We primarily follow a vegetarian diet at home, with an occasional egg dish. My main concern therefore is how to add more protein and iron rich food in our vegetarian meals. For proteins intake, I mostly stick to 3-4 commonly used daals. However, these days I am trying to explore more options. So when I came across a packet of organic kala chana (black chickpeas) in Fab India, I immediately picked it up. I had wanted to make beetroot sabzi for a while. So when I bought chana I thought of teaming it up with beetroot to get a protein and iron rich meal.
I saw one recipe on the Internet, and asked my cook to make it, instructing her with one or two minor modifications. Like any new dish, tried for the first time, I wasn’t sure if Devansh would like it; but luckily he did. Otherwise this recipe probably wouldn’t have made its way on this blog. :P He has been eating this sabzi now whenever it’s made, which is a big relief. Because all of a sudden he stopped liking beetroot in raita, which he used to earlier. Just a phase I guess!!
My cook usually makes this sabzi but the day we shot these pics, I made it so I could mentally note down the timing for each step. I set some aside for Devansh to add more water and cook as he prefers more gravy. While I was transferring it to another vessel it struck me that I could use this to make cutlets for Devansh’s tiffin (lunch box). I kept aside some sabzi and made cutlets by adding some mashed potato to it. Devansh liked the cutlets so I’ll be setting aside some sabzi every time I make it, makes my life of preparing his tiffin that much easier. :) Try this protein and iron rich chana beetroot sabzi recipe and do let me know how you liked it.
Prep time: 15 mins | Cooking time: 20 mins | Serves: 4
Chana Beetroot Sabzi Recipe
Ingredients
- Half cup black chana/black chickpeas soaked overnight in water
- 2 medium-sized beetroots peeled and chopped
- 1 large onion peeled and chopped
- 1 green chili slit vertically in two and deseeded
- 3-4 tbsp grated coconut
- 1 tsp urad dal
- 1/4 th tsp mustard seeds
- 1/4 th tsp asafoetida hing
- 1/4 th tsp turmeric powder haldi
- Half tsp red chili powder optional
- 3/4 th tsp garam masala
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Add a little water and salt to chana, and cook it in pressure cooker till it softens. (I cooked on low flame for four whistles.)
- After they’re cooked, drain the water from the chana. (Retain this water.)
- Heat a kadai, add oil.
- When oil heats up, add mustard seeds.
- When the seeds begin to crackle, add urad dal and red chili.
- When the dal turns golden in color, add hing, curry leaves, and slit green chili. (Mine was dark green, which means it was very hot. So I just put two tiny pieces of the chili.)
- Stir once and then add chopped onions.
- Saute the onions till they turn translucent, and then add chopped beetroots and turmeric powder.
- Add salt and mix well. (Salt will cause the beetroot to cook faster.)
- Add the water in which chana was cooked and cover the pan. (This water contains some salt so go easy on the salt while adding it to the beetroot.)
- Cook the beet root on medium-low heat for about 5 minutes or so. (You can check if the beetroot has become tender by poking it with a fork or a knife.)
- Add chana, mix it well, cover the pan and cook for 2-3 minutes more. (At this stage you can add red chili powder as well if you want to make the sabzi a bit spicy.)
- Add grated coconut and garam masala, and cook without covering the pan with a lid.
- Cook for 2-3 minutes while stirring intermittently.
- Add chopped coriander, give it a good stir and then turn off heat.
- Serve hot with chapatis.
Notes
Use a mixer to make a smooth or coarse paste of the sabzi, depending on the age of the child. (Older kids can handle chunks of beetroot and chana in the cutlet.)
Add boiled/pressure-cooked and mashed potato, and some freshly squeezed lemon juice, and mix well.
Add breadcrumbs to form a firm mixture. (Preferably use breadcrumbs of whole wheat bread.)
Make small balls of the mixture and flatten them.
Coat the flattened cutlets with bread crumbs or rava, and then shallow fry them on a flat non-stick pan (tava) them with a little oil.
