Jowar dosa recipe – Jowar is the Indian name for sorghum. They are also known as jonnalu in telugu, jola in kannada and cholam in tamil. It is a gluten free grain and loaded with nutrients. It is highly recommended for folks with diabetes, thyroid or for those who are into gluten free diet. Jowar helps to strengthen the bones hence very good for kids too. It also helps to lower the cholesterol and protects heart health.
Jowar is mainly used to make bhakri or roti, called as jolada rotti or jonna rotti in kannada and telugu. Making jowar roti for a large family is time consuming and a fair amount of practice is needed to make them thin, soft and perfect. To make them good, we also need fresh flour which is sometimes not available here in Singapore. So as an alternate i began to make these jowar dosa since very long. These are very tasty, packed with protein and many other nutrients. These can also be had for dinner with good sides like sambar, vegetable chutney or a curry. You may also like this easy jowar upma.
I am sharing 2 recipes both been adapted from a Telugu TV show, which my mom follows from few years. Dosa in the pictures is made using the recipe mentioned in the recipe card. With this batter you can make crispy thin dosas and even uttapam.
I soak jowar/jonnalu for 6 hours. Even 4 hours will be fine but soaking for longer helps to blend them better and has health benefits too. Jowar dosa can also be made instantly by mixing jowar flour in plain dosa batter. For 1 cup batter, ¼ jowar flour can be mixed by adding little water.
Jonna dosa can also be made without urad dal or without rice will share that sometime later. But for the regular breakfast i prefer to use urad dal since it has a good amount of protein.
If you are into healthy eating then you may also like these
Ragi recipes
Oats recipes
Millet recipes
Quinoa salad
Quinoa upma
Jowar dosa recipe below
Ingredients (1 cup = 240ml )
- 0.5 cup jowar / jola / jonnalu
- 0.5 cup urad dal
- 0.5 cup rice
- ¼ tsp methi / menthulu
- salt , non iodized, as needed
- oil as needed to make dosas
How to make the recipe
- Wash jowar several time until the water runs clear. Soak it for about 6 hours.
- Wash rice and soak separately for 4 hours.
- Also wash dal and methi. Soak them as well separately for 4 hours. Soaking these for longer can make the batter sour quickly with in few hours.
- Drain off the water. Blend dal methi salt with water just as needed until batter is fluffy and bubbly. Do not make the batter very thin or runny. Transfer the batter to a large pot.
- Drain water from rice and jowar. Blend them with water as needed, try to use less water. Since the grains are soaked well, the batter gets done well to smooth.
- Transfer this to the urad dal batter. Mix well . The consistency should be neither very thin or very thick. It must be moderately thick.
- Set aside for 4 to 6 hours. I usually set aside on the table for 8 hours and not in a warm place. You will need to adjust the time since it depends on the climate.
- Add water as needed and bring it to a pouring consistency.
- Grease a tawa lightly if using one that doesn’t have non stick coating. Heat it until hot. Pour the batter and spread it a circular pattern to make a dosa. Cook the dosa on a medium high flame.
- Drizzle little oil towards the edges and flip it. You can make them thin, thick or crispy however you like.
- Serve with chutney.
NUTRITION (estimation only)
Alternative quantities provided in the recipe card are for 1x only, original recipe.
If you are new to cooking, follow my detailed step by step photo instructions for best results.
Recipe 2
½ cup jowar / jonnalu
¼ cup urad dal
¼ cup poha / aval
½ cup rice
Instructions same as above.
Habeeba says
Hi swathi…
I am from Andhra Pradesh and I am going to try this…ur from which place
swasthi says
Hi Habeeba,
Yes do try the recipe. It is healthy! Glad to know you! I am from Bangalore.
Pheba says
Super recipe. I am going to try soon.
swasthi says
Yes do try it!
Deepa says
Loved your recipes 😃
I’m going to try the Jowar and Ragi dosa recipes
swasthi says
Thanks Deepa
Roja says
Hi
I’m Roja from Australia . Can we Make Jowar dosa out of jowar flour as I can’t get whole jowar here.
Thankyou for your nice recipes
swasthi says
Hi Roja,
You are welcome.Yes use 3/4 to 1 cup jowar flour in the same recipe. Hope this helps
Farhath Nazir says
Hi Swasthi
Can you please share how to make jowar dosa without rice, or wheat?
swasthi says
Hi Farhath
you can make with out rice. Just replace rice with jowar in the above recipe
Navya says
Hi I like your recipes .. Can you tell me how to make jowar rawa with white jowar perfectly?
swasthi says
Thanks Navya
You will have soak for a while and wash them thoroughly by rubbing them in between your palms.Drain and sun dry them completely. Just pulse or blend for short time in the mixer. Sieve it to separate the flour and rawa. Hope this helps
Anitha B. says
Hi. How long do you need to soak the jowar?
swasthi says
Hi Anitha,
Jowar has a layer that tastes bitter. To remove that we soak them for a while, about 15 to 45 mins depending on the kind of jowar. After soaking we rub it to loosen the layer. If it comes off, even 15 mins soaking is enough. If it doesn’t you may need to wait for 30 to 45 mins.
