Cheela: Indian Protein Pancake Perfect for Pitta Savory Ayurvedic Breakfast.
Updated: Aug 20
This protein-packed dish is easy to prepare and is a great option for starting your day and keeping Pitta balanced to avoid getting hangry. Pitta tends to wake up hungry and energized, making this meal a nourishing choice to kickstart your day!
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Cheela means pancake and besan is Hindi for gram flour also known by several other names.
Besan also known as chickpea flour or garbanzo flour, is rich in vitamin and minerals. According to Bobs' Red Mill, "Garbanzo beans are loaded with protein and dietary fiber and are a good sources or iron. Garbanzo flour‚ also known as gram flour, chickpea powder and cici bean flour‚ is popular in Middle Eastern and Indian cooking and baking....Use garbanzo bean flour to replace up to 25% of the flour in your baking to increase protein and fiber."
Besan Cheela is easy to prepare, requires no preparation, and it tastes so good. Cheela Indian Protein Pancake is Perfect for Pitta Savory Breakfasts and it's great for afternoon snacks, or evening meals.
Cheela: Indian Protein Pancake Perfect for Pitta Savory Ayurvedic Breakfast.
Ingredients:
1 cup besan flour
1 small purple onion finely chopped
½ teaspoon ajwain seed
1/8 teaspoon turmeric powder
¼ teaspoon Red Alaea Hawaiian Salt (or other good quality salt)
Good sized bunch of fresh cilantro leaves finely chopped
½ inch ginger root finely grated (approximately 1 teaspoon)
¼–½ cup water
Instructions:
Add one cup besan flour, turmeric, ajwain, and a little salt to a mixing bowl.
Mix together well.
Add onion and ginger, coriander leaves and about 3/4 cup of water.
Mix together well.
The batter should be thick, but still pourable.
Add more water if needed.
If the batter is too thick, the cheela will not cook correctly and that will feel not at all good in the stomach.
Heat the griddle or pan. If the surface is not no-stick, add a few drops of oil.
When the pan is hot, ladle in the batter to the center.
Using the ladle, spread the batter out as thin as possible. (Think: crepe)
Drizzle with 1/2-3/4 teaspoon ghee or oil.
In a couple of minutes, the edges will contact from the pan.
Now, it's time to flip the cheela and press down on it with a spatula to flatten it thin so it cooks through well.
When the cheela gets freckles (brown spots) it's time to remove it from the pan.
For soft cheela, cover it right away.
Options: You can add finely grated carrot and/or baby spinach to the batter.
Serve with chutney. Try our Cilantro Coconut Chutney for Cooling and Cleansing.
Grab your favorite plate.
Find a comfy place to sit. Practice some diaphragmatic breathing. If you haven't yet, read Learn Diaphragmatic Breathing and Change Your Life, now is a good time.
Let each meal become an eating meditation that supports healthy digestion and nourishment.
Now, you're well on your way to transforming your daily life with Ayurvedic food as medicine and Ayurveda lifestyle practices.
Cheela: Indian Protein Pancake Perfect for Pitta Savory Ayurvedic Breakfast. It's as easy as it is delicious.
Healthy Digestion Begins in the Mind.
When we eat and drink, it's important to have a calm state of mind. Have you ever eaten when you were upset? Indigestion city. When we're calm, we taste the food, digest, assimilate, and eliminate optimally. Digestion begins in the mind before you take your first sip of bite!
There is a saying, "The mind is more in the body, than the body is in the mind." The Saumya 3 step meditation process shifts us from fight-flight-freeze mode, to rest-restore-relax mode. Give it a try for forty days and observe the changes. The more grounded and relaxed we are, the smoother life flows.
"The breath is the connection between the mind and body, so by training the breath, we become calm, focused, and grounded, we slow down the aging process by decreasing stress. These practices are so simple and easy to have as part of our daily life. We actually feel and look younger."
- Veena, Saumya Ayurveda
1. Learn Diaphragmatic Breathing and Change Your Life. When we re-learn to breath diaphragmatically, we move from the flight-fight-freeze mode, to rest, restore, relaxation mode from where we want and need to live.
2. Free Daily Guided Practices: 11 minutes in the morning and in the evening, as anchors of your daily Ayurveda routine.
3. Ayurveda Daily Routines: Ayurvedic Morning Routine | 6 Rituals for a Calm and Centered Day 10 Ayurvedic Evening Rituals for a Calming Night
"Choose a couple of practices from the routines that provide you with the greatest support. Perform them while applying our two minute meditation technique and your mundane tasks, just transformed into a mellifluous meditation. This is meditation applied to daily life." - Veena, Saumya Ayurveda
"Veena was able to help me regain my energy in just a few months and I’m feeling like my “young” self again! I love the food plan she designed for me, and all the supporting practices (am/pm routines, breathing techniques, herbs, and spice mixes) are so enjoyable to incorporate into my day. I highly recommend Saumya Ayurveda if you want to feel better and have more vitality.”
-Molly Rossini, Minnesota
Explore More: Ayurveda Breathwork Pranayama
Discover the Saumya Ayurveda Way
When we gain clarity about what to eat, we can cook and eat with confidence knowing we are turning our food into medicine and with Saumya Ayurveda, you'll know what to do. As Julia Childs put it, "This is my invariable advice to people: Learn how to cook—try new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless and above all have fun."
We all want to be heard, understood, and cared for as whole beings, not a set of isolated symptoms. True health is more than the absence of disease, which is why Western medicine so often leaves us feeling hopeless and unseen.
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Veena is a Certified Ayurvedic Practitioner and meditation teacher, and monk.
She is President Emeritus and teaching faculty of the Meditation Center.
Veena fell in love with the traditional medicine used in her family’s home, learning herbal remedies at her grandmother's knee.
These childhood experiences were the seeds of a lifelong passion. For over 30 years, Veena has dedicated her life to the world’s oldest healing system: Ayurveda.
She draws on this ancient wisdom to help others find their compass to a healthy life – and support those left wanting by Western medicine.
An experienced Certified Ayurvedic Practitioner, Veena’s deep, intuitive knowledge of Ayurveda empowers her clients to reclaim their fullest, most vibrant lives –mentally, physically, and spiritually. Veena individualizes treatment plans to each person, rather than offering a one-size-fits-all approach, so it fits your life and becomes woven in your lifestyle, naturally.
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