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Adai recipe, learn how to make adai recipe, a protein-packed lentil pancake or dosa that’s popular in South India, particularly Tamil Nadu.
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The plate of adai aboveis from my Amma. She made it and the two chutneys, my uncle took the pic, and they sent it over to me a few months back. I kept meaning to post the adai recipe but that never happened.
Then I went back home for Christmas vacation and Amma made it again because I love adai (or ada as we call it) but TH is not a fan and so I have never tried making them myself at the time of writing this. Edited to add: this has changed now, of course. I have sine then used Amma’s adai recipe many times and even made this spinach adai , a healthier and really tasty variation.
But they are delicious and protein-packed although not really an instant option. Just like regular dosas, some prior planning and soaking needs to happen to get them going.
More interesting and different dosa recipes:
Sago dosa
Jowar dosa
Instant rava dosa
Instant wheat dosa
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Adai Recipe
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Adai recipe, a popular South Indian lentil crepe recipe using a batter of ground lentils and rice with some chillies.
4 from 1 vote
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Prep Time 3 hours hrs
Cook Time 30 minutes mins
Total Time 3 hours hrs 30 minutes mins
Course Breakfast
Cuisine Indian
Servings 12 adai
Ingredients
- 1 cup of par-boiled rice I have tried raw rice and that turns out well too
- 1 cup of whole skinned urad dal / ulutham paruppu / uzhunnu parippu
- 1 cup of mix of toor dal or peas dal and channa dal
- 5 dry red chillies
- A few curry leaves
- 8 shallots sliced thin or use 1 small onion
- 1/4 tsp of asafoetida powder / perungaayam
- 1/2 cup of grated coconut optional
- 1 tsp of salt or to taste
- 1/4 tsp of turmeric powder
- Gingelly or Indian sesame oil for cooking the adai
Instructions
Soak the rice, urad dal, and the mixed dals separately in water for at least 2 hours and a maximum of 4 hours. Add the red chillies to one of the bowls and let them soak as well (or you can just add 1 tsp red chilli powder when grinding the dals).
Grind the urad dal first with little water. It doesn't need to be a smooth paste just more or less so. Then grind the rice, again not super smooth but just ground well.
Finally grind the mixed dals along with the chillies to a paste. Use adequate water to let them grind. You can add in the coconut at this stage too, if using.
Mix these together along with salt, asafoetida, chopped shallots, turmeric, and curry leaves torn roughly. Mix well with enough water to make a batter that's the consistency of dosa batter.
Pour one ladleful on an oiled griddle or tawa and spread into a circle. Make sure the dosa is not too thick.
Flip over after a minute or so and cook the other side until golden brown.
The above is one way of doing it, just like regular dosas, but I prefer the lacy dosas that amma makes. For that, add more water to the batter and make it much more watery. You won't be able to spread them on the griddle so just pour on it starting from the outer circle, filling the gaps as you go. With this method you end up with lacy adai with crispy edges and it's just delicious.
We usually serve adai with chutney but avial is a popular combination too
INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Soak the rice, urad dal, and the mixed dals separately in water for at least 2 hours and a maximum of 4 hours. Add the red chillies to one of the bowls and let them soak as well (or you can just add 1 tsp red chilli powder when grinding the dals).
2. Grind the urad dal first with little water. It doesn’t need to be a smooth paste just more or less so. Then grind the rice, again not super smooth but just ground well.
3. Finally grind the mixed dals along with the chillies to a paste. Use adequate water to let them grind. You can add in the coconut at this stage too, if using.
4. Mix these together along with salt, asafoetida, chopped shallots, turmeric, and curry leaves torn roughly. Mix well with enough water to make a batter that’s the consistency of dosa batter.
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5. Pour one ladleful on an oiled griddle or tawa and spread into a circle. Make sure the dosa is not too thick.
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6. Flip over after a minute or so and cook the other side until golden brown.
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7. The above is one way of doing it, just like regular dosas, but I prefer the lacy dosas that amma makes. For that, add more water to the batter and make it much “looser”. You won’t be able to spread them on the griddle so just pour on it starting from the outer circle, filling the gaps as you go. I hope the pictures below explain this.
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The batter should be loose enough to spread as you pour and cover up the gaps and you can help it along the way by filling the gaps. This way, the crepes take much longer to cook but the patience is worth it. You end up with lacy adai with crispy edges and it’s just delicious.
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We usually serve adai with 2 types of chutneys – red chilli chutney and thick coconut chutney (as shows in the first picture) or some random curry that’s left over.
Traditionally, Tamilians serve adai with . In fact, most restaurants serve adai-avial as a combination like puttu and kadala. I don’t think that’s done in Kerala though, correct me if I am wrong.
Oh boy, I am craving adai now. Too bad I have to go bury my face in some unhealthy snacks at work instead!
For adai recipe in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi, Urdu etc please use the Google translate button in the sidebar.
