Beetroot cheela is an easy and nutritious savory pancake. It’s a popular Indian breakfast item made with besan (chickpea flour) and oats, and best served with a variety of chutneys!
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I grew up eating lots of fluffy pancakes. The first few recipes on this blog could tell you more about that. Pancakes felt like the quintessential American breakfast food and fluffy carbs are objectively quite satisfying. But I’m at a point where they’ve gotten a bit boring and I crave something more interesting. Beetroot cheela definitely beats adding protein powder to vanilla pancakes because they contain besan!
Besan is chickpea flour, so it’s already pretty high in protein, but more importantly, it makes great cheelas, which are a thin savory pancake and a popular Indian breakfast or lunch food. I’m always looking for cool uses of beets because I tend to have one waiting for me to get creative and beets make everything beetiful. You just process already cooked beets into a paste and add it to the besan, along with oats, a pinch of hing (asafetida) and red chili powder. Thin with water and use a ladle to spread it on a pan.
How to Serve Beetroot Cheela
Yeah they’re a common breakfast food, but I love having them for lunch! Or saving the leftovers for snack!
With chutneys:
cilantro mint chutney
peanut chutney
any chutney your heart desires
Beetroot Cheela
Ingredients
- 2 medium beets, boiled or pressure cooked
- 1 cup besan (chickpea flour)
- ½ cup oat flour *save money! process rolled oats!
- pinch of hing (asafetida) *optional; use if you have it!
- ¼ tsp red chili powder
- ½ tsp salt or to taste
- water to thin
- avocado oil or another neutral oil
cilantro chutney
- 1 cup packed cilantro
- ½ cup mint
- 1 inch ginger
- 1 green chili
- ¼ tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp amchur (dried mango) powder
- ½ tbsp lime juice or juice from ½ a lime
- salt to taste
- ¼ cup cashews *optional – adds texture and volume and makes it less spicy
Instructions
- Process the cooked beets into a smooth paste.
- To a mixing bowl, add besan, oat flour, hing, red chili powder, and salt. Whisk with a fork to make sure there aren't clumps.
- Add water to thin the batter to a medium consistency that should be easy to spread with a ladle: not too thick, not too runny.
- Heat a nonstick pan over medium heat. Use a ladle to add the batter (⅓ cup should be good!) to the center of the pan. Use the round end of the ladle to spread the batter outward by moving it in a spiral motion until it is thin. Cook for about 2 minute per side. After flipping the cheela, a little drop of oil around the edges helps it cook nicely, but it isn't necessary.
- For the chutney, simply process all the ingredients in a small food processor. Taste and adjust!
For more Indian breakfasts, check out:
