Suji Ka Cheela | Rava Chilla

One of those many recipes made with cream of wheat or semolina flour (sooji or rava), which is easy-peasy, gets done in no time, healthy and vegan too – the Suji Ka Cheela is a version of the popular North Indian style savory pancake. The only major time that goes in the preparation of this dish is the time taken to soak the suji. Besides that, this Rava Chilla is quite a quick recipe. The rest of the ingredients too are super basic and available in any Indian home kitchen, most of the times. Thus, one of the most loved Indian Breakfast Recipes too.

About Suji Ka Cheela

Traditionally, a cheela or chilla is an Indian style savory pancake made with various lentils, gram flour or cream of wheat. Just like this Suji Ka Cheela that uses sooji or rava (cream of wheat) as the main ingredient.

Chillas can be broadly classified under pancakes, and are a popular breakfast dish in North India. The texture of a chilla can either be soft or crisp. This depends on the way the batter is spread (thickly or thinly) onto the hot tawa or skillet. 

This soft Suji Ka Cheela is very easy to prepare. Thus, making it one of the easier snack or breakfast dishes to be made at home. However, the taste of this chilla is very different from the Besan Chilla or Oats Chilla. These cheela made with sooji taste more like this Rava Uttapam.

I usually make this Rava Chilla the same way I make the besan chilla. The only ingredient that gets replaced in the recipe is gram flour or besan. In place of which, I add the cream of wheat or rava.

The onions in the recipe bring in a crunch as well as slight sweetness as they get caramelized while the cheelas get cooked. In addition to this, other ingredients that go in this Suji Ka Cheela are ginger, green chilies, coriander leaves and spices like carom seeds (ajwain), red chili powder and turmeric powder.

You can serve this Rava Chilla with any green chutney, tomato chutney or even tomato ketchup. I also like to have it with coconut chutney sometimes. It tastes fab that way too.

How to make Suji Ka Cheela

Make Batter

1. Take 1 cup fine sooji (rava or cream of wheat) in a bowl.

2. Add 1 cup water.

3. Mix very well and allow the batter to rest for 20 to 30 minutes. You can even soak rava in water overnight in the refrigerator. This will make things easy, if you are planning to make these chilla for breakfast.

4. After 20 to 30 minutes, rava will absorb much of the water and will become very soft.

5. Now, add ¼ cup finely chopped onions, 1 to 2 chopped green chilies (about ½ to 1 teaspoon chopped), ½ teaspoon finely chopped ginger and 2 to 3 tablespoons chopped coriander leaves in the batter.

6. Mix very well and then add the following spices – ¼ teaspoon carom seeds (ajwain), a pinch of red chilli powder, a pinch of turmeric powder and salt as required.

Instead of carom seeds, you can also add cumin seeds.

7. Add ¼ cup water again and mix very well.

8. The batter should have a slightly medium thick consistency.

Cook Suji Ka Cheela

9. Heat a pan and spread a bit of oil in it.

10. Pour a ladle of the batter on the pan.

11. Gently spread the batter on the pan to make small to medium chillas. The pan has to be on low heat when you pour and spread the chilla batter. Otherwise, you won’t be able to spread the batter easily.

Just lightly spread the batter to a neat round shape. Don’t try to spread too much, as the chillas will break.

12. Let the chilla cook on low to medium heat.

13. When the top of the chilla looks cooked, drizzle some oil on the sides and top.

14. With the spoon itself, spread the oil all over.

15. When the base has cooked and becomes light golden, flip and cook the other side of cheela.

16. When the second side turns light golden or the onions in the chilla look golden or caramelized, then remove the Rava Chilla.

17. Serve Suji Ka Cheela hot or warm with any chutney or sauce of your choice.

Expert Tips

1. If you are planning to make these cheela for the breakfast, then make things easier for yourself and save some time by soaking the rava in water for overnight in the refrigerator.
2. If you don’t have carom seeds (ajwain) at home, then you can also add cumin seeds (jeera).
3. To make these cheela healthier, you can add some veggies like carrot, beets, cabbage, etc.
4. If you want to have spicier chilla, add more green chilies and/or red chili powder.
5. Make sure the pan is on low heat while you are pouring and spreading the batter to cook. If it is not on low heat, then you will not be able to spread the batter easily.
6. Spread the batter to a neat round shape, and not too much as then the chilla will break.
7. This recipe serves 1 to 2. You can easily scale by doubling or tripling the quantities.

This Suji ka Cheela recipe from the archives first published on September 2016 has been republished and updated on November 2022.