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.
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 such as my moong dosa or coriander adai 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.
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Try these Indian vegan tiffin recipes next:
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Brown Rice Dosa Recipe:
Brown Rice Dosa
Ingredients
- 2 cups brown rice
- ¼ cup rice flakes (poha or flattened rice). You can get a brown-rice version of this in Indian stores too.
- 2 tbsp chana dal (bengal gram dal)
- ½ cup urad dal (black gram dal)
- ½ tsp methi seeds
- Salt to taste
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.
Nutrition
Hi, do you have a suggestion for a substitute for coconut milk? Thank you! I really enjoy your blog!
Use cashew cream--make it by blending 1/4th cup cashews with 1/4th water. Add more water if you want the chutney to be thinner.
Thanks, this recipe worked out really well. I like the taste and also the dosa is crispy.
This recipe works out pretty good. And the Dosas are super yumm. I made masala out of sweet potato and the coconut chutney as accompaniments. One hell of a perfect breakfast!
Three Cheers!!
Do we need to soak the poha also for 5 hrs?
Yes, just soak it with the rice.
Hi, thanks for sharing this recipe, esp the parboiling tip. We had this dosa for breakfast today. For us, white rice eaters, brown rice is just, well different.. I will make this dosa regularly. A delicious way to get all the benefits of brown rice
Made them yesterday and turned out crip and perfect.
Thank you for the recipe
Hi Sejal, great to hear-- thanks for letting me know!
Looks great! The urad dal you use is washed urad or the black whole? I believe it’s the white but just wanted to make sure. 🙂
It's the white!
I've made Dosa a while back and put a potato mixture inside and folded them over to eat. I cannot find my potato recipe. Could you please give me the recipe for the potatoes that go in the Dosa?
Thank you.
Hi Fifi, you can use this recipe for the potatoes. It is just like the potato subzi stuffed inside a dosa. https://holycowvegan.net/poori-bhaji/
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
Looks awesome. Question: Why is the batter not fermented? Any particular reason behind it?
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.
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.
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
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 http://www.nutrihealthsystems.com/brown-rice-dosa.htm
looks like these people are using your photos, i maybe wrong here. just wanted to let u know.
-Anonymous
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.
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 .
Anonymous, so happy to hear you've enjoyed the blog. Also glad you liked the uthappam-- one of my favorites. 🙂
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!
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.
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.
The dosas look fab , Vaishali!
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.
This works so well. I was in the same dilemma, but what I did was to soak the rice in boiling hot water! 🙂