Uttapam Recipe

Make Crisp, yet soft and fluffy Uttapam with many different toppings. Uttapam are classic & traditional South Indian Breakfast pancakes made with fermented rice lentil batter. These are optionally topped with various vegetables, spices and herbs. Uttapam are naturally gluten-free, vegan and protein-packed, a healthy meal option as well. Serve uttapam with Chutney, Sambar, Podi or Pickle.

For an elaborate and complete meal extend your menu to make the complete combo of Tiffin sambar, Coconut Chutney and Peanut Podi.

About Uttapam

Uttapam also known as oothapam or uttappa is a savory pancake that may have originated in the Tamil Cuisine. It is a staple in all the States of Southern India & most homes and restaurants make these. Traditionally uttapam is made by soaking rice and lentils for several hours, later ground to a thick batter and fermented until light and airy.

This batter is then poured over a hot pan/ dosa tawa and then topped with vegetables & herbs like onions, green chilies and curry leaves or coriander leaves. A generous amount of oil is drizzled and the uttapam are cooked until the base turns crisp and the top is cooked to thick and fluffy goodness.

It is turned over to the other side and cooked until the veggies are slightly tender yet crisp.

Like most other recipes, every family has their own recipe to make uttapam that varies in the proportion of rice and lentils. A lot of people also use fenugreek seeds and poha to aid fermentation.

Traditionally many South Indians make large batches of idli Dosa batter and use the leftover sour batter to make the uttapam. Though these can be made to plain uttapams without any topping, veggies help balance the sourness in the batter and make the uttapam more delicious and nutritious.

My Recipe

I share how to make these uttapam from scratch including making a batch of batter. However these days dosa batter is easily available in a lot of Indian stores. You may use that if you don’t want to make it.

I also share how to make different healthy uttapams using millets and multi grains below under variations section.

How to Make Uttapam (Stepwise photos)

Make & Ferment Batter

1. Add ½ cup cup urad dal, 2 tablespoons chana dal and ½ teaspoon methi seeds to a bowl. If using poha then add ¼ cup poha to a different bowl and set aside. Add 2 cups rice to another large bowl. Here you can use either raw rice or idli rice or a mix of both. I used the regular raw rice here. During summers, use chilled water to blend. So you may want to chill the water in the fridge when you soak these.

2. Rinse the dal and soak it for 4 to 5 hours. Rinse the rice and soak it for 4 to 5 hours. If using poha, rinse and soak it in ¼ cup water, just 15 mins before grinding.

3. Drain the dal and add it to a blender along with ½ teaspoon non-iodized salt. Pour ¾ cup water (chilled water during summer). If using poha, add the soaked poha (along with soaked water) to the blender.

4. Blend to a smooth and frothy batter. Ensure your batter doesn’t become hot or warm while blending. If the batter is too thick then you may add another 2 to 4 tablespoons more water and blend.

5. Transfer the batter to a large bowl. Drain the rice and add it to the grinder along with ½ cup water.

6. Make a smooth and thick batter.

7. Mix both – dal batter and rice batter.

8. Cover and set aside in a warm place to ferment overnight or until the batter rises. If you live in a cold region, then you may ferment the uttapam batter in a instant pot with the yogurt setting (low). Depending on the weather it takes anywhere from 8 to 16 hours.

9. I do not over ferment the batter otherwise the uttapams will turn sour.

Prepare Uttapam Batter

10. The consistency of the batter must be same as that of dosa. You can take some batter to a bowl and add water to bring it to the consistency. The batter must be thick yet of pourable consistency. Taste the batter and add a bit more salt if needed.

11. Keep the veggies ready for topping. You can use onions, deseeded firm and ripe tomatoes, grated carrots, chopped green chili and coriander leaves. Please note that using tomatoes may make the uttapam more sour. In the step by step pics I have not used tomatoes.

What you see in the first picture was made another time when the batter was not sour. Add very little salt to the topping and mix.

12. Add a few drops of oil and grease your tawa well. If using a cast iron pan, then heat it first and then add a few drops of oil. Spread the oil all over with a kitchen tissue.

