When my mother-in-law, Anjum, was growing up in Karachi, Pakistan, she would pick leaves off the drumstick (moringa) trees that grew in her yard.
Her aunt would combine the leaves with yellow lentil flour, water, onions, and cilantro to make chilla, an unleavened pancake popular across India, where Anjum’s older relatives lived until Partition in 1947.
Vegan, gluten-free, and rich in protein, chilla are made of dal (ground lentils) or besan (chickpea flour.) Throw in some leafy green veggies, and they are a healthy, nearly complete vegetarian meal.
Cooking by instinct
My mother in law, a physician, spent her childhood focused on school, and didn’t learn how to cook traditional dishes until after she had moved to America and completed her medical training.
In recent years, she took up cooking as a hobby, preparing restaurant-quality samosas, pakoras, parathas, and dosas for my preschool-age twins to sample. (Side note: dosas are crepe-like pancakes, much like chilla, made with fermented lentil and rice flour.)
Since her mom and aunt rarely measure ingredients, Anjum doesn’t have any written family recipes to follow. She turns to YouTube videos for cooking tips and inspiration, but like her relatives in Karachi, she follows her instincts rather than relying on measuring utensils.
Riffing on the recipe
Like me, Anjum enjoys riffing on recipes based on what she has available in her kitchen. When we prepared chilla together, we didn’t have sooji (semolina) to bind the batter, so we used cornmeal. The substitution worked perfectly, yielding a thick batter that fried up nicely in a skillet.
When I tested out the recipe a second time – adding in precise measurements- I came up with a twist of my own: baking the pancakes into bean-burger-like patties that are crisp on the outside and soft inside.
Equipment
Blender or food processor
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Baked Moong Dal Chilla (Cheela) – Indian Lentil Pancake
Recipe by
Yield
8 pancakes
Prep time
10 minutes, plus overnight soaking time for lentils
Cooking time
20 minutes
This is my oven-baked variation on a classic Indian skillet pancake, often served for breakfast or a snack, made with lentil or chickpea flour. If you can’t find moringa (drumstick) leaves, use spinach or whatever leafy green vegetable you have on hand.
Ingredients
- 2 cups/42 g drumstick (moringa) leaves, spinach, kale, or other leafy greens
- 2 cups/389 g moong dal or other lentil varieties
- 3/4 cup water
- 1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
- 2 tablespoons cornmeal or sooji (semolina)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil or vegetable oil, plus more for greasing
- Cilantro, finely chopped, to taste (optional)
- Onion, finely chopped, to taste (optional)
Directions
- Soak lentils in advance: Rinse lentils. Place in a bowl and cover with water; let soak for at least 6 hours, ideally overnight.
- Prepare batter: Drain any remaining liquid from soaked lentils. In the bowl of a food processor or blender, combine lentils, salt (adjust the amount to your taste) and water. Blend or process until a finely ground paste forms. Transfer to a mixing bowl, and stir in finely chopped leafy greens. Add onions and cilantro, if using. (It’s possible to blend all ingredients in the food processor, but for optimal texture, chop the greens, herbs, and onions by hand.)
- Shape: Grease two baking sheets with oil, and preheat oven to 350 degrees F/180 degrees C. To form equal-sized chilla patties, scoop batter using a 1/4 measuring cup. Using the bottom of the measuring cup or the back of a spoon, spread batter into approximately 4-inch rounds.
- Bake for 10 minutes on one side. Flip chilla using a spatula, and bake around 10 minutes more. The patties should begin to form a golden crust; adjust baking time if needed.
- Serve: Remove from oven, and let cool on baking sheets. Serve immediately with chutneys or pickles (achar,) or in hamburger buns or pita pockets.
- Storage: Chilla can be refrigerated once fully cool. They are best eaten within a few days.
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