Lakshmi says
Hi swasthi, one of my friend gave me yellow jowar (she bought from india but not used). I thought to make jowar kudumulu n made floor in mixer. I just tasted da flour it was bitter taste. Still i left with whole jowar also. Plz suggest me how to use.
swasthi says
Hi Lakshmi,
Yellow jowar is very good for health. But we usually soak for 10 mins and then wash them in lot of water. The bitter parts go away when they are washed. Then drain and sun dry. Then we used to mill it to flour to make roti. I don’t think the bitter taste will go from the flour. But the whole jowar, you can just soak and wash. Then air dry. Then make rava. But wash only when you intend to make. I remember i had to throw away becoz the rawa wasn’t smelling good after a week.
Lakshmi says
Thank u swasthi. I Will try
Swapna says
Hi mam I follow all u r recipes and iam big fan of you. Your recipes are very easy to do and liked by my children. Can we make same with ragi(not flour). Please suggest that recipe
swasthi says
Hi Swapna
Thanks for trying. Happy to know your kids like them. Yes you can use ragi instead of jowar. It works well.
Vatsala says
Hi mam… I am big fan of ur recipes.., can we use jowar flour mam….,
swasthi says
Thanks Vatsala
I haven’t tried it with flour. I guess it works using the same amount of flour. Try using half heaped cup.
Vatsala says
Thank u mam
Purnima V says
Hello, I am an avid follower of your recipes. Keep up the good work.
I have a doubt. Why do you use noniodised salt?
swasthi says
Hi Purnima
Thanks for following. In many places, the batter doesn’t rise nor ferment without the addition of salt. Using nonIodised salt helps in fermenting the batter in reduced time. Iodised salt prevents the batter from fermenting. Again it depends on the place or climatic conditions.
Pushpa's says
Hi Swasti,
Thank you for easy recipes
Can I use store bought Bajra flour for making dosa. Is it ok for kids below age 5 .
Thanks
swasthi says
Welcome Pushpa
I have not tried it with store bought flour but it works, not sure of the proportions.we can give it to kids above 8 months. I try to avoid store bought flours and use whole grains as can wash them before grinding. Sorry i am late in replying
Sarika says
Hi Swasthi, I made a jonna dosa. I liked it.thanks a lot for healthy and tasty dosa.
swasthi says
Welcome Sarika
Glad to know they tasted good. Thanks for writing
Sarika says
Hi Swathi, I wanna try jonna dosa but I have a doubt I.e. Which rice can I use in this recipe? Sonamasoori rice or dosa rice or idly rice or brown rice or basmati rice.
swasthi says
Hi Sarika
I have make this with parboiled rice, it’s my moms recipe she makes it with masuri rice. So it works with parboiled ponni rice, sona masuri and idly rice but not sure about brown rice or basmati rice
Balajyothi says
Hi swasti very nice blog nd great content.i have ever tried prawn biryani last week.it came out really well like few others which I tried before.thank u so much for da nice demonstration .good job ..keep rocking
swasthi says
Welcome Balajyothi
Very glad to know biryani turned out good.
Thanks a lot for the comment.
Anupama Raju says
hi Swathi… almost all the recipes you post are interesting n makes me try ones for my husband n son…I’ve been following your recipes bcz it’s demonstrated well n interestingly explained… thank you so much again… plz post new recipes for my fussy toddler…
swasthi says
Hi Anupama
You are welcome and thanks for trying the recipes. You can check this link for toddler recipes
Thanks for writing
jaya says
hi mam, shall I give this dosa to my 1 year old baby. …
swasthi says
Hi Jaya
Yes you can give. If ur baby is still unable to chew foods well. You can use 1 and a half tbsp of thick poha to soak about 1 hour before grinding. Dosas will turn soft and light. You can dip it in sambar, rasam or thin dal rasam or dal water and feed
Sharada says
Hi swasthi, I keep following ur recipes.my favourite is set dosa. I was searching other recipes n found jowar dosa.. but I hv store bought flour. Can I use that in this recipe.
swasthi says
Hi Sharada
Not sure if the recipe will work so good with flour. You can try with 3/4 cup flour. You can also make instant jowar dosa using jowar flour. Check this wheat dosa recipe, just replace wheat flour with jowar flour.
DO share with me if jowar flour worked well for you in the above jowar dosa recipe. I would love to try it as well. Thanks
Mona says
Hi Swati,
I love your recipes and healthy twist too :). I would like to try the jowar dosa without adding rice to it. I am cutting down rice from my diet. So Pls. share tips to make this recipe without adding rice. Thank you in advance and keep up the good work.
swasthi says
welcome Mona
Glad to know you love the recipes. For 1 cup jowar, use 1/4 cup urad dal soak them just for 4 to 5 hours and blend. Rest all follow the same as mentioned above. You cannot make very thin dosas. But can make moderately thin ones by making the batter thin. Thanks for the feedback
Lekha says
I just tried ridge gourd chutney today morning. This is a nice way of including vegetables in our diet especially for those who are fussy about eating them.
It was delicious n will try with other vegetables also!
swasthi says
Hi Lekha
Thanks for the feedback. Glad to know it turned out delicious. You may also try this ridge gourd peel chutney. It tastes very very delicious and even the methi leaves chutney.
v.srinivas Rao Junior Lecturer says
Madam,
Thank You very much on sending delicious recipes. I am from rural area . We culti-vate Jowar. we make Jonna rotte(chapati) . But making jonna dose is a new for us.
madam, please keep sending more recipes.
Thanking you,
swasthi says
Welcome Srinivas Sir,
yes i will surely post more recipes using jonnalu. Thanks for the feedback.