• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • Recipes
  • ABOUT

Swasthi's Recipes

Home >> Recipes >> Breakfast Recipes

Adai recipe | Adai dosa | How to make adai recipe

By swasthi , on June 15, 2020, 24 Comments, Jump to Recipe

Adai recipe – Adai is a healthy, protein rich & nutrient dense Breakfast made of mixed lentils & spices. It is one of the most commonly eaten foods from Tamil cuisine. Adai tastes delicious and is mostly served with a chutney. Adai dosa can be made thick or thin, soft or crisp all to suit your taste.

adai

To make adai dosa recipe, mixed dal/ lentils like chana dal, toor dal, moong and urad dal are used along with rice. Similar to the plain dosa recipe, each family has their own proportion of dals and rice.

Advertisement

The flavor and taste of the adai depends on the proportions used. In this post, I am sharing the ratios I usually follow to make this.

For similar recipes check
Pesarattu
Mix dal dosa
Ragi dosa
Wheat dosa
Neer dosa

How to make adai recipe?

All the lentils and rice are soaked first for at least 2 to 3 hours. Then blended to a slightly coarse batter and allowed to rest for 2 to 4 hours. However adai comes out good even without resting.

The batter is not fermented but resting helps to enhance the flavor.

I usually soak, blend, rest and then keep the batter in the fridge the previous night to prepare the next morning’s breakfast. Sometimes I also soak them the previous night (for 8 hours), blend them in the morning & use the batter directly without resting.

The adai batter is then poured over a greased tawa and spread to a slightly thick dosa.

You many like this collection of Dosa recipes.

For more breakfast recipes, you can check
Poha recipe
Rava uttapam
Upma
Medu vada

Preparation

1. Firstly add rice to a large pot or utensil and wash at least 3 times. Add fresh water and soak for at least 3 to 4 hours.

soaking rice to make adai

2. Remove the stalks of the red chilies & add them to the rice.

soaking red chilies to make adai batter

3. Next add all the lentils to another pot. Wash them well and soak in enough water for at least 3 to 4 hours.

soaking lentils to make adai recipe

4. Drain water and add rice, red chilies, ginger and jeera to a blender jar. Also pour little water to make a thick and slightly coarse batter.

drain rice and make a thick batter to make adai

Making batter for adai dosa

5. Make sure all the rice grains are crushed. If your blender jar is not big enough transfer the batter to a large utensil.

transfer rice batter to a bowl
Advertisement

6. Drain water from the dal and add it to the blender jar. Then pour little water enough to make a batter.

adding dal water to blend adai batter

7. Blend to a slightly coarse & thick batter.

blending to coarse batter to make adai recipe

8. Transfer adai batter to the batter bowl. Mix well if you have kept the rice batter aside. Cover and rest for 2 to 4 hours. You can also make the adai right away. I feel resting the batter brings a good aroma and taste.

optionally rest batter to make adai recipe
Advertisement

9. Add coriander leaves, hing, onions and salt. Do not add lot of onions it becomes difficult to spread the adai batter.

adding onions herbs salt to make adai recipe

10. Mix everything well. You can add water to bring the batter to consistency. To make crisp and thin adai dosa, the consistency must be slightly thin but not very runny. To make thick once you can keep the batter slightly thick.

But traditionally adai is made slightly thick. However it is a personal choice.

optionally pour water

How to make adai dosa

11. Grease a pan with little oil and heat it. The pan must be just hot enough and not very hot otherwise it is difficult to spread the batter.

If you are not using a non stick pan, then grease the tawa well and rub it with a cut onion. This prevents the adai from sticking to the pan. Pour the batter in the center of the pan.

grease pan and spread batter to make adai recipe

12. Spread the batter quickly to a dosa, thick or thin to suit your liking. Add ghee or oil as desired. When it is cooked, the edges loosen from the pan.

drizzle ghee around to fry adai

13. Flip and cook on the other side. Flip again and fry till the adai turns crisp.

flip and cook adai
Advertisement

Adai is best served hot with chutney. You can refrigerate the left over adai batter and use up in the next 2 days.

adai recipe

Advertisement
adai recipe

Adai recipe

Tamilnadu adai is a mixed lentil dosa that is delicious and healthy. It is eaten for breakfast with a chutney. Adai dosa is protein rich and great for people of all age groups.
Pin Recipe Print Recipe

For best results follow the step-by-step photos above the recipe card

Prep Time3 minutes
Cook Time25 minutes
Total Time28 minutes
Servings8 adai
AuthorSwasthi

Ingredients (1 cup = 240ml )

