How to make Dosa Varieties without the Dosa Batter
Pesarattu
From the Dosa Basket, this is another healthier version of the Dosa – the Pesarattu. The Pesarattu is originally from the kitchens of Andhra Pradesh. When we were in Ahmedabad, our Telugu neighour – Lakshmi Dhulipala – introduced us to these delicious pancakes – made completely out of Green Moong Dal or Green Gram or Mung Beans. You can imagine how protein-rich it is.
Pesarattu is kind of bland in taste, despite the ginger and the red chillies. So the classic accompaniment to the Pesarattu should be spicy tomato chutney or spicy onion chutney – just to offset the blandness of the Pesarattu. Here is the recipe
PESARATTU
Ingredients
- 1 cup Green Moong Dal or Mung Beans (Whole)
- 2 tsp Raw rice
- Small coin of ginger
- 2-3 Red Chillies
- 2 tsp Jeera or Cumin
- Pinch of Asafetida
- Cooking Oil
- Salt to Taste
Instructions
- Soak the Green Moong Dal and rice for about one hour. If you want the lentils to complete soaking earlier, you can use boiling water, and keep it covered, it will get soaked in about half an hour
- Once soaked well, add this to the blender. Add the ginger, red chilies, one tsp of cumin or jeera.
- Add about three fourths of a glass of water, and grind it well into a smooth batter.
- Remove the batter into a bowl, adjust the consistency to a thick, pasty level – not too watery and not too thick.
- Add one tsp of red chilli powder, one tsp of jeera or cumin, a pinch of asafoetida and salt to taste
- Heat a flat tawa, or a flat skillet, and grease it with cooking oil
- Spread the batter evenly on the tawa. Drizzle cooking oil on top of the pancake. Let it cook on even flame to golden brown on either side.
- Serve Pesarattu with spicy onion or tomato chutney
The MLA Pesarattu
There is an interesting variant to Pesarattu. It is called MLA Pesarattu. The difference between the regular Pesarattu and the MLA Pesarattu is the Upma filling inside the pancake – very similar to the Potato Stuffing in Masala Dosa.
So if you are a fan of Upma, and Pesarattu, you should go for this Combo. A word of caution: this is a staggeringly filling combo. So, if you are a light eater, go easy on this as this combo can make you really feel full
This Upma filling is slightly different from the Breakfast Upma you have. This Upma is just made of Onion and Green chillies.