to try fereni suggested by a persian friend, and I already noticed you have made a recipe for it!
Have a nice day!
D
hello D. that is great. i am happy that you liked the taste of besan chilla. ginger gives a really good taste. baking soda is not necessary, but yes adding them make the chilla soft and fluffy. if you can get black salt, adding a few pinches of it also gives a good taste. consistency can be adjusted with adding less or more water. less water will give thick chilla and adding more water will make them like crepes.
most welcome and thanks for sharing the detailed feedback. you will like phirni too. i hope it goes well for you. you too have a nice day.
regards
dassana
Best receipe
Hi Dassana,whenever I have to google a recipe,I just seek ur recipes as your recipes as relatable,fuss free,u provide many options as well as u take care they are healthy..today I want to thank you coz I always check the recipe and never put any comment of ur hard work n just keep the praises with myself..keep exploring good luck!!
thanks jaishree for sharing your sentiments. i appreciate that. felt nice to read your comment. thanks again and wish you all the best.
Following your recipes for last 7-8 yrs. Great collection.
Adding a dash of lemon juice or chaat masala gives this recipe a great zing. All time favorite ,vegge besan chilla, of my kids.healthy and yummy.
thank you pammy. yes, that can be done and both lemon juice and chaat masala will definitely make the besan chilla chatpata. thanks for sharing this tip and for the rating as well.
Hi Madam..I like all your recipes.i tried this recipe however my chila was sticking to the pan and was breaking.could you please guide me?
when making chilla or dosa, use a pan which is seasoned well – meaning the pan should be used only for making dosa. you can find more information on seasoning pans in google. the pan should also be a heavy pan and not light-weight. if the pan is light, then the chilla will stick.
I made the dish. As you stated we can add veggies as per our choice, i usually add grated green pepper and carrots, as i an a non-veggie i add one egg as well but i skip tomato as they make chillas little soggy by lunch time (i make for office tiffin). And i dont any masala apart from little black pepper.
Apart from the recipe i want to tell you that you are my inspiration for cooking, following you since 2010 or 2009 maybe when i was in school. Hhahaaa still whenever i search for a recipe i dont have to go far from your site. I recently found you created a youtube channel as well. Subbed right away. Love you a lot from kolkata
thank you rumi. yes carrots and capsicum can be added. even i add them on occasions. skipping tomatoes is good if packing besan chilla. hugs to you and all the best.
Thank you for the amazing site. With leftover batter can I make besan bread?
welcome geeta. yes you can make besan bread with the leftover batter.
Can we pre make the batter and refrigerate ? If so, for how long ?
Sri, if you refrigerate the batter then the taste changes. so better to make it fresh.
Hi Dassana, love your site!!! Can i ask – the ajwain, ginger, onions – can I tadka/fry them before adding to the batter to release the flavours?
Thanks!
Kas
thanks. yes you can do this way too and the chillas will taste good.
Quite quick easy recipe for breakfast,thank you for sharing.
Welcome Anksha
Tried it today..n it was yummy .😋😋 easy to cook and yummy to eat.
Thanks Sarita
Tried it today they came out superb. Thanks for sharing.
However, the chillas were very soft even after keeping on the tawa for a long time. Is there a way to make them crispy?
rithika, for crisp chillas make the batter sligthtly more thin. use some more oil and spread the batter thinly like a dosa batter. for this to happen, you have to mince or finely chop the onions, tomatoes etc.
Hi, lovely recipe indeed. Besan (gram flour) is actually very healthy option for breakfast ingredient. What we all do wrong is deep fry it and decrease the nutritional value of it. However, this recipe is quite good. It uses very nominal oil and uses veggies too. The looks are tempting and off course, would be yummy too. Thanks for sharing this. I will definitely try this and share the outcome.
agree ankita. thanks for the comment. do try. happy cooking.
can we make sweet besan cheela?
pooja, yes you can make sweet cheelas. i wanted to add a recipe of sweet cheela but not getting time. you can either use besan or atta. with besan, add some sugar and cardamom powder. with atta, you can add sugar or jaggery and fennel seeds (saunf) or cardamom powder.
Hi,
Your website is my go to site for anything Indian. Fantastic job! Thank you.
I just wanted to say that the dual language recipe format is very very confusing. It would be better to have them separately. It’s a real pain when you need to read something quickly and you have to wade through two kinds of text to find what you’re looking for. Your previous single language format was clearer and easier to refer to. Please try to revert. Thanks.
hi nivedita, this dual format is a technical error. we are not doing it or implementing it. as the database is same for both english and hindi sites, its taking the hindi language as well for some recipes which have been or are being translated in hindi. we are looking in to this. there were some recipes which refused to come back to the original english language and after a lot of trial and error, we managed to get the hindi language deleted from these recipes.
This recipe is awesomeeeee?I like it
thanks kriti 🙂
hi dassana, avid follower of the site and app, pls mention suitable chutneys to go with the cheela?
thanks resh. green spicy chutney, dry garlic chutney, coconut chutney will go well with the cheela. let us know once you try the combination thanks.
The recipe was awesome n it was very tasty.thanks for providing so yummy and brilliant recipe like besan ka chilla
welcome kumarika. glad to know this.
Thank you sooo much! I turned out great.
welcome rajni, thanks for positive feedback.
awesome it is.. I tried
thanks sadhana 🙂 for positive feedback.
I tried it n it was yummy… Infact I was surprised I could even prepare it but all thanks to you ?????
thank you titiksha for your positive views. glad our blog could help you in preparing besan cheela 🙂 you are welcome.
Hi Dassana,
I tried the besan cheela for breakfast today. While the taste was pretty good, I had difficulty in flipping over the cheela without breaking. Even though I used a non stick pan and made much smaller cheela than the one in your pics, it just wouldn’t flip over in a single piece. Where did I go wrong?
shaheen, two things could be an issue. either water became too much in the cheelas or the cheelas were not cooked till golden & firm before flipping them. the amount of water to be added depends on the quality of besan. sometimes besan requires less water and some type of besan requires more water. if the batter becomes thin, then you can always add some more tablespoons of besan. while cooking if the cheela has become crisp and golden from the base, then you can easily flip them without breaking them. also try not to make them very thin like dosas, otherwise they will break. hope these suggestions help.
thank you this is a very handy and tasty dish without much fuss and time involvement 🙂
thanks kartik. agree its a less time consuming and fuss free dish.
amazing that is !! Can I please know which tawa have you used? Thanks
this tawa was gifted to us. its wonderchef.
I love Indian food and I love your recipes – with one exception. Please understand that not everyone uses a microwave oven or pressure cooker – please include instructions for conventional cooking methods in your recipes.
Thanks!
kat, i will try to add these. being in india, most households use pressure cooker. so thats why i mention about pressure cooker in the posts.
Mam u r superb.
Madam 8 really want to meet you.. u r really Amazing…..
if we mix besan with water & leave it for 20-30 minutes & then add onions tomatoes etc at the time of cooking our cheela will be more fluffy & tasty
thanks for the suggestion manoj. usually i make chillas straightway after mixing, but will try this method next time.
Actually I’m a south Indian from Chennai, Tamil Nadu, but I learned the TIFFEN SAMBAR recipe from ur blog only… and it became my MIL favorite…
pleased to know this thankyou so much jeevitha 🙂
super recipe… I love ur all recipes. I learned lot of tips from ur recipe guidance. thank u mam.
welcome and thankyou jeevitha 🙂