Ingredients for adai recipe

  • ¾ cup rice (idly rice or short grain parboiled rice like sona masuri or ponni)
  • ¼ cup chana dal or split skinned bengal gram
  • ¼ cup toor dal or split skinned pigeon peas
  • 2 tbsps moong dal or split skinned green gram
  • 2 tbsps urad dal or split skinned black gram
  • ¾ to 1 inch ginger
  • 4 to 5 red chilies (l use less spicy variety, use as desired)
  • ¾ to 1 tsp jeera
  • 1/8 tsp Hing or asafoetida
  • ½ tsp Salt as needed
  • Water as needed to make batter
  • 2 tbsp Oil or ghee as needed
  • 1 small onion finely chopped
  • 2 tbsp coriander leaves finely chopped
Advertisement

Instructions

Preparation

  • Add all the lentils or dals – chana, toor, urad and moong dal to a large pot. Wash them very well 3 times. 
  • Pour enough water and soak them for 2 to 3 hours.
  • You can also leave them overnight for 8 hours.
  • Add rice to another large pot and wash 3 times. 
  • Same this one too you can leave the rice overnight for 8 hours.
  • Next add red chilies to the rice and soak them for 2 to 3 hours.
  • Drain the water from both the pots.

Making adai batter

  • Add rice and red chilies to a blender jar along with little water. Blend to a slightly coarse paste or thick batter.
  • Transfer the batter to a pot.
  • Add dals, jeera and ginger to the jar. Also add little water and blend to a slightly coarse thick batter.
  • Mix this with the rice batter. Allow to rest for 2 to 4 hours. You can also skip resting.

How to make adai dosa

  • Heat a pan. Add few drops of oil and smear it all over the pan with a tissue.
  • While the pan heats, add chopped onions, salt, hing, coriander leaves to the batter.
  • Mix everything well.
  • If you prefer to make thick adai, the consistency of the batter must be thick but of spreading consistency.
  • If you prefer thin adai, then add more water as needed.
  • Mix well to bring the consistency to a slightly less thick batter, not runny.
  • The batter must be easily spreadable on the pan.
  • Regulate the flame to medium. Make sure the pan is hot.
  • Pour one ladle of batter and spread it quickly like a dosa. Spread it to thick or thin adai as per your liking.
  • Add 1/2 tsp oil or ghee across the edges. Cook on a medium heat.
  • When it gets cooked on one side, the edges loosen from the pan slightly. Flip it and cook on the other side as well. Make sure it is cooked on both the sides until crisp.
  • Serve adai dosa with coconut chutney or any other chutney.
Advertisement

Alternative quantities provided in the recipe card are for 1x only, original recipe.

For best results follow my detailed step-by-step photo instructions and tips above the recipe card.

Video

NUTRITION INFO (estimation only)

Nutrition Facts
Adai recipe
Amount Per Serving
Calories 163 Calories from Fat 27
% Daily Value*
Fat 3g5%
Sodium 148mg6%
Potassium 196mg6%
Carbohydrates 25g8%
Fiber 5g21%
Protein 6g12%
Vitamin A 25IU1%
Vitamin C 4mg5%
Calcium 23mg2%
Iron 1.7mg9%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
Tried this recipe?Mention @SwasthisRecipes or tag #swasthisrecipes!

© Swasthi’s Recipes

WhatsApp
Share959
Pin324
Reddit
Tweet
Email
1K Shares
FOR MORE RECIPES

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.


Adai recipe | Adai dosa | How to make adai recipeAdai recipe | Adai dosa | How to make adai recipe
Advertisement
WhatsApp
Share959
Pin324
Reddit
Tweet
Email
1K Shares

Related Posts

Advertisement

FEATURED RECIPES

Breakfast Recipes

Upma recipe (r…

upma recipe

Cake Recipes

Banana cake re…

banana cake recipe

Breakfast Recipes

Aloo paratha r…

aloo paratha

vegetarian

Paneer recipes…

paneer recipes

Dal Recipes

Dal makhani (S…

dal makhani recipe

Rice Recipes

Veg biryani re…

veg biryani

Advertisement

POPULAR RECIPES

Idli recipe (S…

soft idli

Samosa recipe …

samosa

Pav bhaji reci…

pav bhaji

Eggless chocol…

eggless chocolate cake

Palak paneer r…

palak paneer

Rajma recipe |…

rajma

Advertisement

Paneer butter …

paneer butter masala

Kadai paneer r…

kadai paneer

Paneer tikka r…

paneer tikka

Advertisement

About swasthi

I’m Swasthi shreekanth, the recipe developer, food photographer & food writer behind Swasthis recipes. My aim is to help you cook great Indian food with my time-tested recipes. After 2 decades of experience in practical Indian cooking I started this blog to help people cook better & more often at home. Whether you are a novice or an experienced cook I am sure Swasthi’s Recipes will assist you to enhance your cooking skills.
Read more..

Reader Interactions

Share Your Comments & Feedback: Cancel reply

Recipe Rating




Comments

  1. Advertisement
  2. Deek says

    July 26, 2020

    Can I avoid channa dhal

    Reply
    • swasthi says

      July 27, 2020

      Hi Deek
      you can substitute chana dal with same amount of yellow moong dal.

