Event: Sunday Funday
Theme: Zucchini
Recipe: Moong & Zucchini Pancakes
Moong & Zucchini Pancakes, cheela or puda are soft flatbread made from soaked green moong. It is processed to a batter with yogurt and water. Zucchini, onion, garlic and spices are added to make it nutritious, healthy, gluten free and filling breakfast or snack option. You can easily enjoy these pancakes with a curry too as a part of your main mea
What Is Green Moong?
Green Moong, Mung Bean, Mag, Whole Green Gram is an olive green coloured legume. The beans are tiny but full of nutritional value. You can easily buy whole green moong, split green moong dal, the split yellow moong dal easily in the stores. Definitely you will find them at any Indian Grocery Store or online. The split yellow moong dal is where the husk has been removed.
All three types are an essential in any Indian Kitchen. I love using green whole moong whenever possible as I love the earthy and sweetish taste of it. The yellow moong dal tends to taste much different. All three types are used in different ways. For example to make moong halwa it is best to use the yellow split one.
Green Moong Are Healthy
Not only are they a rich source of protein for vegetarians but also are rich in folate, Vitamin B9, flavonoids, zinc and magnesium. Also moong beans are rich in dietary fiber. As a vegetarian lentils, legumes, pulses are a part of our meal everyday. Sometimes we get tired of using lentils in the curry or dal form. So I try and include them in different ways. One way of consuming healthy moong is in the pancake, cheela or puda form.
Some Vegetable Suggestions For Moong And Zucchini Pancakes
Add the following vegetables along with the zucchini or use instead. If you add any of the veggies along with the zucchini then reduce the amount of zucchini added to the recipe by half. Therefore it will be half cup grated zucchini and half cup of any of the below mentioned vegetables.
- Spinach, finely chopped or pureed.
- Fresh Fenugreek, chopped.
- Grated carrot.
- Grated bottle gourd.
- Grated pumpkin.
- Grated potato, sweet potato.
- Spring Onion.
- Grated Radish along with the chopped leaves.
Why Add Zucchini To The Pancakes?
I tend to add different vegetables, depending on what I have and what is in season. However, this time round it had to be zucchini as markets are flooded with them and also because of the theme for Sunday Funday Group. And it makes a good substitute for bottle gourd (lauki).
Sunday Funday
By the way, Sunday Funday is a group of Food Bloggers. Every Sunday we share some fun, traditional, hearty or easy recipes to make Sunday Family Meals a bit more exciting. To join this fun group, visit the Sunday Funday Facebook Page. Request to join in.
Theme This Week
Amy who blogs at Amy’s Cooking Adventures suggested this theme. This is what she wrote “August is all about an abundance of zucchini! Let’s find creative ways to use it up!” As you’ll note from the recipe suggestions, I use zucchini a lot throughout the year. As they tend to be cheaper now, I grate them and freeze them in zip lock bags. I add them to the bag, flatten it and freeze. Whenever I need zucchini especially for my Gujarati food recipes, I simply snap a chunk and add it. It is so convenient.
Zucchini
Zucchini also known as courgette, baby marrow is a summer squash. Although mostly known as a vegetable, zucchini is actually a fruit. Though it doesn’t have any specific taste that one can describe, zucchini is pretty healthy. There are many Gujarati dishes that call for bottle gourd or lauki but since I don’t get it easily where I am at the moment, I replace it with zucchini.
Truthfully, zucchini is not a vegetable I’ve grown up with. I first came across it in western style recipes when I was young. In fact, I’ve always had a passion of browsing through recipe books that were sold at my dad’s shop. The first time I tasted zucchini was at the local Italian restaurant where it was one of the vegetables added to the vegetable lasagne. With lasagne it obviously tasted good. However, on tasting it on its own, it actually has no taste. Pretty bland.
Some Zucchini Recipes On My Blog
Replace Eggplant with Zucchini as I have in Papdi And Zucchini Shaak.
My niece bakes really soft and delicious Zucchini Bread Muffins.
Winter Special is comforting and creamy Spinach Zucchini Soup.
I easily substitute bottle gourd with zucchini in my handvo, thepla and muthiya.
I like to add zucchini to my ‘Veg Bolognese Sauce’.
