Multigrain Childa

Winter is here and with walks in the neighborhood or to the park gets tough, eating healthy all the more becomes essential. Of course going to the gym is always an option or finding time for yoga is good, but with two little kids and now a stay at home mom, makes it very challenging to find time. Fortunately I have a treadmill that I try to run as many days regularly as possible. Cool winters and warm fireplace calls for good comfort food but healthy too. How do we balance the taste, comfort with a healthy option? There are plenty of options. They are easy and so versatile to fit your family lifestyle, taste and such. One such dish for me is childa, kinda like a pancake or crepe which is made out of batter and pouring on hot iron skillet or even a non-stick pan. My mom always always made healthy choices for us growing up and so thinking in those lines is not a battle for me. She made childa usually with 2 lentils varieties and rice, onion topping and a side of coconut or tomato chutney. I just made some changes to it to fit my family needs.

Lentils, Oats, Brown rice and Quinoa

Ingredients:

1 cup yellow lentil
1 cup pink lentil
1 cup yellow mung lentil
1 cup oats
1 cup brown rice
1 cup quinoa
1 small onion finely chopped
1 bunch beet leaves finely chopped
A small piece of ginger (optional)
2 dried red chili or green chili or per taste
Oil for cooking
Salt per taste

Directions:

Wash and soak all ingredients including the red chilies except the vegetables. In a mixer grinder or food processor grind all except the vegetables coarsely, add water if necessary.

Batter ready to be cooked

Batter on the iron skillet cooking.

If using green chilies finely chop that and add it to the batter along with salt, onions and beet leaves. Heat a iron skillet to medium high and pour a ladle full of batter and spread it. Drizzle some oil around it and let it cook for about 2 mins, flip and let it cook for another 2 mins or until gold brown. Serve hot with any chutney, I served mine with Coriander and Onion chutney.

Multigrain childa served with chutneys

NOTE: You can add any vegetable either inside the batter for ease or as a topping. You can use grated carrot, chopped spinach, cabbage, even eggplent if finely chopped. I used black quinoa jus because I had it. You can add other types of lentils as well.

Truly a multigrain with green leafy beet leaves and onions