These simple Indian-style pancakes are made with gram (chickpea) flour and filled with a spiced potato mixture. They’re delicious served with mango chutney, vegan raita or lime pickle.
Traditional dosa require fermenting rice for up to two days to make the batter. If you want the flavour inspiration without the lengthy prep, these quick chickpea-flour pancakes recreate a similar savoury feel and are perfect for a weeknight dinner.
Don’t worry if you don’t have every spice listed — use what you have. Similar spices or store-bought blends such as garam masala or curry powder work well here.
The batter yields 6–8 pancakes. The first one often turns out imperfect (the cook’s perk!), so serve the best six filled with the potato mixture and accompany with your preferred chutney or pickle.
📝 What you need
Ingredients
- Potatoes (medium–large)
- Spring onions
- Lemon
- Garlic (or ready-chopped garlic / garlic purée)
- Red chilli (or ready-chopped chilli)
- Root ginger (or ready-chopped ginger / ginger purée)
- Gram (chickpea) flour
- Plain flour
- Bicarbonate of soda
- Salt
- Spices: mustard seeds, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, garam masala, turmeric
- Rapeseed or sunflower oil
- Dairy-free milk
Equipment
A reliable non-stick frying pan helps the pancakes slide out easily. A pestle and mortar or spice grinder is handy for crushing whole spices — it releases fresh aromas you won’t get from pre-ground spice blends.
👩🏽🍳 Pancake Variations
Try these simple variations to suit your tastes:
- Use cauliflower mash or carrot-and-swede mash instead of potato for a lighter filling.
- Add cooked vegetables such as broccoli or cauliflower to the filling for extra vitamins and texture.
- Spread a little spicy mango chutney inside the pancake before rolling for a sweet-savory twist.
🔪 What else can I make with chickpea (gram) flour?
If you’ve got extra gram flour, here are a few ideas to use it:
- Use gram flour in Yorkshire-pudding-style batters for vegan toad in the hole.
- Use gram flour as a binder in vegetable or chickpea balls, such as vegan Swedish-style meatballs.
- Gram flour is ideal for onion bhajis and other fritter batters — remember to use dairy-free yoghurt for any raita.
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📖 Recipe
Indian pancakes with spiced potato filling
Kate Ford | The Veg Space
Ingredients
For the pancakes:
- 130g gram (chickpea) flour
- 130g plain flour
- ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon each of mustard seeds, cumin seeds and coriander seeds
- 400ml water
- Rapeseed or sunflower oil for frying
For the potato filling:
- 4 medium–large potatoes (about 500g)
- 2 tablespoons dairy-free milk
- 3 tablespoons rapeseed or sunflower oil
- 1 clove garlic (or 1 tsp ready-chopped garlic / purée)
- 1 red chilli (or 1 tsp ready-chopped chilli)
- 1 cm root ginger (or 1 tsp ready-chopped ginger / purée)
- 1 teaspoon garam masala
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 1 lemon (juice)
- 4 spring onions
Instructions
For the potato filling:
- Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil. Peel the potatoes, cut into chunks and cook for 10–15 minutes until tender. Drain and set aside.
For the pancake batter:
- In a bowl or jug, combine the gram and plain flours with the bicarbonate of soda and salt.
- Grind or crush the seeds and spices, then add them to the flour mixture.
- Gradually whisk in 400ml water until you have a smooth batter. If needed, use a stick blender to remove lumps.
For the spiced potato mix:
- Warm a small frying pan over medium heat and add 3 tablespoons oil. Add the garlic, chilli, ginger, garam masala and turmeric. Fry gently for a couple of minutes, then remove from the heat.
- Mash the cooked potatoes with the dairy-free milk, seasoning with salt and black pepper to taste.
- Stir the spiced oil and garlic mixture into the mashed potatoes, then add the lemon juice.
- Finely chop the spring onions and fold them into the potato filling until well combined.
To make the pancakes:
- Heat a large frying pan on high. Add a small splash of oil and spread it with a spatula. Spoon in enough batter to coat the pan thinly, swirling to cover the base.
- When the underside is golden and bubbles form on top, flip the pancake and cook the other side for about a minute.
- Return the pancake to the original side, spread about one-sixth of the potato mixture over it, and heat for another minute until warmed through. Transfer to a plate, roll up and cut in half.
- Repeat with the remaining batter and filling. Keep finished pancakes warm in a medium oven until serving.
Video
Nutrition
Calories: 354 kcal
Carbohydrates: 58 g
Protein: 11 g
Fat: 9 g
Fiber: 7 g
Potassium: 898 mg
Let us know how it was! Mention @thevegspace or #thevegspace
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