Dosas are absolutely the tastiest and attractive rice crepe around. There are so many varieties, that one can never get tired of eating them. Some varieties of dosas can be prepared instantly but some need a little time of soaking and fermenting such as masala dosa and utthapam, and then there are some that do not need fermenting. One such dosa is Adai dosa. It is basically a combination of rice with a range of colorful lentils all soaked together and ground to form a thick and coarse batter. Adai dosa is considered to be the nutritious among all dosas.
As adai dosa doesn’t require fermentation, you can easily prepare them for a weekend brunch or lunch. Apart from the soaking time they are quite quick to make. I soaked all ingredients in the morning and after about 3 hours of soaking I ground the mixture in a blender. The consistency of adai batter is thicker and coarser than regular dosa.They can be prepared either thick or thin way but I like my adai dosa to be medium thin.
It is most often served with a mix vegetable dish called aviyal, prepared in yogurt and coconut sauce but in the absence of this dish any vegetable curry or a simple potato stir fry or coconut chutney or even just jaggery and desi ghee will give good pair with this dosa.
Before I move on to the recipe, I just wanted to say a big thank you to Sridevi Ravi of Coconut craze, Amelia of Chai a cup of life, Mary Jo, Malti Sharma, Vasudha and all of you who have cooked my recipes. Your comments, emails and feedback means a lot to me and inspires me to keep going.
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cup rice
- 2 tbsp malka masoor (red lentil)
- 2 tbsp yellow mung
- 2tbs chana daal
- 2 tbsp toor (arhar) daal
- 3 tbsp ivory colored urad daal (split and skinned urad)
- all together makes 2 cups of daal and rice, you can increase or decrease or skip any lentil
- salt to taste
- 1" thick piece of onion/potato/eggplant/zucchini and oil for prepping the pan
- 1 tsp fenugreek seeds
- 1" piece of ginger
- 2-4 dry red chillies
- 5-8 curry leaves
- coconut chutney/butter/jaggery/vegetable curry/tomato ketchup or anything you like
Instructions
- Rinse rice and all lentils soak in 2 cups of water with fenugreek seeds (it will almost absorb all water in 3 hours).
- Grind the soaked rice and lentils with curry leaves, red chillies, ginger (if using) and salt to make a coarse batter.
- Heat a non stick tawa or skillet and reduce heat to medium, once hot ( to check, sprinkle few drops of water on the skillet. When the water bounces and evaporate away in 1 second. This means the tawa is hot enough to make all types of dosas).
- Stick a fork into onion or any other vegetable. Add a drop of oil to the hot pan and spread the the oil around, using the vegetable ( you can also do this with a brush).
- Put a ladleful of batter in the center. With the back of your ladle (and using very little pressure), slowly make clockwise motions to spread the batter from the middle to the outer edge of the pan (you can make adai as thin or thick as you want).
- With a small spoon, pour a thin stream of oil in a circle around the adai/ dosa.
- Let the dosa cook until it is golden and crisp on sides and pulls away from the pan slightly.
- Using a a thin metal spatula, loosen the edge, then slide spatula under the dosa, lift and flip, cooking the other side. Once it is light golden brown, remove from tawa.
- Keep warm in the low oven, while you make the rest of the adai dosas.
- Serve with coconut chutney and vegetable curry or even a little butter/ ghee and jaggery on top (for breakfast).
ela@GrayApron
Wow, crepes from soaked, grounded rice..? I have to try it! They look mighty good…
ela h.
Mary Jo
I am not much of an online blog reader to be honest but your blog is really nice, and simple with easy to prepare recipes…..keep it up and thanks for the mention 😉
yummychunklet
Looks delicious.
Monica
So interesting…I love learning how dosas can be made. This looks very delicious!
Katerina
Now that is an interesting recipe! Crepes from soaked rice, very smart!
Shirley Tay (Blackswan)
Your dosa is so pretty! I’ve tried quite a few dosa in S’pore & also during my travels, but have yet to see such great-looking ones.
Kitchen Belleicious
a rice crepe! Really? That is so cool.. What a great GF alternative. I must try this
Bam's Kitchen
I have made dosas that require the fermentation and let me tell you that is a lot of work. Your new version is only 3 hours of prep and that makes it so much easier. Also now I have a food processor as last time I almost did in my blender trying to make dosas last time. Your pancakes look so perfect!!! I wish you lived closer so that you could show me your pouring and spreading technique for making your dosas. Great post! Sharing this recipe! Take care, BAM
Jennifer Eloff
Sometimes when I visit, it’s like coming to another world. LOL Great looking crepes!
Sridevi Ravi
Your adai looks good. I usually have a slightly different preparation by adding onions. I will post that soon. That vegetable curry looks lovely. Have you posted that recipe before?
Your friendly copycat!
Choc Chip Uru
This adai looks delicious, I am a big fan of dosa 😀
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Constance
It looks delicious, made me hungry!
Ami@NaiveCookCooks
Balvinder, I haven’t had dosa for quite a while now and this version of yours is my fav way to eat dosas too!! Wish you lived closer so I can just come over and eat these! I am hungry now!
Juliana
I love the idea of using rice and lentil in this crepe…looks delicious Balvinder.
Have a great week 😀
Bam's Kitchen
Beautiful dosas! I have made a very traditional dosa before but did not have all of the colorful lentils. This is a very interesting recipe. I know this is a lot of work to make and you did a beautiful job and your dosas are perfect.