Eggless omelette

I remember as a child whenever we would go to a hotel ,one of the dishes ordered would be tomato omelette.We are vegetarians & we used to get a kick out of that ! I used to love the slices of bread  which would be sparsely buttered .After I grew up ,I hardly recall eating it in restaurants.

I was surfing the net one day.And came across this eggless omlette recipe.I thought of giving it a try.It is so simple & tastes great .Well , that is because anything made with chickpea flour or besan is simply tasty.I would say ,besan makes it effortless ! And, another bonus, is that dishes having besan are nutritious  as chana dal flour is full of protein.And hence, these besan cheelas make for  a very wholesome breakfast !

Ingredients : 1 cup besan , 1 tbsp rava or semolina, 1 tbsp atta or whole wheat four ( optional helps in binding the ingredients ) 1/4 tsp haldi, 1 tsp flaxseed meal , 1 tsp ajwain 1 tsp red chilli powder, 1 small tomato finely chopped, 1/2 cup washed & finely chopped spring onion green shoots ( this is optional - generally finely chopped onions are added ),  1/4 cup dahi, 3/4 to 1 cup water,salt to taste ,oil to grease the tawa.

Method : Take a bowl & mix all dry ingredients like besan ,rava , atta, haldi ,flaxseed meal , salt ,red chili powder ajwain etal.Add chopped veggies.Mix nicely with the dry mix.Keep aside.

Add water to dahi & make chaas.Add chaas to the dry veggie mix.Mix nicely drop by drop, till a dosa batter type consistency is obtained.

Heat a tawa on the gas.Grease with oil.Drop a ladle full of batter on tawa & try to spread it evenly on the tawa.As the pancake gets ready ,it will start browning on the edges after 2-3 minutes..Spread 1/2  tsp of oil on the pancake .Flip it up side down & cook it  for another 2-3 minutes.Remove from tawa on to a serving plate.Or keep it in a casserole so that they keep warm.

Make more pancakes similarly from the rest of the batter.Serve besan ke cheele with tomato ketchup or any chutney of choice.I had it just like that yellow on one side & brownish gold on another side !

Since I had used chaas, I found more of ajwain & red chilli powder was needed for the batter.The chilliness was found wanting.If plain water is used ( no curds are used ) then , 1/4-1/2tsp baking soda can be added to the batter.The cheelas can be made vegetable rich .Grated cabbage, grated carrots, finely chopped methi leaves, finely chopped spinach leaves, finely chopped fresh dhania leaves can be added as well.Cheelas will turn out more colourful & more wholesome !

Sprouted matki curry

I have posted a matki usal earlier. This time, I sprouted matki or moth beans & made a curry dish. I used fresh coconut for the gravy.

Ingredients : Sprouted matki 1/2 cup, 1 onion, 1 tomato , 1/4 cup fresh dessicated coconut, 1-2 green chillies, any  curry powder ( rasam or sambhar powder or sabzi masala powder ...even dhania, jeera, pepper & red chilli powder mix will do )  1/2 tsp , 1/4 tsp grated ginger, a sprig of curry leaves,1/4 tsp haldi, 1/4 tsp powder hing, 1 tbsp oil, 1/2 mustard seeds, salt to taste.

Method : Pressure cook matki ( with 1 cup water to which haldi & hing has been added )  for two whistles.Lower the flame & cook for 5-10 minutes,Put off gas.Let it cool.

Roughly chop onions, hari mirchi, grated ginger  & kadi pattas.Grind them in mixer.Keep aside.

In a kadhai , take oil.Put on the gas & warm the kadhai with oil.Add mustard seeds. When they splutter , add the ground onion -mirchi-adrak - kaddi patta mix .Let it saute in kadhai till raw onion smell goes away.

Roughly chop the tomato & grind it with the coconut.Pour this mix into kadhai.Saute for 10 minutes.Add some water from the pressure cooked matki to this in case ,the onion tomato ground mix starts sticking to the bottom of the kadhai.Add the curry masala ( sambhar rasam or a mix of the two or any other daily veggie spice  powder ) .Mix nicely.Add the pressure cooked matki with the water in which it has been cooked.Add salt.Bring it to a boil.Put off gas. Serve with rice and or rotis.This being of liquid consistency as compared to usal ,goes well with both rice as also chapatis.

My dad simply loved the taste of this curry.He praised my cooking ! In fact, the masala used is daily spice powder made  by my mom ,for sabzis, curries etal !