Make Uttapam

13. When the pan is hot enough, pour a ladle full of batter in the center of the pan. At this stage the pan has to be hot otherwise the batter won’t rise and the uttapams will be flat.

14. Do not spread the batter too much, uthappam has to be made thick. If the batter doesn’t spread on its own, then you may lightly spread a bit.

15. Lower the flame.

16. Sprinkle toppings as desired. Add oil or ghee around the edges and allow to cook on a low to medium flame until the base cooks well and firms up.

17. Sprinkle little oil over the onions and turn to the other side.

18. Cook until the onions are done. The color of the uthappam depends on the temperature of the batter & the pan. Usually batter straight away from fridge does not yield golden uthappam.

19. Make sure it is cooked well from inside. If you like caramelized onions, you may cook longer. We like the crunchy onions so I remove them at this stage. To make the next uttapam, ensure the pan is hot enough.

Transfer to a serving plate and serve uttapam with chutney or Tiffin sambar. You can also sprinkle podi and enjoy. I use Idli podi, Andhra peanut powder or curry leaves podi.

Pro Tips

Here are the general tips for all or any kind of uttapams.

• Bring the uttapam batter to consistency by adding water as needed. The batter must be thick yet of pouring consistency. Too thin batter will make your uttapams flat and not fluffy. Too thick batter will not cook the uttapams from inside.
• Grease the pan well if using a pan other than regular non-stick. If using cast iron pan it is always good to grease immediately after a wash. Then rinse back before using and then grease again. Rubbing a sliced onion also helps in preventing the batter from sticking.
• Onions, chilies & coriander leaves are the most common topping for uttapam. However you can also use carrots, tomatoes and bell peppers. You can also just skip all of these and just use some idli podi or peanut podi.
• Cooking: I prefer to cook any kind of uttapams on both the sides as it ensures the uttapam is cooked well inside.

More South Indian breakfast recipes,
Upma
Poori
Medu Vada
Rava idli
Masala dosa

Topping Ideas

These are my tried and tested topping ideas which I use often. To find the recipes of the chutney or podi, please use search on the menu.

• Vegetables like onions, tomatoes, green chilies and coriander leaves are a staple. But carrots, daikon (radish), bell peppers, sautéed spinach also go well.
• Podi like idli podi, peanut chutney powder, flaxseed podi, dried coconut podi and curry leaves podi go well. You may skip the veggies and use these instead.
• Chutney options: on occasions I love to make my uttapam with vegetable toppings and later smear some spicy chutney all over. For this garlic chutney, coriander chutney and coconut pudina chutney go well. Smear the chutney after cooking the uttapam on the other side as well. Turnover and cook again just for a minute so the raw chutney dries up. This works well on non-stick.

Variations

These are the proportions I have tried with the following variations.

Millet uttapam: ¾ cup pearl millet (bajra), ½ cup rice, ½ cup urad dal and 2 tbsps poha or ¼ tsp methi seeds. Rinse and soak the dal & methi separately. Rinse and soak bajra and half cup rice. If using poha rinse and soak just for 15 mins.

Blend dal & methi or poha until fluffy and frothy. Then blend the rest until smooth and mix together. Ferment until the batter rises. This makes about 6 to 8 uttapams depending on the rise and the dal.

Oats uttapam: 2 cups fermented regular dosa batter (1:4, dal:rice) mixed together with ½ cup powdered oats (quick or rolled) & water as needed. This makes about 4 uttapams.

Ragi uttapam: 2 cups fermented regular dosa batter (1:3 or 1:4, dal:rice ratio) mixed together with 1 cup ragi flour & water as needed. Even sprouted ragi flour works well here. This makes about 4 uttapams.

Instant suji uttapam: ¾ cup suji or rava, 3 tbsps curd or yogurt, ¾ cup + 2 tbsps water, salt and veggies for topping. Mix together the rava, curd and salt. Rest until you chop the toppings like onions, carrots, chilies, bell pepper etc.

Related Recipes

Recipe Card

Uttapam Recipe first published in April 2016. Updated and republished in July 2022.