      Reply
    • Archana says

      December 26, 2020

      5 stars
      It came out awesomeπŸ‘ŒπŸ‘ŒπŸ‘Œ!! Thank you πŸ’ž

      Reply
      • swasthi says

        December 27, 2020

        Welcome Archana

        Reply
  3. sasitha j says

    June 6, 2020

    My batter got fermented while resting is it OK to use

    Reply
    • swasthi says

      June 6, 2020

      Yes it is just fine.

      Reply
  4. Sunitha says

    April 16, 2020

    5 stars
    Hi swasthi…
    Healthy and great recipe…I have a doubt on the resting of the batter….if we prepare the batter previous night, is it necessary to keep it in fridge or can we leave it on the countertop like we do for dosa batter..?

    Reply
    • swasthi says

      April 17, 2020

      Hello Sunitha,
      Thank you! I keep it in the fridge. This batter does not need fermentation like the regular dosa batter. Resting helps in developing the flavors. You can also soak in the night and blend in the morning. Make adai directly.

      Reply
      • Sunitha says

        April 19, 2020

        5 stars
        Thanks for your prompt reply ….

        Reply
  5. Anjali says

    April 8, 2020

    5 stars
    Thanks much Swasthi, I’m a novice but find your recipes – both in terms of the results and the detailed instructions. This is my go to recipe for adai, I soak rice and dals together and grind them together to save effort and dishes ! Also make extra batter, adding onions only to the portion am making currently.During this lockdown time, a filling, healthy and delicious meal. Thanks again.

    Reply
    • swasthi says

      April 8, 2020

      Hello Anjali
      You are welcome! Glad to know! Yes! delicious and healthy. Thank you.

      Reply
  6. Maya K Rao says

    April 4, 2020

    5 stars
    Thanks for the recipe. Looks great

    Reply
    • swasthi says

      April 5, 2020

      Welcome Maya

      Reply
  7. Deepika says

    January 20, 2020

    Hi
    Can we add hing while soaking lentils? Can adai be given to Toddlers after 1 year or when can we start? Thanks a lot for your recipes.. i have tried many for my family and turns out good.

    Reply
    • swasthi says

      January 21, 2020

      Hi Deepika,
      Thanks for trying the recipes. Yes you can use hing. Since it is a stimulant I use occasionally. Most times I skip it for kids food. You can give adai after 1 year. You can also try this mixed dal dosa. You can give this on alternate days.

      Reply
  8. Advertisement
  9. Narmadha says

    October 25, 2019

    5 stars
    I tried your Adai recipe today Swasti.. Delicious it turned out to be!πŸ˜‹…

    Reply
    • swasthi says

      October 25, 2019

      Thanks Narmadha
      Glad adai turned out good.

      Reply
  10. Waliyya says

    October 3, 2019

    5 stars
    Hi Thsnk you for the recipe! Is the caloroe count mentioned for one serving of the dosa or total?

    Reply
    • swasthi says

      October 3, 2019

      Hi Waliyya,
      You are welcome. The calorie count is for each adai dosa.

      Reply
  11. Kamalu mami says

    January 15, 2019

    5 stars
    How to prepare donkey manchurian please share the recipe…

    Reply
    • swasthi says

      January 16, 2019

      Hi Kamalu mami
      I guess it was a auto correction of the text. You can check the recipe of gobi manchurian here

      Reply
  12. Vidya says

    September 27, 2017

    5 stars
    Hi swasthi,

    Today this was the breakfast at my home too.. I din have toordal.. I managed to use all the other ingredients.. It turned out good.. I was running short if red chilli.. I added two red chilli and Lil kashmiri chili powder for the color… Result was tasty… Thanks a lot… With coconut chutney… Keep going… I m making custard too today… Following the steps… As whenever I try lumps form..Hope today it like come good.. Thanks

    Reply
    • Vidya says

      September 28, 2017

      custard also turned out good… Except that pomegranates were sour..

      Reply
  13. Divya says

    September 27, 2017

    5 stars
    Tried this one for breakfast today, came out crisp & tasty. Thanks for the recipe!

    Reply

Primary Sidebar

Advertisement

DIWALI RECIPES

JALEBI RECIPE
RASGULLA RECIPE
RASMALAI RECIPE
GULAB JAMUN
BESAN LADOO
KAJU KATLI
RAVA LADDU
Advertisement

CATEGORIES

DINNER RECIPES
SANDWICH RECIPES
BREAKFAST RECIPES
RICE RECIPES
CHUTNEY RECIPES
SNACKS RECIPES
SWEETS RECIPES

Follow me on social media

Facebook

Like

Instagram

Follow

Pinterest

Follow

Twitter

Follow
Advertisement

HEALTH CORNER

RAGI RECIPES
OATS RECIPES
MILLET RECIPES

Advertisement
Advertisement

Β© 2012 - 2020 - Swasthi's Recipes. The content is copyrighted to SWASTHI'S and may not be reproduced in any form.