Adai – A healthy breakfast recipe

Adai is a South Indian dosa made using a blend of lentils, rice and spices. It is a great dish for breakfast or dinner and usually paired with butter, jaggery or a vegetable medley called Avial.

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Adai of this variety is commonly served in most South Indian homes, but you if you want to try another variety of Adai, you should check out Palakkad Style Adai which I make quite often.

Pesarattu is another type of lentil dosa that hails from the land of Andhra Pradesh/Telengana. The major difference between adai and pesarattu is that adai is made from chana dal and pesarattu is made from whole green gram or whole moong dal.

Very few restaurants serve them since they aren’t fast selling like their rice counterpart – dosa. A few old restaurants, maybe in small towns, serve adai with avial as a one of weekly special.

Ingredients

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The primary lentil used is Channa Dal. I mix a little of other dals as well to increase the taste and colour of the adai. The other dals I use are Tur dal and Masoor dal.

You can make them just with the lentils, or you can add a bit of rice too. In this recipe, I have included rice in the ingredient list. But you can totally skip it and add more of the Tur and Masoor dal.

The flavours that I have used are coriander seeds and red chillies. I use the Byadagi variety as it adds colour and has less heat. But you can use any dried red chilli available to you. (Do reduce the quantity depending on your taste buds)

You can also add other flavour adding ingredients such as fennel seeds while grinding. You can also add chopped curry leaves to the batter before spreading cooking them. – This will be more like Masala Adai and taste absolutely wonderful.

I also add a large knob of ginger. Wash, peel and cut them into chunks that can easily grind along with the soaked dals.

How to make Adai?

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Making the batter

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Mix all the lentils and rice together and add it to a container. Rinse them until the water is clear.

I usually take them in a sieve and run it under a tap while using my fingers to rinse them. This has helped in speeding up the rinsing process in my experience.

Take the washed lentils and add it a container or a bowl. Add water to this bowl until there is an inch of water above the lentils. The dals expand during the soaking process, so it’s best when you add a lot of water and give them the space to expand.

In another small bowl, add the dried red chillies and coriander seeds and fill it up with water.

Let them soak for a minimum of 4 hours and a maximum of 8 hours. I usually soak overnight to make them for the breakfast. You can also soak it in the morning or even just 4 hours before dinnertime to eat adais for dinner. If you soak if for a longer time, you will observe bubbles on the surface of the water – you want to avoid that. If you do end up soaking for a long time, you can rinse the soaked dals with fresh water and proceed to the next step.

After soaking, drain the water and give it a quick rinse. Add the rinsed dals to the mixer along with a large piece of ginger and the soaked coriander and red chillies along with the soaked water.

Grind them until you have a smooth batter. Add salt to the batter and mix well.

Cooking the Adai

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Place a dosa pan or tawa on a medium flame. Let the stone warm up. Sprinkle some water on the tawa – if it sizzles right away, it means that the pan is sufficiently hot.

Pour a large ladle of batter and spread it evenly. Let it cook and wait for it to dry out. If you feel the dosa is cooking too fast (centre is brown/black but the edges are still wet) reduce the heat. Once the edges are dry, drizzle some cooking oil along the edges of the dosa and the centre part, too.

Lift the adai and flip it so that both sides get cooked. Flip it back, fold it in half and serve it hot.

You can pair Adai with butter & jaggery, Avial or with any spicy chutney of your choice. Try this Tomato Ginger Apple chutney, I bet the combination is brilliant.

If you wish to make them crispy, I recommend scooping less batter in the ladle and spread it thin to get a crispy adai.

Shelf Life and Storage

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Adai batter stores well in the fridge for up to 3 days. In my home, the quantity of batter from this recipe lasts for one breakfast and one evening snack time

Once adais are roasted on the tawa, it is best to consume it immediately. You may pack it for lunch box, but in my experience, adais taste the best when hot.

It’ll be great if you tag me on Instagram @ Makepotato, when you make this recipe.

Please do leave a rating and a comment if you can, on the recipe below – it will help me grow and reach more food lovers like you.

Recipe

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If you are looking for more Dosa Recipes, please click here.

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