Baby Friendly Chilla [savory Indian chickpea pancake]
This baby friendly chilla [also known ask chickpea pancake] is a popular and tasty Indian vegan pancake that uses chickpea flour. It's a great BLW recipe for babies, toddlers and to be honest, even adults. It is full of flavor, and lucky for you, this chilla recipe has been handed down to Nita from her mother.
This post may contain affiliate links.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
"We tried this with your daal recipe and both were delicious! Thanks for sharing." - L.
Do you want to expose your baby to unique flavours and appreciate other cultural foods? Enjoy this chilla (chickpea pancake) recipe for babies, which we've adapted to include extra iron! Chillas are a type of savoury pancake that's made with chickpea flour and is enjoyed in many homes across India and Pakistan!
Traditionally, it's enjoyed as a breakfast food. And, since we're parents like you, we know how important it is to serve up a variety of foods, so you might also enjoy these easy fruit pouch pancakes or these banana porridge fingers for babies. In Nita's home, chilla is often enjoyed alongside a warm and cozy chai latte, so don't skip that!
Since we're all about practicality, we also believe chilla's are a great travel food for your baby. They are soft, nutritious and as long as you have an ice pack in your cooler, they'll keep for a few hours!
Why this recipe works
🕒 5 minute prep time
🥕 Exposes your child to a savory pancake that is nutritious
🔄 Easily customizable - use any veggie you have on hand
🙌 Focus on iron which is an important nutrient for all children
👶 Family and baby friendly from 6 months+
SUMMARIZE AND SAVE THIS CONTENT ON:
Jump to:
- Why this recipe works
- What is chilla and what is it made of?
- Key ingredients
- Allergen info
- How to make this chilla
- Why this Indian chickpea pancake is great for babies
- How to serve it to baby
- Recipe FAQ
- Play + books that match this recipe
- Other recommended breakfast recipes
- Looking for more recipes designed with your baby's nutritional needs in mind?
- Baby-Friendly Chillas (savoury chickpea pancakes)
What is chilla and what is it made of?
Chilla (or chillas, plural) is a popular dish among desi people in India and Pakistan. To pronounce it, it's like…CHEEEEE-LA. This chickpea pancake is typically made with besan, or chickpea flour but in some families millet, oats, lentils, or rice flour may be used. The word chilla means pancake. One of the great things about chillas is that they're vegan, which means it's a great fit for plant-based households, egg free and dairy free babies. They can also be wheat-free!
For more Indian recipes for babies, check out these five Indian foods you can feed your baby!
Key ingredients
Besan: also known as gram or chickpea flour is essentially just powdered chickpeas. This means it is naturally a source of protein, fibre, and some iron.
Iron fortified baby cereal: you can use either a rice or oat based infant cereal. The primary reason we did this is to boost the iron content of this recipe for you! Plus, using rice flour results in a more crispy chilla.
Learn more about baby cereal in our baby cereal guide.
Spices: the combination of ajawain, turmeric, cumin, and cayenne offer up all of the flavour in this savoury pancake.
Veggies: trust, we've tried it all. You can use any vegetable you have on had such as tomato, peppers, carrots, peas, bell peppers, spinach, shredded broccoli, or even cauliflower.
No Salt: we've crafted the recipe without added salt to keep it baby-friendly. But after you make a couple of pancakes for your baby, you can sprinkle a little salt into the batter and make some for yourself!
Allergen info
Got an allergy baby? This baby friendly chickpea pancake recipe might actually be exactly what you're looking for since it's free of all top priority allergens.
Parents looking for practical, up-to-date allergen advice can find step-by-step support inside our best selling ecourse, Start Solids Confidently
How to make this chilla
The full chickpea pancake recipe is below, but here are a few key steps to visualize the process.
1. Start by placing chickpea flour and baby cereal, if using, in bowl with water. Stir until the mixture is very smooth.
2. After letting the chickpea and water mixture sit for a few minutes to thicken, add in desired vegetables, spices, ginger and cilantro.
3. Stir all of the ingredients together, ensuring the vegetables are well distributed throughout the batter.
4. Cook pancakes on a griddle for 2-5 minutes per side, until lightly browned on both sides. If you want it more crispy, cook longer.
Why this Indian chickpea pancake is great for babies
Texture: This recipe is great for a baby because the outside is mildly crispy and the inside is soft. It 100% passes the handy squish test (pun intended!).
Additionally, the minced vegetables dispersed throughout the chickpea pancake ensure it's not overly doughy.
Nutrition: Both the chickpea flour and the iron-fortified cereal give a much needed iron boost for babies!
Taste: This pancake is a gentle way to introduce your baby to more flavour. It's a myth that babies need bland food!
How to serve it to baby
4-6 months (and developmentally ready to start solids): For a new eater, you can mush the cooked pancake with any liquid such as water or breastmilk and spoonfeed. A slotted spoon would work really well.
