Moong Dal Chilla
MUNG BEANS PANCAKE
Ingredients
- Cup of mung beans, washed and kept soaked in water for atleast three hours.
- Two medium sized onions chopped finely
- Coriander leaves or other green garnishing finely chopped.
Preparation time – 3 hours
Cooking time – 10 to 15 minutes
About the recipe
This recipe is Pihu’s most favorite. Since she is currently in the I-love-the-fork-the-most phase, she enjoys picking pieces of the chilla using a fork.
Ofcourse since it super packed with proteins, she doesn’t finish the whole chilla at one time so I pack it in a tiffin and offer it whenever she wants a snack. It is a #vegan recipe.
I read somewhere raw onions are probiotic and excellent for strengthening the gut so this recipe has a good dose of raw onions also greens and cooling spices like cumin. It is hence preferred all year round!
Recipe
Step 1 – Wash the mung beans under running water and let them rest soaked for minimum three hours.
Step 2 – Drain the water and put the mung beans in the grinder along with a big, fat green chilly and a peeled piece of ginger say an inch in size. Grind to a fine paste. Add desirable quantity of water so that the mixture is smooth but not runny.
Step 3 – Empty the mixture in a bowl and add the chopped onion and garnishing. Now your grinded mixture should look something like this –
Step 4 – Mix it with hand so that it turns frothy and then add spices such as salt, red chilly powder and cumin seeds as per ones taste.
1 tbsp red chilly powder
0.5 tbsp cumin seeds
1.5 to 2 tbsp salt or less if you prefer less salt in your meals.
Step 5 – Heat a non stick pan and pour half a teaspoon of oil (any of choice, I used mustard oil). Once it is hot, empty it upon the red chilly powder so that it becomes aromatic and releases a beautiful sunset color.
Step 6 – Spread the pancake mixture evenly on the hot pan and stretch it out using a spoon. Now cover it with lid. Allow it to cook on lowest flame for few minutes and pour few drops of oil around it. Increase the flame gradually.
Step 7 – After 5 minutes of cooking flip the chilla and pour around more oil so that the order side also cooks. The flame should be medium so that the chilla doesnt burn.
Step 8 – Flip the pancake again and let it cook some more on lowest flame. Flip again to check if it’s done.
Step 9 – Your mung bean pancake or as we call Moong dal chilla is ready to serve.
Step 10 – Enjoy it hot with either a chilled glass of spiced buttermilk or some fresh fruit juice. A mint-coriander chutney or chilly tomato sauce goes superbly with it.
NOTES –
If while checking to flip the pancake, it appears to be soft, let it cook or else it might break. A broken pancake won’t look nice to serve.
Don’t be scared of the green chilly. It won’t make the pancake spicy for a toddler.
Of course you can add other vegetables too!
Enjoy!