Adai Dosa is a Protein Packed South Indian Breakfast Recipe made with mixed lentils and rice. Healthy, Nutritious, doesn't require fermentation and is extremely filling.
Adai Dosa is a protein-rich, nutritious, South Indian Lentil Crepe or pancake recipe made with a batter of rice and mixed lentils. Served for breakfast or brunch with coconut chutney, podi or sambar.
My husband & I are Adai lovers! We love plain dosa but Adai is hearty, healthy and quite filling.
Adai is perfect for breakfast or brunch. It is the combination of mixed lentils that make adai a nutritious and healthy option over plain dosa.
The quantity of rice is less as compared to lentils. Quinoa Adai recipe replaces rice with quinoa or you can substitute rice with millet of your choice. We also make Milagu Adai for Karthigai festival with black urad dal, peppercorns and cumin seeds.
If you are planning to make adai for breakfast, you can soak the ingredients before going to bed. The next morning, just grind and make hot adai.
The ideal accompaniment for adai is jaggery and ghee. I have recommended some side dish options or serving ideas.
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About Adai
Adai is a lentil crepe, similar to Dosa but with mixed lentils. It is a traditional South Indian breakfast recipe. In the similar category of IDLI, DOSA AND UTTAPAM.
Dosa is white in color whereas Adai has a reddish-orange hue due to the addition of red chilies. The batter is quite thick, unlike dosa batter.
Adai batter does NOT require fermentation.
Adai is healthy and nutritious. It can easily replace whole wheat roti for lunch. You can serve it with sabzi or curry.
We use sesame oil (gingelly oil) for cooking adai. Enhances taste and flavor.
Adai takes longer to cook as compared to dosa due to variety of lentils used. Ensure the flame/heat is medium so that it cooks evenly.
It is kid-friendly. If your kids dislike dal, adai is a delicious way to include some lentils in their diet. You can cook the adai with ghee and serve it with jaggery for kids.
Adai dosa is Vegan. For a 100% gluten-free recipe, omit hing or asafoetida from the recipe.
Ingredients for Adai Dosa Batter or Adai Maavu Recipe
While Dosa has 2 key ingredients viz - Rice and Urad Dal, the proportion of lentils is more than rice, in case of Adai.
I have used Tur Dal (Arhar Dal or Split Pigeon Peas), Chana Dal {Split Chickpeas} and Urad Dal {de-skinned whole Black Gram)
Idli Rice - Feel free to substitute Idli rice with Sona Masuri, Kolam, single hand pounded rice or any available rice variety available in your pantry, including basmati rice.
Signature orangish-red color of Adai is due to Byadgi red chilies. You can also use Kashmiri red chilies. This variety of red chili adds colour and less heat.
Soak all the ingredients for atleast 3 hours. The lentils should break easily when pressed with your finger nail.
You don't require a wet grinder for making adai batter. A sturdy mixer grinder is sufficient.
The texture of adai batter is slightly coarse. Unlike dosa batter, it is not smooth. The consistency is thicker than dosa batter.
How to Make Adai Dosa
Measure and add the lentils and rice in two separate bowls.
Rinse the lentils under running tap water, until the water appears clear. Soak the lentils with whole dry red chillies in sufficient water for 3 hours.
Rinse the rice and soak it for 3 hours.
Drain the water used for soaking, add the lentils to a mixer grinder jar.
Grind the lentils and red chilies to a coarse consistency (Refer pic below). Add water at regular intervals and check consistency.
Remove the ground lentil mixture into a bowl.
Next, in the same mixer grinder jar, grind the soaked rice with some water. Add the rice batter to the ground lentils. Mix well using hands.
To the ground adai batter, add salt to taste and hing (asafoetida). Rest the batter for 30 minutes. If you are not preparing adai immediately, store the batter in refrigerator.
Remove a portion of the batter in a separate bowl. To this, add finely chopped onions and roughly torn curry leaves. Mix well, check consistency. If it appears too thick, add some water and mix.
Heat a cast iron griddle or non-stick dosa pan. Grease it with few drops of oil. Pour a ladle of adai batter and spread it clockwise until it forms a circle.
Pour oil on the sides and center and let it cook on medium to low heat. When the edges appear brown and crispy, flip / turn, cook on the other side until crispy and golden brown.
Suggested Variations
A batch of Adai batter lasts for 3-4 days for a family of 2 (like us).
In summer season, the batter tends to taste sour in 48 hours.
Adai can be served for breakfast, brunch, lunch or early dinner. In order to cut monotony, I am sharing below some of the tried and tested variations.
These variations will ensure your family will never complain of eating the same old boring adai everyday.
Classic Flavors - Finely chopped shallots or onions and curry leaves.
Drumstick Leaves or Murungai Keerai.
Podi Adai Dosa - Sprinkle homemade Idli Podi and ghee over adai.
Include vegetables like carrot, cabbage, beans (finely chopped) to make it a veggie loaded adai dosa.
Cheesy Adai - Perfect for kids.
Seeds - lightly toasted and coarsely crushed pumpkin seeds, flax seeds or chia seeds added to the adai batter.
Use it as a wrap and stuff with sauteed vegetables.
Spread a layer of jaggery, coconut and ghee, roll and serve as pancakes for kids.
For kids, you can spread homemade fruit spread, compote or jam and pack for school lunch boxes.
