Green and Wholesome Dosa

After a long time I prepared dosas for lunch today.  I have always been fond of South Indian food be it dosas or idlis or uttampams and they were prepared at least once a week in my family. My mother and all my elder siblings are also foodies - I remember my sisters collecting recipes from various sources like magazines, newspapers and cookbooks at a time when internet was not common. They used to note down the recipes in notebook/diaries for future use. One such recipe I remember is Pesarattu that we came across in a magazine years ago. Pesarattu is a green coloured dosa made using whole Moong or split moong beans and it derives the green colour from the green skin of whole moong beans.

At some point the Pesarattu also became a regular breakfast staple as we needed more variety than the usual Pohe, Upma, Idlis and Parathas! This healthy dosa belongs to a class of instant dosas where you do not need to ferment the batter. However you do need to soak the Moong beans for 6-8 hours or overnight and you can add more cereals to it like ground rice, ragi (finger millet) flour or oats to make it even more nutritious.

Although I have been making Pesarattu for few years now (though not very often), I made it differently this time. I added oats to Moong when grinding it. We did not notice much difference in the taste which is good for us. I also sprinkled some grated carrots on the dosa. The whole combination tasted nice and makes for a wholesome and tasty lunch option. I think I will make this more often now especially for my little one who has suddenly gone off vegetables and lentils and prefers to eat just plain rice, chapati or bread. He also enjoys dosas and this dosa is one way of giving him proteins along with some veggies!

Moong Oats Pesarattu

You will need the following:


1 cup whole Moong beans / whole split Moong beans (split with the green skin intact) - soaked overnight or for 6-8 hours.
1/2 cup quick cooking oats - I used Quakers Oats.
3 Green chillies
1 inch piece of ginger cut into small pieces
1 dried red chilli
Few fenugreek seeds (about 1/4 tsp)
Few fresh curry leaves (8-10 small leaves)
2 tsp cumin - dry roasted in a pan.
Grated carrots/chopped onions for topping - optional

This is how you prepare it:

• Wash the whole moong beans and soak them in water for 6-8 hours or overnight.
• Drain off the soaking water and add the soaked beans and all the other ingredients to a food-processor or mixer container
• Add some water to the contents of mixer and grind for few minutes until the batter is smooth. You can make a coarse batter if you prefer it that way.
• Heat a non stick flat pan/griddle and coat it with little oil.
• To prepare the dosa, pour about half a cup of batter and spread it out quickly to make a big circle. Add grated carrots or any other vegetable of your choice and this is optional.
• Add few drops of oil on dosa - this prevents the dosa from sticking to the pan as it is being cooked.
• When you see that the edges are turning brown, you need to flip the dosa over and cook it further for few seconds.
• Serve it hot along with chutney of your choice.