Check Out How Members Of Sunday Funday Have Used Zucchini
- Couscous with Spiced Zucchini from Cook with Renu
- Garlic Butter Sautéed Zucchini from Amy’s Cooking Adventures
- Marinated Tofu and Zucchini Soft Tacos from Food Lust People Love
- Minestrone Casserole from Palatable Pastime
- Moong and Zucchini Pancakes from Mayuri’s Jikoni
- Zucchini Agrodolce from Pandemonium Noshery
- Zucchini Casserole from A Day in the Life on the Farm
Ingredients Required For Green Moong & Zucchini Pancakes
- Whole Green Moong – if you don’t have whole green moong then use the green split moong dal.
- Urad Dal – split black gram without the skin or husk.
- Zucchini – medium size, grated.
- Green Chillis – either minced or finely chopped. I prefer to mince them.
- Ginger – peeled and minced or grated.
- Garlic – peel and chop finely or minced.
- Onion – red, yellow or white. Any of your choice. Peeled and finely chopped.
- Oil – for drizzling over the pancakes while cooking them. Use any vegetable oil of your choice.
- Cumin Seeds – jeera, jiru. I find that moong and cumin pair very well.
- Turmeric Powder – Haldi, hardar.
- Salt – add according to your taste.
- Plain Yogurt – must be thick and not watery. Can replace it with one egg whipped.
- Water – to soak the beans and also for processing them.
- Baking Soda – to make the pancakes a bit more fluffy. Can omit it.
- Sesame Seeds – for topping. Optional. You can add seeds of your choice like sunflower, pumpkin to add a bit of crunch.
MOONG & ZUCCHINI PANCAKES |MOONG ZUCCHINI CHEELA
Ingredients
- 1 cup whole green moong beans
- ¼ cup urad dal
- ¼ cup plain yogurt
- 1 cup grated zucchini packed
- 1 tsp green chilli paste
- 1 tsp ginger paste
- 1 tbsp garlic paste
- ½ cup onion finely chopped
- ½ -¾ cup water for grinding
- 1 -1¼ tsp salt
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- ¼ tsp turmeric powder
- ¼ cup oil
- ¼ cup sesame seeds
- enough water for soaking
Instructions
- Mix moong beans and urad dal together in a mixing bowl.
- Add warm water, about 2 inches above the level of the beans.
- Allow the beans to soak for at least 4-8 hours. I prefer soaking it overnight.
- Next day drain out the water. Transfer the soaked beans to a sieve or colander.
- Wash the beans under running water.
- Transfer the beans to the blender jug or food processor.
- Add the yogurt and water. Process till you get a fairly smooth batter.
- Transfer the batter to a mixing bowl.
- Add chilli, ginger, garlic paste.
- Add salt, cumin seeds and turmeric water.
- Add the chopped onion, grated zucchini and mix the batter.
- Add baking soda and mix well.
- Heat a frying pan, skillet or tawa over medium heat.
- Very lightly brush the pan, skillet or tawa with oil.
- Add about ¼ -½ cup batter and spread out, depending on how thin or thick you want the pancakes or cheela.
- Sprinkle some sesame seeds.
- Drizzle about 1 tsp oil around the edges.
- Cover with a lid and allow the pancake to cook for 3-4 minutes.
- Flip the pancake, drizzle about ½ tsp oil and allow the other side to cook till light brown spots appear.
- Immediately serve hot moong & zucchini pancakes with chutney, pickle, tomato ketchup or plain yogurt.
- Make pancakes in the same way with the remaining batter.
Notes
- Add other vegetables of your choice. You can replace half of the grated zucchini with it.
- The size of the pancakes or cheela will depend on how much batter you add to the pan.
- Adding baking soda is optional. I prefer to add as it makes the pancakes more fluffy and soft.
- I sometimes store the batter in the freezer without adding the vegetables. Store the processed batter in an airtight container. When required, allow the batter to thaw,add the grated zucchini, onion and baking soda. You can add cumin, turmeric, ginger, chillis, garlic before freezing the batter.
- After cooking each pancake, clean the skillet or tawa with kitchen paper towel to soak up excess oil. Too much oil will prevent the spreading of batter, especially if you are using a non stick frying pan or skillet or tawa.
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