This Brown Rice Dosa is a great way to make an already healthy south Indian food even healthier. I "parboil" the brown rice, which helps reduce soaking time. A vegan, gluten-free, soy-free and nut-free recipe.
Here's a recipe for the ultimate Brown Rice Dosa. If you love a delicious south Indian dosa, this recipe takes the healthfulness up a notch.
Most South Indian cooks have a pot full of dosa batter sitting in their refrigerators which they can pull out at any time to make a quick and nutritious breakfast, lunch, snack or dinner. Dosas cook pretty quickly on the skillet so in no time at all one can have a pile of hot, steaming crepes ready to eat.
Making a dosa batter itself is not difficult, although it does require some soaking time to let the rice and lentils soften so once they are ground up into the batter they can cook quickly on the skillet. If you want to ferment the batter, you will need to add in another overnight wait.
I like making quick dosas because they require even less soaking time than a regular dosa. But when I get the craving for a traditional dosa, I have a foolproof batter that's ready in about 4 hours. Not bad.
This time, I wanted to make my foolproof batter healthier by using brown rice instead of white, which I usually use. I have used brown rice in dosa batters before but I find it usually requires more soaking time. While wondering this past weekend, late in the afternoon, how I could get my dosa batter ready for dinner, I had a brainwave. Parboiled rice.
Now before some of you seasoned cooks out there scream, hey, that's what Indian cooks usually use for dosa, hear me out. I am not talking about the parboiled rice you can buy off the shelf. Instead, I thought I'd parboil my brown rice for a few minutes and then soak it with the lentils, reducing the total soaking time. Get it?
So that's what I did, and I couldn't be more pleased with the results. I needed just five hours of soaking time and the dosas themselves were perfect-- I spread them thin and they were crispy around the edges and delicious with the nutty flavor of brown rice.
Here's the recipe for my easy Brown Rice Dosa. Enjoy it with a fresh coconut chutney for a delicious meal.
More South Indian vegan tiffin recipes
Brown Rice Dosa Recipe
Brown Rice Dosa
Equipment
- Cast iron griddle or nonstick griddle
Ingredients
For the chutney:
- ½ cup cilantro (stems and leaves, chopped)
- ½ cup coconut milk
- A few drops of lemon juice
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Cover the brown rice with water in a microwave-safe bowl and nuke it for five minutes.
- Allow the rice to sit in the hot water for another half an hour.
- Now add the rice to the remaining ingredients, along with the water. Add more water to cover the lentils and rice. Allow them to soak for at least 5 hours and more if you have the time. Drain.
- Blend the rice-dal mixture, in several batches, adding enough water to make a smooth batter that's runny enough to spread into a crepe, but thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. At this point, you can leave the batter to ferment overnight, which helps beneficial probiotic bacteria in the batter grow. You can also make the dosas rightaway.
- To make dosas, heat a cast-iron or non-stick griddle. The griddle should be hot enough that when you sprinkle a few drops of water on it, they sizzle and evaporate.
- Using a ladle with a rounded bottom, pour some batter into the center of the griddle and, in a quick but smooth motion, spread outward in circles. Don't be afraid if you make holes: just add a small drop of batter to patch it. If your dosa does not spread smoothly, it's possible your ladle is hot. Turn off or lower the heat, and try again.
- Pour a few drops of oil around the dosa's edges to help it crisp up. Once the underside is golden brown, loosen the dosa gently from the skillet and flip over. If your griddle was hot enough to begin with, this step will be very, very easy.
- Cook the other side for a few seconds, giving more time if your dosa is thicker. Serve hot with some sambar or chutney or both.
- To make the chutney, just give all the ingredients a whir in the blender until the cilantro is completely broken down. Check salt and serve with the dosas.
Chandana
Best brown rice dosa ever!!! I have tried measurements for brown rice dosa from all websites but ur measurements are perfect even my husband who dosent lyk brownrice dosas loved it. Thanks vaishali
Anonymous
Looks awesome. Question: Why is the batter not fermented? Any particular reason behind it?
Vaishali
No reason, I just didn't do it because Desi doesn't like the flavor, but in recent months I've actually started fermenting at least overnight because of the beneficial bacteria. You can leave this batter out overnight to ferment, then use.
Vaishali Honawar
Hi Anusha, you made me think of my Lalitha Manni who is always asking me to add more toor dal to dosas because they turn out crispy. 🙂 Thanks so much for the tip about the vitamins in the soaking water-- that's a good one. And so happy you liked the dosas.
Anusha
Hi,
The dosas came out perfect and delicious. When I made it the second time, I was out of channa daal and used toor daal instead. Somehow,it made the dosas even more crispy. I have got so many amazing recipes from you and I just wanted to tell you a little something in return. Prewash the daals and rice and soak them in just enough water that you can use while grinding. Draining the water after the soaking period makes you lose all the water soluble vitamins and minerals. That is my mom's tip. I hope you do not mind.
Thanks,
Anusha
Anonymous
Hi Vaishali, i was searching for a brown Rice Dosa Recipe and reached you blog. I am very sure this Recipe will turn out Great!!. will try it. I had one more thing not to complain while searching i landed to another link looks like these people are using your photos, i maybe wrong here. just wanted to let u know.-Anonymous
Vaishali
Anon, thanks for the heads-up about the plagiarist. It is shocking how people have no qualms lifting someone else's work and passing it off as their own.
Anonymous
Hi Vaishali
2 months ago I came across ur blog while looking for dairyfree dessert. I've never followed any blog. But urs is exception which is full of great new ideas and teasty recipes . So far I've tried 3-4 recipes from ur blog the most and best we liked is brown rice uthappa.
Thanks a lot for healthy and delicious recipe with great idea of parboiling brown rice .
Vaishali
Anonymous, so happy to hear you've enjoyed the blog. Also glad you liked the uthappam-- one of my favorites. 🙂
Manasi
I got a sack of brown ricebut found it too chewy to eat on a regular basis. It is lying around, waiting for nirvana. These dosas are perfect. Bookmarked!
Dr. Rupa Shah
I have made dosa from brown rice often. They are more crispy than the parboiled rice version. Red rice can also be tried for making dosa. Thanks for writting about this healthy version of dosa.
Kay
Hi Vaishali, We had these dosas for sunday dinner and yes, they won hands down to the white dosas. It was a genius idea to parboil the rice.
Thanks very much for sharing this.
Shri
The dosas look fab , Vaishali!
Dershana
Hi Vaishali, dosas look fantastic. i've tried making the batter with brown basmati and also with red rice. i've poste dthe red rice version on my blog.
Aparna
This works so well. I was in the same dilemma, but what I did was to soak the rice in boiling hot water! 🙂
Kumudha
I have to try these yummy looking dosas. They look so nutritious and tasty!
Nidhi
I am going to try this. Great idea. I guess I will just soak the parboiled brown rice and dals overnight and grind in the morning for a weekend breakfast. Oh, only if we get over these continuous viral infections!! (Yeah, I am so tired of this weather....)
zengirl
Vaishali,
I always avoided making any new recipes with brown rice, as it takes lot longer to cook, but you made it much easier for me try out. Thanks.
sandhya
perfect healthy dosas... thanks for this idea. will try it next time...
Anonymous
Can you make this without poha?
Vaishali
Yes, just skip it.