For those who don’t know what Dosa is, it can be described as Indian crunchy sourdough crêpe pancake. A breakfast which is light in carbohydrates and sugars, high in protein, fiber is categorized as healthy breakfast. Traditional Dosa has high carbohydrates, no sugar, moderate in protein and fiber. Most of the western breakfasts are not in the healthy category. Usual western breakfasts are made of highly processed all-purpose flour, sugars and topped with whipping cream. With a few changes in the recipe, Dosa can be low in carbohydrates and no sugars, high in protein and fiber. Once batter is prepared and fermented, A well made Dosa is wonderfully delicious, and a healthy breakfast for busy mornings. Choosing savory breakfast over sweet has many benefits. It cuts down a lot of sugars to your daily intake. Adding peppers in breakfast gives you essential minerals which keep you active all day.

Once dosa batter is prepared, it can be refrigerated up to a week. With a little preparation ahead, Dosa is easy and healthy breakfast for busy mornings. A number of instant dosa packages are available in stores these days. Be aware that these products and restaurant dosas contain higher amounts of rice and non-nutritious dehydrated ingredients. Since packaged dosa mix is not fermented, they lack key nutrients. Think of it as just consuming a package of dehydrated carbohydrates.

Though home-made dosa process a bit time-consuming and daunting, once you start making your own dosa’s with your own healthy ingredients, you ll go crazy for dosas. Dosa batter is naturally fermented. Natural fermentation breaks down the starches, carbohydrates so that they are in more digestible form. Probiotics are generated during the fermentation process, which improves digestion and gut, colon health. Nutrients are preserved as dosa’s are griddle fried.

Dosa batter doesn’t ferment in cold weather. So keep your batter in a warm place like in the oven with the light on. If you live in cold countries or in high altitude places, use a preheated oven for fermenting the batter. Dosa is usually consumed with peanut chutney and sambar. Along with dosa batter, chutney and sambar  can be refrigerated for up to a week. I usually make the dosa batter enough for 4-5 days. I usually grind on friday’s and use till Tuesday or Wednesday. This gives me lot of relaxing time over the weekend. No panic Monday mornings. Usually, I have a routine – Friday morning, before leaving to work, soak. After coming back from work, grind and put in the oven for fermentation. Saturday morning make chutney. Potato filling is optional. I don’t make it unless special guests are coming. Make fresh dosas for 4-5 days and enjoy. Not only for breakfast, it is great for packing kids and adults lunch. If you don’t have time to prepare lunch for kids in the morning, make dosas and pack with peanut chutney.

It is a myth that dosas are made of rice and not healthy. No need to gave up dosas because they are high in carbohydrates, calories or if you want to be on a low carb diet. Adding fiber, protein and calcium to breakfast has lots of benefits. Since urad dal (black gram lentils) is high in protein and calcium more whole-grain lentils and less of rice is suggested way of preparing. Traditionally dosa batter is stone ground. Stone ground batter yields crunchy dosas. If you don’t have traditional or modern electric stone grinder (wet grinder), a regular high efficient blender will do too.

When you entertain guests with dosa, impress them with delicious presentation. Cook on a huge griddle, curl it and fill it with spicy potato curry. If the process of grinding scares you, I do not recommend using packages or non-fermented version with rice flour and urad dal flour mix. Though this process is much easy, end product has less nutrition and more carbohydrates, preservatives and baking soda. If you are making dosa for the first time, be ready to fail with the first few dosas. Not only you will struggle with pouring and spreading to make thin dosa, you will also struggle to get the correct temperature for the griddle. Griddle should not be too hot and not too cold. Trust me, before you realize you’ll turn out to be an expert in dosas.

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Whole-grain, low carb, high-fiber dosa

 

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Prep time

50 mins

Cook time

30 mins

Total time

1 hour 20 mins

 

Author: Ujwala Chintala

Ingredients

• For Dosa Batter:
• 1 cup whole grain urad dal (whole split black lentils)
• 1½ cups parboiled rice
• 1½ cups brown rice
• 1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds - optional
• ½ teaspoon non-iodized salt
• oil, for frying preferably ghee or coconut oil
• For chutney:
• 1 cup - whole unsalted peanuts
• 5-10 green chillies depending on your spice level.
• ¼th tsp - coriander seeds - optional. adds great flavor if used.
• 5 garlic cloves
• salt
• 1 tbsp - fresh tamarind juice - optional
• For chutney tampering
• 1 tbsp oil, I used coconut oil
• ¼th tsp black mustard seeds
• ¼th tsp cumin (jeera)
• ⅛th tsp - turmeric
• curry leaves
• cilantro for garnishing
• Potato Filling:
• Coconut oil
• ½ tsp mustard seeds
• ½ tsp cumin seeds
• 2 red chillies
• 1 medium onion, diced
• Pink Himalayan salt
• ½ teaspoon turmeric
• 1 tsp ginger garlic paste
• 6 to 8 curry leaves
• 2 small green chiles,
• 5 pounds potatoes boiled, peeled and cubed
• 1 bunch cilantro

Instructions

1. Dosa batter: Day 1 morning - Place dal, rice, and fenugreek seeds together in a bowl, rinse well and cover with water. Soak for 4 to 6 hours.
2. Day 1 evening - Drain water and grind in blender or wet-dry grinder with enough water. Do not add excess water. Grind to a paste.
3. Place batter bowl in a warm place where it is > 80ºf for at least 8 hours till batter bubbles and fluffs up with fermentation. I place in oven with the light on. Or keep in a microwave oven with the door open a bit. Keeping the door open will keep the light on and makes oven warm.
4. Day 2 morning - Make the potato filling:
5. Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat.
6. Add red dried chilies, fry till brown.
7. Then add mustard seeds. When they splutter, add cumin seeds.
8. Now add green chilies and onion. Cook, stirring until onions have softened, about 5 minutes. Add turmeric, ginger garlic paste and curry leaves. Stir to coat.
9. Add potatoes. Cook, stirring well to combine until liquid has evaporated, about 5 minutes. Add salt.
10. Garnish with cilantro.
11. For chutney:
12. Roast peanuts until golden brown.
13. Add oil to a pan. Fry green chilies, garlic. and coriander seeds till golden brown. Turn off the stove.
14. Add salt, tamarind juice and Grind all together to semi watery paste with enough water.
15. For tampering:
16. Add oil to a small pot.
17. When hot, add mustard seeds. When they start spluttering, add cumin. Cook until golden brown.
18. Add curry leaves. When they stop spluttering, add turmeric powder. Turn off the stove.
19. Add tampering to chutney while it is still hot. De-glaze tampering pot with little chutney.
20. Day 2 morning - Make dosas. Heat griddle or iron skillet over medium heat.
21. Spread ghee in the pan. Using a big steel spoon, pour a spoon full of batter over the griddle. Then starting from the center spread batter in a circular motion till dosa is thin and big. Spread few drops of ghee.
22. Add ½ cup potato filling on top of dosa.
23. Fry dosa on medium heat not to burn on the bottom. Carefully remove dosa from griddle using a spatula. Close from both sides.
24. Serve immediately with peanut Chutney.

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