I always use my idli batter to make my dosas. I make idlis the first day, and then after two days, I add little water to make it slightly thinner, and get the dosas rolling. Everybody does that, isn’t it? It was by accident that I discovered that poha or aval or flattened rice flakes makes a very good replacement when you run out of urad dal.
Poha is something that is always available in our home, as it makes a super quick snack or breakfast, either in this way or this. So using it in dosa batter was something I really wanted to try. My girls totally loved how crisp these dosas stayed, even after cooling down. I have a pretty warm kitchen, so my batter ferments well. But getting crisp dosas has been a challenge for me, but not after trying this recipe.
The poha basically replaces half of the urad dal I usually use in my idli batter, otherwise the whole recipe stays the same. I tried making idlis with this batter and it turned out soft as well. So don’t fret if you don’t have enough urad dal in your pantry. You can still make your dosas. 🙂 I have paired the dosa with the coriander chutney in the clicks. Off to this simple recipe…
Crispy Dosa | Dosa using Poha/ Aval
Ingredients
- 1 cup raw rice
- 1/4 cup urad dal
- 1/4 cup beaten rice flakes aval or poha
- 1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds
- Salt to taste
- Ghee for toasting
Instructions
- Wash and soak the rice in one bowl. Wash and soak the dal, poha and seeds in another bowl. Both bowls to be soaked for minimum of 4 hours.
- Drain and put the dal-poha-fenugreek seeds into a strong blender and add little water. Blend 3-4 times till smooth.
- Into the ground mixture, add the drained rice in two batches, sprinkling in water as required, and blend till the mixture is smooth. Add water as necessary, ensuring that the batter is thick enough.
- Pour into a large container and keep it aside to ferment overnight or for 8 hours.
- Add salt and give it a good mix. Add water if the mixture is too thick.
- Heat a dosa tawa till hot. Pour a ladle of batter into the center and swirl round with the ladle till batter covers the pan. Allow it to cook.
- Halfway through sprinkle ghee around the edges and center. Cook till crisp. Flip only if there are uncooked portions on the top and cook briefly.
- Serve hot with sambar and chutney.
It turned out just perfect! What kind of raw rice did you use?
The raw rice we use is slightly smaller than basmati rice… Thank you so much Angie…
kids love to have crispy dosas, I do add poha sometimes.. It does adds to the crispness and adds a nice brown color too..
Thank you so much Julie…
I never made my own dosa batter, always used those ready made packets and just add water. My biggest problem is .when making the dosa, it starts to set way before I can swirl it around in the pan .
I too buy dosa batter, but still prefer to make it at home, if I don’t forget to soak! Hehe… That is because your pan is too hot, reduce the flame, take the pan off, then pour the batter and turn it around with your spatula… hope this helps…
Sprinkle little water on hot tava before making each dosa. That will reduce the heat in tava
Thanks for sharing this lovely tip, Radha… 🙂
That looks perfect and I am now craving a dosa!
Thanks a lot Taruna…