Adai dosai or simply called as Adai is a protein rich tiffin, made with mix of lentils. The base ingredients can be tweaked as per your requirements and the availability of the ingredients. You shall increase the protein content and decrease the carbs. An easily customizable batter as per your diet requirements. Likewise, the sides can be fully sweet or savory or a mix of both. A healthy, tasty & a versatile crepe, indeed !! Adai is always a winner with both kids & adults. The proportion of adai batter changes as per family practices. Some families ferment the adai batter and use and some use the instant version just like me. This post gives you the adai recipe that my family follows for many generations..
Adai Dosai Recipe:
Adai Recipe / Lentils Crepe Recipe / Paruppu Adai Dosai
Ingredients
To Soak:
- Idli Rice - ½ cup
- Raw Rice - ½ cup
- Toor dal - ⅓ cup
- Chana dal - ⅓ cup
- Urad dal - ¼ cup
- Moong dal - ⅛ cup
Spices to grind:
- Dry red chilli - 2 or more as per spice level
- Fennel seeds/Sombu - ¼ tsp
- Peppercorns/Milagu - ½ tsp
- Cumin Seeds/Jeeragam - 1 tsp
- Rock salt - 1 tsp or as required
Add ons:
- Turmeric powder - ½ tsp
- Asafoetida - ½ tsp
- Moringa(Drumstick) leaves or Mint leaves - few
- Curry leaves - 1 sprig
- Coriander leaves - 5 to 10 stalks with leaves
- Small Onions - 10 or more
- Coconut - few small bites or ¼ cup grated
How to make Adai Dosai ?:
- Wash and soak all items listed under “To soak” in ingredients list. Let it soak for 6 to 8 hours or overnight.
- Wash rice and dal together and drain the water.
- In a big mixie jar, add the items under “Spices to grind”(add just 1/2 tsp salt now). Grind it without adding water and I know it won’t be ground smooth. But that’s ok.
- Add a portion or handful of drained rice and dal to the same mixie jar along with ground spices(already in the jar) and grind. Then add little water and grind to smooth paste.
- Transfer this smooth paste to a container.
- Then add remaining rice and dal in one or 2 batches. Grind these batches by adding little water to coarse paste. First batch was ground smooth as the spices in it have to be ground smooth to avoid spice bits in the batter. But all other batches should be ground coarse as adai batter should be lil coarse. Divide the remaining 1/2 tsp rock salt between batches while grinding.
- Transfer each batch of the batter to the same container and mix well at the end.
- Add turmeric powder and asafoetida and mix well.
- Add extra water if required. The batter should be like dosa batter but should not be watery or pouring consistency. Just thick enough to spread like dosa.
- Add the add-ons – Finely chopped Small onions, curry leaves, coriander leaves, moringa leaves/mint leaves and coconut.
- Finely chop all the add-ons including curry leaves.
- Add either Moringa leaves or Mint leaves.
- Add either finely chopped coconut bits or grated coconut. I love bits. Coconut is optional though.
- You can add these add-ons raw and make crepes or saute these in oil and add to the batter for elevated taste. While sauteing, first add onion to oil. Once it turns translucent, add curry leaves and Moringa leaves. Once Moringa shrinks, add coriander leaves. If adding Mint leaves, add along with coriander leaves. Once the leaves shrink, add coconut bits or grated coconut, stir once & switch off immediately & transfer it to the batter, mix well and make the crepes.
- Mix the batter well so that the add-ons are mixed throughout the batter.
- Heat a dosa tawa in medium flame. Once hot, grease it with oil using quarter of a big onion.
- Pour a ladle of adai batter and gently spread it like dosa.
- Add generous Gingelly oil/Nallennai aroud and inside adai.
- Once cooked on one side, turn over and cook on other side.
- Take out of dosa pan using dosa spatula and enjoy hot.
- Goes well with butter and cane sugar/jaggery, if you have a sweet tooth. Else, pair it with spicy coconut chutney or peanut chutney & enjoy !! Scroll down to read the TIPS..
Tips for making Adai Dosai:
- You shall soak dry red chillies along with rice and dal for flakes free smooth grind.
- You shall add more water and make it to dosa consistency for crispier adais.
- Do not cook in high flame. Cook in medium flame so that adai cooks well.
- Add-ons (except turmeric & asafoetida) are optional, but they elevate the taste of adai.
- If you don’t have fresh moringa leaves, you can add a tsp of Moringa powder to the batter & mix well.
- If you want to save some batter for the next meal, just add turmeric powder & asafoetida and skip the other add-ons and save it in fridge. While making crepes, add the add-ons, mix and make it.
- Adding more moongdal will make the crepes softer and lessen the crispiness. So, I add very less moongdal.
- My mom always says that the proportion of rice and lentils should be same for adai batter. 1 cup of rice and 1 cup of mixed dals is the ratio. Toor dal and chana dal should be of equal quantity and urad dal should be slightly lesser than toor dal quantity. Moongdal is added just for flavor.
- But, to reduce carbs, you shall reduce rice and try adding other lentils & legumes like Masoor dal/Mysore paruppu, Greengram/Pachaipayaru, Horsegram/Kollu.
- Increase/decrease peppercorns and red chillies as per your spice level.
Leave a Reply