Spiced chickpea flour pancakes from Indian cook Mallika Basu

These 'vegeterian omelettes' are a great brunch centrepiece or teatime snack, says Mallika Basu
Mallika Basu
Mallika Basu28 December 2016

These spicy savoury pancakes made from chickpea (gram) flour are called Pudla or Puda (poora) and hail from Gujarat in India. Sometimes referred to as a vegetarian omelette, they make a quick and easy brunch centrepiece or even teatime snack. The North of India has its own version called chilla or cheela.

I like to add fresh turmeric to the batter to make these even healthier, but you could just as easily tip in some turmeric powder. The main thing is to keep the pan to medium to make sure the pancakes cook through and develop their recognisable lacy and crisp bottoms. Keep ketchup and sriracha handy for dunking.

Ingredients (makes 8)

150gm besan (gram flour)

Half pint water

1 long green finger chilli

Handful of fresh coriander

1 inch ginger

1 cm piece/Half tsp powdered turmeric

2 tsp salt

Half tsp chilli powder

Oil

Latest restaurant reviews

1/128

Method

In a large mixing bowl, place the besan, salt and chilli powder. Chop finely the chilli and coriander and toss in and grate in the ginger and fresh turmeric (or tip in the powdered version). Mix in the water slowly removing any lumps that may have formed.

When you have an even smooth mixture, get a tawa or small frying pan to a very high heat with a drizzle of oil or a good spray, then reduce the heat to medium high. Using a ladle, spoon one helping of the batter into the centre of the tawa, swirling it round gently with the handle to get it to spread as evenly as possible in a circle.

Cook it for two minutes on one side, until the top solidifies and bubbles appear, then flip it over with a spatula and cook for a similar amount of time on the other. You want little brown spots to appear on the other side and no translucent or wet bits remaining.

Now remove the pudla and start again with another one. The key is to drizzle oil on the edges of the pan before you cook the next pudla. It can quickly become a greasy affair; hence I prefer to use an oil spray.

Eat pudla hot, hot, hot dipped in a sauce of your choice.

Mallika Basu is a London-based food writer, cookbook author and cookery personality; quickindiancooking.com. Follow her on Twitter @MallikaBasu_ and find more of her recipes for the Evening Standard here.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in