A twist on the traditional Moong Dal Cheela / Chila recipe, where it is served with a spicy-crunchy topping, instead of chutneys. Healthy breakfast is served!
Moong dal cheelas are are a very popular breakfast in Rajasthan. They are also made using Besan or gram flour. Light and nutritious, they can be served with a choice of fillings. In this recipe, the cheelas are bite sized and the topping is made from a traditional Hyderabadi spice mix used to stuff vegetables and a touch of tamarind to the batter rounds off the flavours. A similar combination of peanuts, sesame seeds and chillies are also used in the making of the curry base for saalan. Topping cheelas with the crunchy mix adds a lovely mix of flavours and textures to the dish. The spice powder can also be used to eat with idlis and dosas
Crunchy spice topping
Some more quick Indian Breakfast recipes for you
Tomato omelette – Udupi hotel style
Besan cheela filled with paneer bhurji
Recipe for Moong dal cheela with Hyderbadi masala topping
Ingredients
For Moong Dal Cheela
- 1/2 cup moong dal split yellow
- 1/4 tsp tamarind paste
- 1/2 tsp salt
For Hyderabadi Masala topping:
- 3 tbsps peanuts raw
- 1 tbsp sesame seeds
- 3 chillies dried red
- 1 tsp jaggery crumbled
- 1/2 tsp salt
Instructions
- Wash and soak the moong dal for 2 hours in lots of water
- On a medium flame, roast the peanuts, sesame seeds and red chillies until the peanuts turn golden brown. This will take around 8-10 minutes. Once cooled, in a mixer, pulse and coarsely grind this with the salt and jaggery and keep aside
- Drain the soaked dal and grind it to a puree with xbc cup water and tamarind paste. Add salt and 1 tbsp of the ground spice mix
- Grease a non-stick tava with a few drops of oil
- Using 1 tablespoon of batter, prepare small cheelas, not too thin though. Drizzle oil around the sides and on medium flame, allow to turn golden. Flip and cook on other side for 30 seconds
- Make in batches and remove onto a platter
- To serve, place a teaspoon of Hyderabadi spice mix on each cheela or serve a stack of cheelas with the spice mix in a cup
Notes
For healthy vegetarian recipes, check out my book The Everyday Healthy Vegetarian.  Get all the info about my book and order it here.Â
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I enjoy reading your recipes even though I often have to refer to google to identify your ingredients. For example, I’d never heard of Moong Dal so I had to google to find out it’s mung bean flour. I’ve half a package of mung beans in the fridge. Do you suppose I could just toss them in my spice grinder? I expect I could. 🙂 I can’t eat wheat and my wife can’t eat wheat, corn, milk or peanuts (I could probably substitute pumpkin seeds or almonds for the peanuts).