Tomato Omelette is an Indian breakfast dish, also known as Besan Chilla. It doesn’t consist of eggs, unlike its name. Hence it is a veg recipe and highly nutritious. It is an omelette for vegetarians!


It is an instant recipe that resembles a pancake. I enjoy Tomato Omelette with tea or coffee. Or with green chutney. You can also have it with toasted bread like you would with eggs.

The recipe is excellent when you have less time to cook or want to make something quickly. It also cuts for brunch well.

Why Should You Try this?

  • It is extremely easy to make a dish.
  • A healthy option to try for breakfast.
  • This is a vegan recipe.
  • Requires fewer ingredients to make this recipe.
  • Spices can be adjusted as per your requirements.
  • You can add more vegetables to the dish.
  • This is a great way to use up vegetables.

Few Tips:

  • Be careful about the consistency of the batter. It shouldn’t be too runny or too thick. It should be semi-flowy.
  • A non-stick pan (preferably a flat one) or well-season frying skillet is required. Otherwise, you will have a problem with it, and the omelette will break.
  • We can add a bit of semolina or rice flour to the batter to get a firmer and crispier texture. But adding them too much will make it too hard.
  • Grated carrots, spring onions, finely chopped spinach, grated zucchini, bottle gourd, etc., can be added; however, if you need to adjust the water, measure when adding green vegetables with more water content.
  • Cast iron Tawa will help you get a crispier texture. Add a bit more oil for that as well.
  • We are adding coriander to it. But you can add different herbs as per your liking.
  • If you want, you can add grated cheese over it.
  • You can add garam masala powder or any other special spices to it. Also, we are adding turmeric powder to get a nice colour. If you like, you can add grated ginger garlic as well.
  • You can use any oil you prefer. You can check out The Healthiest Oil For Indian Cooking.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use butter instead of oil?

Yes, of course. You can use either butter or ghee instead of using oil. That won’t make much of a difference.

What can I substitute with besan?

A substitution for besan is not recommended. However, if you want to white chickpeas, flour can be used, provided it is available.

What other variations can I experiment with here?

I suggest adding cheese to it. But the vegan characteristic will not be present anymore. In that case, add a tbsp of nutritional yeast to mimic a similar flavour. Or add 1 tbsp of ground flax seeds.

Sauteed mushrooms and/or tofu can also be an option to add here. Black salt will be good for smokiness and provide a similar sulphur-like flavour in eggs. It is optional, though.

Is it okay to store the additional batter?

You can store the remaining batter to use for later. But if you already had vegetable added to it, then the batter may become thin in consistency. In that case, you can add some besan later when making the dish to adjust the consistency.

My omelette was soggy from the centre. What to do?

This can happen because of a few reasons. The skillet you are using may not be completely flat. The flame you cook on might be high.

In both these scenarios, the omelette will cook faster at the edges and remain uncooked/soggy at the centre. Therefore, a flat Tawa is recommended, and it needs to be cooked at medium flame.

Apart from these, you need to spread the batter evenly. If it is more at the centre and less at the edges, the omelette will also remain soggy at the centre. If you keep cooking the centre, the edges will be at a higher risk of burning.

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