Dal chilla recipe
Five days of grilled chicken and fish and salads, and I was craving some spicy Indian food yesterday. But was faced with the same high-protein, low-carb Indian meal conundrum. After some internal brainstorming, I decided to experiment with a dal chilla recipe. For those unfamiliar with what this is, a dal chilla is a spiced lentil pancake. I loved how they turned out; here's my recipe. Give it a whirl and tell me what you think.
I served these with a cucumber and tomato raita, but plain yogurt and pickle is great too.
Yields 10
Prep Time - 1 hr 15 min
Cook Time - 1 hr
Total Time - 2 hr
Ingredients
Moong dal - 1 cup
Urad dal - 1 cup
Masoor dal - half a cup
Green chillies - 2
Onion - 1 medium or half a large
Ginger - 1 inch
Garlic - 2 large cloves
Coriander - a large handful or small bunch
Cumin powder - 1 level tsp
Salt
Vegetable oil
Instructions
Wash and soak the dals in 2 cups of water for at least an hour
Then grind to a paste in a blender. You should achieve a thickish consistency that falls easily off the spoon
Peel and finely chop the onion
Peel and finely chop the garlic
Peel and grate the ginger
Finely chop the green chillies
Chop the coriander
Add the chopped ingredients to the dal paste, and mix through
Sprinkle cumin powder and salt and mix through
Allow to stand for 10 - 15 minutes, so the dal paste absorbs the flavours of the spices
Heat a large flat-bottomed non-stick pan on medium
When hot, drizzle half a teaspoon of oil in the centre and gently spread
In 15 seconds, mix the chilla batter with a ladle and then drop a ladle full onto the centre of the pan. It should sizzle
Immediately, using the back of the ladle, working your way from the centre to the edges, move your ladle in circles very lightly, spreading the batter, as you move outward into bigger circles. If the chilla appears to be breaking, fill the gaps with a little more batter
You should achieve about a 2 mm thickness
Drizzle a teaspoon of oil evenly on the batter, and swirl the pan, to spread the oil
Allow to cook for 4 minutes or so, until the dal chilla lifts off the pan easily with a spatula and is brown on the underside
Flip over and cook for another 3-4 minutes on the other side
Flip over, cook for about 15 seconds, fold in half
Do the same for the remaining batter
Serve the dal chillas hot, with pickle and yogurt. I made a raita with chopped cucumber and tomato and a South Indian tempering to accompany the chillas. Cucumber raita recipe to follow.
Notes
Spreading the batter on the pan with a ladle takes a bit of practice, so don't worry if you don't get it right the first time!