Carrot Cucumber Rava Cheela

Take the basic semolina pancake recipe up a level: fortify it with carrot and cucumber, flavor its base with a dash of dahi, spice it up with ginger and chilies. Carrot cucumber rava cheela works really well for brunch or in the lunchbox with tomato pickle on the side.

Here’s the step-by-step recipe with pictures.

You Need:

[For 6 cheelas]

• Fine semolina (rava/sooji) – 2 cups
• Curd (dahi) – 2 cups
• Cucumber – 2 small (~3/4 cup, when grated)
• Carrot – 1 medium (~3/4 cup, when grated)
• Ginger – 2 teaspoons, grated or finely chopped
• Green chilies – 2, finely chopped (adjust to taste)
• Salt – to taste
• Oil – for frying

How To Make Carrot Cucumber Rava Cheela:

1. Assemble the batter

[Preferably 7-8 hours before you make the cheela]

Take two cups of semolina in a mixing bowl.

Add two cups of curd to the semolina.

Mix to a smooth batter of dropping consistency i.e. if lifted up on a spoon, the batter should fall off the spoon without needing to be shaken off. Add a little water if the batter is too thick.

Grate/finely chop ginger and green chilies.

Grate carrot and cucumber.

Squeeze out excess water from the cucumber.

Mix grated ginger, green chilies, grated carrot and cucumber into the batter along with salt to taste.

Let the batter sit covered in the fridge for a few hours, till you are ready to use it.

3. Cook the cheela

After 7-8 hours of standing time, stir the batter around – the semolina would have absorbed the fluids by now and the batter would have cohesed.

We are ready to cook!

Heat a round non-stick pan sprinkled with a few drops of oil. Pour the rava cheela batter into the pan and shape it into a disk of about 5-6inch diameter.

Keep the cheela’s thickness even: not too thick not too thin, no lumps, abrupt mounds or craters.

For best results make carrot cucumber rava cheela slightly thicker than besan cheela or moong cheela.

Cover and cook on low heat, undisturbed, for 7 minutes.

Resist the urge to dig under the base of the cheela too early – if you do that, your cheela might end up as a sorry version of upma! Wait out those 7 minutes and your cheela will reward your patience: its edges will, without effort from you, turn golden and gracefully part from the pan.

Gently slide a spatula under the cheela: check if you can lift it entirely up without scraping. If you can’t, cover the pan again and wait a few more moments. Retry – it should work now.

Flip the cheela over. Press with your spatula.

Cover again and cook for 5 minutes or till no raw spots remain.

Cucumber carrot rava cheela is ready.

Repeat till all the batter is used up.

To Serve:

Serve carrot cucumbe rava cheela with any sweet/spicy chutney.

My breakfast today: carrot cucumber rava cheela with mango chutney and fresh pomegranate.

Notes:

Shape variation: To change things up, use a square grill pan instead of a round pan for cooking the cheela.

Try semolina in other recipes too: a healthy upma with moong sprouts, an Asian-style pancake, or a festive sweet pua.