Neer Dosa Recipe

Neer dosa are thin, lacy and beautiful crepes made with ground rice batter. These are a popular breakfast from the Mangalorean cuisine & are served in almost all restaurants and tiffin centers in Karnataka. Apart from being vegan and gluten-free, these have a super soft texture. So they pair well with any curry or chutney. Unlike the other versions of South Indian dosa, the batter for neer dosa is made without any lentils and it does not need any fermentation.

Neer dosa are a staple in the Mangalorean households and are enjoyed any time of the day for a meal. The beauty of these crepes is that they are just made with minimal ingredients – rice, salt and water. They pair well with any chuntey but it is usually served with this coconut chutney, veg sagu or veg kurma in some restaurants.

About Neer Dosa

The word ‘Neer’ means ‘Water’ in Tulu & Kannada languages so ‘neer dosa’ translates to ‘water dosa’. Since these dosas are made with a batter of water consistency, they are popularly known as Neer dosa.

The beauty of these thin, light and delicate dosas lies in the simplicity of the recipe. To begin with rice is soaked anywhere for 4 to 8 hours and then ground with salt and water. To bring this to water consistency, more water is added. Optionally a lot of households also include fresh coconut while grinding as this imparts a sweeter flavor to the neer dosas.

These dosas are not filling like the other lentil dosas so these are good to serve with a gravy or curry. My kids love these neer dosas with fresh grated coconut and jaggery mixed together & dipped in milk.

Making these is easy but the key is in getting the batter to the right consistency. So if you are trying this the first time, then do check out my video and read all the tips mentioned below.

How to Make Neer Dosa (Stepwise Photos)

Prepare Batter

1. Wash 1 cup rice thrice in a large pot. Soak it for 4 hours to overnight.

2. Drain the water and add rice to a blender jar. If you have soaked it overnight, give a good rinse first. Drain the water and add it to the blender jar. Pour about 3/4 cup fresh water. Do not add lot of water at one time as the batter won’t come out smooth if lots of liquid is added.

3. Blend it to a smooth batter.

4. Transfer to a bowl and add salt as per taste.

5. Add more water to bring it to a thin consistency.

6. The batter must be similar to thin buttermilk. Add more water as needed to bring it to the consistency. I used about 1 & 1/2 to 1 & 3/4 cups water for blending and to bring it to consistency. Set this neer dosa batter aside.

Make Neer Dosa

7. Heat a pan and drizzle few drops of oil. Using a slice of onion, spread the oil to the pan. Wipe off the excess. You can also skip rubbing with onion and just spread the oil with tissue. You will need to repeat this process before making each dosa.

8. Make sure the pan is hot. We are not going to spread the batter but just pour it like the rava dosa batter. Stir the batter well every time before making a neer dosa. Take a ladle full of batter and begin to pour on the tawa all over starting from the edge of the pan. (check video for details)

9. Do not bother much about the shape.

10. Quickly tilt the pan to a side to spread the excess batter.

11. Take some more batter and fill in the gaps.

12. Cover the pan and cook for 2 mins on a medium to high heat.

13. When the dosa is done, you will see the edges slightly leave the pan. Neer dosa is not flipped and cooked to keep it soft.

14. Transfer it to a serving plate. Allow it to cool down for 30 seconds before folding otherwise both the sides will stick up together.

15. Fold it to half.

16. Then to triangle.

To repeat making neer dosa, grease the pan, stir the batter well before pouring every time. If needed you can add more water to bring to consistency.

Serve neer dosa with chutney or any gravy.

Pro Tips

• Use any kind of rice like sona masuri, basmati rice or surati kolam.
• I have not added coconut here. You can add about ¼ cup fresh coconut or use 1 cup coconut milk to blend in place of water.
• Ensure the rice is ground with just enough water as mentioned in the recipe. Adding a lot of water at one time while blending often results in coarse batter.
• The batter has to be ground to a super fine texture. Coarse batter results in neer dosas getting cracks. The dosas will also break.
• Experiment with the amount of water required to bring the batter to consistency. I have mentioned what works for me.
• Neer dosa cracks if the batter is either too thin or too thick. If it is too thin the batter will get stuck to the pan and crack a lot. If it is too thick then they will be dense and get cracks too.

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