Adai recipe (Adai dosa)

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.

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.

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?

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 for adai recipe

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.

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

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

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.

Making batter

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

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

7. Blend to a slightly coarse & thick batter.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Recipe card