The traditional dosa (from southern India) that many of us are aware of and have eaten in Indian restaurants across the globe, is as we know like a crepe or pancake containing fermented rice and lentils batter. I tried making the “dosa” but instead of using fermented rice batter, made a batter using flours of different grains – wheat, barley, millet, sorghum, finger millet and maize. You do get multi grain flour packs so perhaps you could use one of those or then just make your own mix by putting together flours of different grains. The proportion I used was 1 part of each flour but you can use less of any flour that you are not too fond off as well.
The dosa is normally served with coconut chutney and a fried potato side. So again to make it healthier, I used a mixture of sweet potatoes and normal potatoes (read more of sweet potatoes), did not fry them and used olive oil for the saute. Finally for the chutney I made my mint coriander chutney instead of coconut. The flavors were well infused and it was a lovely meal.
For the batter: Mix in all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Then slowly add water to create a thick batter just like pancake or crepe batter. Heat a non stick flat pan where you put in a spoon of batter and spread it like a pancake. Flip on the other side after a few minutes once it starts to brown.
1 part millet flour
1 part maize flour
1 part finger millet flour
1 part sorghum flour
1/2 teaspoon of mustard seeds
1 small onion finely chopped
Few sprigs of cilantro finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Water
For the potato side: In a non stick pan add in the olive oil and heat. Then put in the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, curry leaves, chopped onions, green chilli and turmeric powder (in that order). Saute until the onions turn translucent.Then add in the chopped potatoes and salt. Mix well, cover with a lid and let the mixture cook in the heat for about 15 min. If the potatoes start sticking to the pan, just sprinkle some water in the pan so that the potatoes can cook in the heat vapor. This way I avoided using more oil. Finally garnish with the cilantro or coriander leaves and serve.
1/3 part normal potatoes cut into cubes
2/3 part sweet potatoes cut into cubes
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 medium onion chopped
1 green chilli chopped
4-5 curry leaves
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
Salt as per taste
1 spoon olive oil
Cliantro or coriander leaves to garnish
For the chutney : Mint coriander chutney that I made 🙂
I enjoyed this meal with a chilled glass of butter milk. Yummy times !!