Besan ka puda

Besan ka puda come from India and are a popular breakfast dish there. The spicy pancakes are made from chickpea flour (“besan” / “gram flour”). There are many variations of this dish, both in terms of spices and other ingredients.

The preparation is simple, quick and the flavor intensity is amazing.

Chickpea flour contains a lot of protein and is gluten-free. It is easy to prepare a vegan besan ka puda.

And as if that wasn’t enough: children love it.

These simple ingredients would suffice, but almost any vegetable available can be used here.

We need a chopping board and a knife. It works even better with a grater and we like to use our Japanese “Oroshiki”.

For two pudas, we need 160g of chickpea flour – a good breakfast portion for two moderate eaters or a 16-year-old NextGen who last ate about half an hour ago.

Now it’s time for some spices.

We opt for a typical Indian blend of a teaspoon each of salt, turmeric, cumin, coriander and Kashmiri chilli, a mild, intensely flavored variety of chilli that is ubiquitous in Indian cuisine.

Fennel seeds and/or mustard seeds also work very well. If you are using whole seeds, you should first dry roast them in a hot pan for about 20 seconds so that they develop flavor. We would then grind them at least a little in a mortar or food processor.

We wash spring onions, cut off the roots and remove the outermost layer, the easiest way to do this is with our fingers. We don’t throw away wilted parts, but keep them in the fridge. You can easily make vegetable stock from them.

We cut fresh chili peppers into halves so that we can remove the seeds. They are often uncontrollably hot and not always pleasant to eat. You can easily scrape them out with the back of a knife..

In just a few minutes, you have prepared all the ingredients and collected some leftovers for the next stock.

We want to give the dish even more freshness and cut some tomatoes into quarters, from which we remove the seeds and jelly so that the pancake remains crispy.

Now we cut off the bottom end of a clove of garlic, lay the knife blade flat on it and hit it once with our fist. The skin immediately pops open and it can be easily peeled off with the fingers. This is an excellent technique and you will quickly get a good feel for the right amount of force. If you made garlic puree, it was too much.

Peeling ginger with a knife can be difficult due to the irregular shape of the root, often cutting away too much unnecessarily. It’s easier with a teaspoon. Simply scrape off the peel with it.

Now either finely chop garlic and ginger or, like us, make a fine paste from both.

You can also buy ready-made Indian ginger-garlic paste, but we like to avoid convenience products.

Our lovely mixture is all prepared…

…and we add 240g of water.

Everything is immediately mixed thoroughly with a fork, otherwise lumps will form.

Then the mixture is covered with a plate and left to rest for at least 10 minutes so that the flour and water can do their thing. 20 minutes is better.

Melt ghee or clarified butter in a non-stick frying pan over a medium-high heat. An alternative would be neutral vegetable oil.

Pour half of the batter into the pan, lift it up and gently swirl once until everything is well distributed.

Then cook the pancake gently until the surface begins to dry slightly.

The dough is relatively firm. You can easily lift the pancake with a spatula or wooden spoon and check the color. If the underside is golden brown, turn it over.

It is ready to serve.

You can add a lot of things to puda: raw vegetables, yogurt – and for the NextGens: ketchup! No joke, we’ve seen this in India too.

We don’t like admitting it, but it actually tastes great.

Enjoy.

And may the taste be with you.

Ingredients (for two puda):

160 g chickpea flour

Ginger, garlic, red or green chillies to taste

Vegetables of your choice (e.g. spring onions, onions, tomatoes, mushrooms – note, however, that some vegetables need more cooking time than the pancake and should therefore be finely grated or pre-cooked)

240 g water

Ghee / clarified butter or neutral vegetable oil

1 teaspoon each of salt, turmeric, cumin, coriander and Kashmiri chilli