Sprouted Moong Chilla

5 from 18 votes

A yummy, crispy-around-the-edges moong chilla packed with veggies! Make this savory Indian style lentil pancake with sprouted mung beans for an extra nutrition bump. This is a great recipe to serve for a delicious Indian breakfast or for a light lunch or dinner.

Prep Time15

Cook Time15

Total Time30

Course: Breakfast/Brunch/Lunch/Dinner, Snack

Cuisine: Indian

Diet: Gluten Free, Vegan, Vegetarian

Servings: chillas

Calories: 90kcal

Author: Vaishali · Holy Cow Vegan

Equipment

1 cast iron griddle or non stick pan or skillet
1 Large bowl
1 Colander (for sprouting beans)

Ingredients

1 cup whole moong beans (sprouted per directions above. For a moong dal cheela, made with mung lentils, you can soak the lentils for eight hours and use, no sprouting required)
1 tablespoon ginger garlic paste (If you don't have ginger garlic paste chop four cloves of garlic and a one-inch piece of ginger and add to the blender instead of the paste)
1-2 green chillies
½ teaspoon turmeric
2 tablespoon rice flour (If low carb you can use tapioca flour or skip altogether)
2 tablespoon cilantro (finely chopped)
1 large carrot (grated using the side with the largest-size slots on your grater-- you don't want this to be too fine)
6 radishes (grated. If using a daikon radish use ½ cup of the grated radish)
Salt to taste
2 tablespoon avocado oil or any neutral oil (or cooking spray, for coating the griddle or skillet)

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Place the beans or lentils, all water drained out, in a blender with the ginger garlic paste, green chili peppers, turmeric and salt. Add ¾th cup of water and blend into a very smooth batter. You can add ¼th cup more water if needed--the batter should be fairly runny, thicker than a crepe batter but thinner than a pancake batter. The veggies will also express some water into the batter, so keep that in mind.
Place the batter in a bowl and stir in the rice flour.
Next stir in the veggies and finally add the cilantro. Taste and add more salt if you want at this time.
Set the batter aside for 30 minutes. This will allow some time for the veggies to express any liquid into the batter.
Heat a cast-iron or nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until water sprinkled on the surface skitters off and dries up immediately. Brush on some vegetable oil or spray with cooking spray.
Use a heat-proof ladle to pour approximately ½ cup batter on the ladle. I pour about ¼ cup first, spread it around with the rounded bottom of the ladle, then add the remaining ¼ cup to shape the chilla into a circle as best as I can. You want the chilla to be fairly thin but it doesn't have to be perfectly round. If it is really hard to spread the batter on the hot griddle you might need to add more water to the batter.
Let the chilla cook on the griddle about two to three minutes over medium heat or until the bottom is golden and the edges are crispy. Flip over and cook for another minute or two.

Notes

Make the chillas smaller when you first make this recipe--this will make the process far easier and you will get better at shaping them with practice. This is a rustic food, so it doesn't have to look perfect.
Always chop or grate the veggies fine before adding them to the batter and rest the batter for 30 minutes for the veggies to express any liquid.
If you are serving this to kids or someone who cannot tolerate heat skip the green chillies and add a dash of black pepper instead.
The chilla is absolutely delicious served hot with coconut chutney.
You can also serve the chilla with an Indian pickle or a vegan raita, or just eat it by itself.

Nutrition