Pudla – Gujarati Savory Glutenfree crepes
Pudla is a Gujarati dish, lacy looking crepes or pancakes made from chickpea flour known as besan in Hindi or gram flour in Indian cooking.
They are simple and easy to whip up and works well for breakfast to lunch to dinner, depending on how you like it. They are seasoned with ginger, green chilies, garlic and they are so light but still filling and they are gluten free and can be veganized by leaving out the yogurt or substituting by vegan yogurt.
Few years back when I was in Nice, France and in a market, they were selling ‘Socca’ that looked and tasted like pudla, but much simpler in flavors. Italian’s have ‘Farinata’. I love similarities with other cuisines.
I love to eat pudla with tea, or yogurt dip on the side with some Indian achaar or pickle or cilantro chutney.
When I shared this recipe on Food52, some one tested it and tried adding fillings in them. I never thought of filling pudla and that way you can enjoy them as heavier dish. You don’t need a side dish. It fills you up.
These are very easy, but just few simple tips to get them perfect is helpful. You can make them thick or thin. When I add some finely chopped vegetables, they tend to make them slightly thicker. If you want to very thin size then add vegetables in different form, may be blending everything and then add it.
Either way, it tastes great. You can easily find besan in Indian grocery stores, but I have also used Bob’s Red Mill recently. I love it equally.
Chickpea flour is a delicate gluten free flour, the very reason it will burn quickly if you cook them on high heat. So, medium heat is good to cook them perfectly. If you overcook them, they will be little tough, so if you want them to be soft. The batter of pudla also needs to be perfect. It’s not thick like pancakes but thinner more like crepes.
I hope you like this recipe. It’s a very favorite Gujarati dish that I grew up eating. Every time, my mum made them we would also make a sweeter version of them a very different recipe. I will share that recipe one of these days.
Pudla – savoury gluten free crepes
Ingredients
- 1 cup Chickpea Flour
- 1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1/4 cup yogurt vegans -skip the yogurt or sub vegan yogurt
- ¾ cup water
- 2-3 cloves garlic grated
- 1.5 teaspoons ginger grated
- 1 long green chili finely chopped you can add more if you take up heat..
- Pinch Baking soda
- Salt to taste
- 1 tbsp cilantro leaves finely chopped
- 1/4 cup onion finely chopped
- handful of Spinach finely chopped
- Oil – for pan frying
- Additional toppings- Green onions, tomatoes, onions, green bell peppers, finely chopped etc for toppings
Instructions
- Take flour to a mixing bowl and add the garlic, ginger, green chilies, turmeric, salt. Gradually, add yogurt mixing it well into the flour mixture. And, then add water as much as desired to form batter. The batter is usually not thick, bit thinner.
- Finally, add the chopped spinach, onion and cilantro. I prefer to leave the batter for about 10 minutes. Its not necessary though.
- Just as you are ready to make the crepes, add the baking soda. And, mix it well.
- Ready to make pudla, place a griddle or pan on medium heat, drizzle a little bit of oil and then take spoonful of batter and pour it in the pan. Immediately sprinkle the vegetables of your choice if you didn't add them already in the batter. I usually add finely chopped tomatoes, onions, green bell pepper, spring onions, greens, zucchini etc.
- Let it cook on one side. When you see bubbles, flip it and cook it on the other side, drizzle some oil and cook well on both sides.
- Remove from the griddle once cooked. Serve hot with green cilantro/mint chutney, yogurt and filling of your choice to make it for dinner.
XO, Devangi