6-9 months: At this age your baby may be interested in self-feeding! You can serve this softly cooked chilla as it. You can offer it to your baby whole, sliced in half, or in strips for them to pick up.
9-12 months +: As your baby works on improving their pincer grasp, you can slice the chilla into bite size pieces and let them pick each piece up with their little fingers.
For the rest of the family: If you prepared the chilla without additional salt in order to make it baby friendly, you can sprinkle some salt into batter that you've set aside or sprinkle on top of the cooked chilla. You can also enjoy this with traditional condiments such as pickled achar for more flavour.
The chillas would also be lovely served alongside daal, a lentil soup. We've got a great baby friendly recipe for moong daal that our Happy Healthy Eaters community has loved.
Recipe FAQ
You're welcome to snag besan, aka chickpea flour from our amazon shop. Otherwise, you'll find it at most stores in the international aisle or the "natural foods" section and it's always available at Indian grocery stores.
Yes. You can actually prepare the batter 1-2 days in advance. However, the batter may thin out over time especially if you've added salt. In this case, simple add more chickpea flour.
Most traditional chillas call for onion, tomato, and spices. However, you can add in anything you'd like. It's important to keep your baby's abilities in mind when preparing this. Some ideas for other vegetables include:
- Chopped spinach
- Chopped methi or fenugreek leaves
- Finely diced bell peppers
- Shredded carrots
- Shredded zucchini
Since the main ingredient is chickpea flour, it naturally contains some iron. We've also suggested adding in some iron fortified baby cereal for a bigger iron boost.
Play + books that match this recipe
When kids get the chance to interact with "food " during playtime, they become more comfortable with the food, and are more likely to want to eat it at mealtimes! Here are some options to include Indian food during play and story time
If you tried this chilla recipe or any other recipe on our blog, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let us know how it went in the 📝 comments below. Thanks for visiting!
Looking for more recipes designed with your baby's nutritional needs in mind?
We've carefully crafted 25 delicious recipes to meet your baby's unique nutritional needs when starting solids. But we also set out to make sure each and every recipe is whole-family approved! That's right - just like these chillas, you can make "baby food" that doubles up as food for everyone - it's that tasty!
Check out our e-book, Whole Food Recipes for Your Baby to get your hands on these life-simplifying recipes.
Baby-Friendly Chillas (savoury chickpea pancakes)
Ingredients
- ¾ cup besan or chickpea flour
- ¼ cup infant oat or rice cereal *see note 1
- 1 teaspoon ajawain caraway seeds *see note 2 for substitution ideas
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric
- ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon salt optional, omit for baby
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne optional, omit for baby
- ¾ cup + 2 tablespoon water
- ⅓ cup diced or shredded veggies eg: tomato, peppers, carrots
- 2 tablespoon cilantro finely chopped
- 2 tablespoon diced onion
- ½ inch piece of fresh ginger finely chopped *see note 3
Instructions
- In a medium sized bowl, mix together the chickpea flour and infant cereal. Add in all of the water and stir. Let this slurry stand for about 5 to 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, slice up the vegetables you would like to include in your chilla.
- Add in the vegetables, spices, ginger, and cilantro. Stir once again to ensure everything has been incorporated nicely.
- Heat a nonstick pan to medium heat. Spray the pan with your preferred oil. Once the pan has been heated through, pour ⅓ cup dollops and spread evenly. The layer should not be too thick so you may need to spread it out so that it is about 4".
- Cook for 2.5 minutes. You'll see some bubbles forming on the top and it should be easy to flip. Once you've flipped it, cook for another 2 to 2.5 minutes.
Video
Notes
- While using any type will work, using rice infant cereal will result in a crispier pancake.
- If you don't have ajwain (caraway seeds) you can use cumin seeds instead.
- If you don't have fresh ginger you can use ½ teaspoon dried ginger.
Nutrition
We hope you enjoy this recipe and the adaptations we've made that keep your baby's nutrition at the forefront.
Hi! I would love to make this recipe for my toddler but we no longer use baby cereal. is there something else that we can substitute?
We love trying so many of your wonderful recipes ❤️.
-Dee
You could use rice flour instead. So glad to hear you enjoy our recipes!!
We love a good crispy chilla. I appreciate the addition of infant cereal for the iron boost.
We've always got iron on the brain here, lol 🙂
can this be cooked and frozen and then reheated and given to a 7 month old?
We haven't tried that ourselves, but now we're planning to test that out!
We tried this with your daal recipe and both were delicious! Thanks for sharing
Ooo, that sounds like a winning combo! Sooo happy you enjoyed these recipes 🙂
This recipe reminds me of my childhood! My mom made this for me!
Ahhh childhood memories for me. Can’t wait to try this recipe.
Glad to hear this recipe reminds you of your childhood once upon a time.
I love the option of adding infant cereal to add that iron booster! Such a great recipe!
Easy and delicious!
Glad to hear that!