Use leftover batter to make paniyaram.
Serving Suggestion | Side Dish for Adai
Any South Indian will vouch that Adai tastes perfect with Avial (Aviyal). Traditional Mixed Vegetable Curry that is a Kerala specialty. The combination makes a perfect brunch or lunch on weekends.
Chutney - Kothamalli Chutney (Coconut Coriander Chutney), Tomato Chutney (Thakkali chutney) or Coconut Chutney.
Podi (Spiced lentil powder) - Murungai Keerai Podi (Drumstick leaves), Thengai Podi (Coconut lentil powder) and Ellu Podi (Sesame lentil powder) are great options. Mix the podi with oil and use as a dipping sauce for adai.
As kids, mum used to serve Adai with jaggery and ghee. Till date, this remains a favorite choice of side for adai.
More South Indian breakfast recipes
Ragi Idli (Finger Millet)
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Adai Dosa | South Indian Mixed Lentil Dosa
Equipment
- Non Stick Pan or Cast Iron Pan for Cooking Dosa
- Mixer Grinder to Grind the Batter
Ingredients
- 1 cup Idli Rice (see notes)
- 1/3 cup Tuvar Dal, Tur Dal or Arhar Dal split pigeon peas
- 1/3 cup Chana Dal or Split Chickpeas
- 1/3 cup Urad Dal (see notes)
- 2 Onions medium size, finely chopped
- 2 Curry leaves sprig
- 1/4 teaspoon Hing Or Asafoetida omit this ingredient for gluten-free recipe
- 12 Byadgi Red chillies Refer notes below
- Salt to Taste
- Water for soaking lentils, rice + grinding as required
- Sesame Oil as required to cook Adai OR Use Ghee
Instructions
- Measure and add the lentils and rice in two separate bowls.
- Rinse the lentils under running tap water, until the water appears clear. Soak the lentils with whole dry red chillies in sufficient water for 3 hours.
- Rinse the rice and soak it for 3 hours.
- Drain the water used for soaking, add the lentils to a mixer grinder jar.
- Grind the lentils and red chilies to a coarse consistency (Refer pic below). Add water at regular intervals and check consistency.
- Remove the ground lentil mixture into a bowl.
- Next, in the same mixer grinder jar, grind the soaked rice with some water. Add the rice batter to the ground lentils. Mix well using hands.
- To the ground adai batter, add salt to taste and hing (asafoetida). Rest the batter for 30 minutes. If you are not preparing adai immediately, store the batter in refrigerator.
- Remove a portion of the batter in a separate bowl. To this, add finely chopped onions and roughly torn curry leaves. Mix well, check consistency. If it appears too thick, add some water and mix.
- Heat a cast iron griddle or non-stick dosa pan. Grease it with few drops of oil. Pour a ladle of adai batter and spread it clockwise until it forms a circle.
- Pour oil on the sides and center and let it cook on medium to low heat. When the edges appear brown and crispy, flip / turn, cook on the other side until crispy and golden brown.
Video
Notes
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We will be back again with yet another exciting recipe .. Until then, stay healthy and happy!
Vidya Narayan
So nice, How many steps you have taken, hats off to your hard work.
Thank you for appreciating.
I made this..its fantastic.thq for this tasty receipe
Appreciate your feedback Suneetha.
You explain so beautifully
Thank you Kirti.
Thanks so much for this healthy recipe. Plus you have really taken effort to make it with varieties for its tasty combinations. My husband is a diabetic so I was searching for recipes without rice and stepped here. Can this recipe be made, skipping rice? Regards,
Hey Lata, thank you for appreciating my work. You can substitute the rice with any millet of your choice - Proso, Ragi, Little Millet etc. Soak it just like rice and grind it along with the dal as mentioned in the recipe. You can also check out Green Moong Onion Uttapam on the blog that has absolutely no rice. Hope this helps. If you have any further queries, please revert back, would be happy to help. Regards, Vidya.
I have never cooked food originating from India before but your recipes have inspired me to try! Thank-you for the thorough details, they help me understand both the process and what the desired outcome should look like. I also appreciate the notes explaining the ingredients as many sound unfamiliar but are, in fact, found commonly here in Canada. I am excited to try these!
Hey Linda, thank you for stopping by and glad the blog could, in a small way, help you out. Do try and please get back to me for any queries, doubts etc, would be happy to help. Happy Holidays and wishing you the best.
Hello. How long do I soak the rice? Thank you so much for this childhood favorite recipe!
All the ingredients are soaked for 3 hours and thank you for visiting, please share your feedback once you try it.. looking forward.
Thanx for the recipe if we are not using non stick tava what we need to do to to make tava nonstick for making adai
Hi,
If you are using a cast iron pan, grease the tava with few drops of oil and spread the oil evenly using a kitchen paper towel or thick potato slice. Then pour the batter and it will give you good results. Ensure the flame is medium and not high. Hope this helps. Thank you for stopping by and appreciating.
Urad dal makes adai soft instead crispy.
I owe you very special thanks for using the right word ''Molagapodi'' instead of the jarring silly ''gunpowder'' which makes me wince. I don't know who came up with ridiculous name gunpowder.
Haha. Thank you so much Rajalakshmi. Call it by any name, it is something a South Indian cannot live without.