Bombay Chutney - a vegan, gluten-free side dish made with gram flour. This simple yet delicious dish makes a great accompaniment with poori, chapati, dosa, idli and roti. This easy dish doesn't require any grinding and gets ready in 20 minutes.
As always, you will find the full ingredients list with measurements and detailed recipe instructions in a separate recipe box. To bypass the text section choose “SCROLL TO RECIPE” or “PRINT RECIPE” or click the “SCROLL TO VIDEO” option to watch the full video of this recipe. All options are located at the beginning of the post.
Bombay chutney is also called Bombay sagu, kadalai maavu chutney, besan chutney is very easy to make with few ingredients. This gram flour curry is an ideal option to fix dinner or breakfast when you are are in a rush or tired. Kids eat their food without any fuss as the creamy texture of the dish is sure to entice them.
Bombay Chutney Recipe Variations
My family likes this simple curry as is, however, you may add a dash of lime/lemon juice at the end to elevate the flavour of the dish and to add a little zing.
To make Karnataka style popular bombay sagu, add boiled and crumbled potatoes at the end along with coriander. Sagu and poori is a very popular and most loved breakfast dish in Karnataka households.
Watch how to make Bombay Chutney
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Difference between Gram Flour and Chickpea Flour
Although both are gluten-free flour, their texture and taste profile has no similarities. Gram Flour popularly called besan is made from Brown Chickpeas, most commonly called Kala Chana in India, When this brown chickpea is hulled and split we get Chana Dal also called Bengal Gram Dal. When the raw or roasted chana dal is ground we get Besan Flour. Whereas Chickpea Flour is made of White Chickpeas, also called Garbanzo Beans and popularly known as Kabuli Chana in India. These white chickpeas are used to make chana masala, chana salad, chana chaat. Dried white chickpeas are ground to get Chickpea Flour.
Chickpea flour (Garbanzo Bean Flour) has a coarse texture and has a slightly bitter taste. Besan (Gram Flour/Brown Chickpea Flour) has a fine texture and mild flavour. Many local brands use generic Chickpea Flour label, read the ingredients list or instructions if provided to check which chickpeas are used to make the flour. Besan/Gram flour is the most common ingredient used in Indian cuisine used to make pakoda, bhajji. Chickpea/Garbanzo flour is usually used as gluten-free bread replacement and baking.
INGREDIENTS
INSTRUCTIONS
In a wide bowl, combine gram flour, water and whisk until you get smooth and lump-free slurry.
Heat oil in kadai, add mustard, cumin, urad dal and stir for few seconds.
Add ginger, chillies, curry leaves and saute for few seconds.
Cook onions until soft, mix in turmeric, tomato and cook until tomato starts to soften.
Mix in gram flour slurry, salt, water.
Simmer for 10 minutes or until the curry reach desired consistency.
Add coriander and then turn off the heat.
Serve piping hot bombay chutney with poori, idli or dosa.
Notes
Add more or fewer chillies than mentioned here to suit your preferred spice levels.
Do not skip turmeric as it imparts the lovely colour to the dish.
Cooking time may vary based on your required consistency.
More Delicious Side-dish recipes:
Bombay Chutney
Video
Ingredients
1 cup = 250ml ; 1 tablespoon = 15ml ; 1 teaspoon = 5ml
- 1.5 tablespoon Oil
- ½ teaspoon Mustard
- ½ teaspoon Cumin
- 1 teaspoon Urad dal
- few Curry Leaves
- ½ teaspoon Ginger peeled, chopped and crushed
- 4 Green Chillies slit
- 1 cup (119 gms) Onion 1 large, peeled and sliced
- ½ cup (90 gms) Tomatoes 2 small, chopped
- ½ teaspoon Turmeric
- as required Salt
- handful Coriander chopped
- 3 tablespoon Gram flour (Besan)
- 1+2 cups Water
Instructions
- In a wide bowl, combine gram flour, 1 cup water, whisk until you get smooth and lump-free slurry. Keep it aside.
- Heat oil in a skillet on medium-low heat.
- Once oil is hot, add mustard, jeera and let themcumin splutter for few seconds.
- Now add urad dal, stir for few seconds until dal turns light brown.
- Add curry leaves, green chillies, ginger and saute for few seconds.
- Add onion slices, a pinch of salt, saute and cook for 2 minutes or until onion turns soft and translucent. Salt helps to bring out the moisture from onion and make cooking process faster.
- Add turmeric and mix well.
- Now add tomatoes and cook for 4-5 minutes until they start to soften.
- Now add gram flour slurry, salt, 2 cups water, mix well and cook for 10 minutes or until it reach desired consistency. Keep stirring regularly to prevent the curry sticking at the bottom of the pan.
- Turn off the heat, add coriander and mix well.
- Serve delicious bombay chutney with poori, dosa, idli or chapathi.
Notes
Nutrition
More South Indian Side Dishes
- Tomato Kurma (Thakkali Kurma)
- Eggplant Chutney (Vankaya Pachadi)
- Vegetable Chettinad
KEEP IN TOUCH
Do let me know if you make this simple yet flavourful besan chutney. I love to get feedback from readers.
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mohan kumar
Nice work! This is a great group of recipes for any day.
Geetha Priyanka
Thanks Mohan! I'm glad you find these recipes great.