Adai (Tamilnadu Style): (Healthy, Iron and Protein Rich Pancake/ Dosa/ Crepe)

My sister spent many years in Chennai (Tamil Nadu) and she loves Tamil food. She is with me now. This morning she asked me to make ‘Adai’ and she gave me a brief recipe to prepare.  I haven’t tried Adai or tasted Adai before. It was new to me, but thought of making it my own way.  When I heard the ingredients, I sensed that it is very rich in protein, very healthy, tons of iron and easy to make it.  Good thing is, there is no need to ferment or wait for the batter to ferment. It is healthier than Dosa or Idli or any bread / Cereal (cereal because no milk and no sugar).  All you need to give few hours for the ingredients to soak, and that’s it, you can make crispy, spicy, yummy crepes (Adai Dosas).

I served with ‘Aviyal’ (another traditional recipe). It came out so good, very delicious.

Ingredients to soak:

Rice – 1 cup
Toor Dal – ¼ Cup (or fistful)
Bengal gram dal (Chana Dal) – ¼ Cup
Urad Dal – ¼ Cup
Moong Dal – ¼ cup
Methi seeds – ¼ spoon or 4-5 seeds (optional)

Ingredients to add:

Salt – as per taste

Ginger – 1 inch piece
Red chillies – 2 (as per taste, You can also use Green chillies instead red chillies)
Cumin / Jeera seeds – 1 spoon
Onion – 1 small – chopped into small pieces
Curry Leaves – 5 leaves – Chopped into small pieces
Oil – to make Adai


Preparation Method:

Wash Rice, toor dal, Bengalgram Dal, Urad Dal, Moong Dal and Methi seeds with water for 1-2 times, and soak in water for 3-4 hours.  Remove the excess water. Add ginger, green/ red chilles, salt to the soaked ingredients and grind into a coarse paste. Add little water if required while grinding. Make it as dosa batter consistency.  Add chopped onions, curry leaves and cumin seeds to the batter.  Heat the skillet, pour the laddle full of batter and make a crepe / dosa/ pan cakes. Drizzle with oil, turn aside and let it get fry for one more minute.  Serve with Peanut chutney, or coconut chutney or any pickle or Aviyal.  Aviyal is another Traditional Tamilnadu recipe. Adai goes very well with Aviyal. I made Aviyal (recipe in different post) and served Adai with Aviyal.