Semolina Veggie Pancakes - A Riff on the Rava Dosa
What is breakfast? What is dinner? Is something a dosa if it is not a huge crepe-like concoction?
This quick to prepare recipe initially raised more questions than answers for me, but sometimes you need to have your thinking challenged so that you can bring a new carb into your life.
This recipe is not really a rava dosa. It’s more like a delicious, crispy, savory pancake with a lot of veggies. Real rava dosas are larger and lacier. They are typically eaten for breakfast in South India, but they can make a solid dinner. Kind of like the omelette, the fillings of a rava dosa are limited only by your imagination. You can add and remove veggies to your heart’s content. Just keep them sliced small so that they can cook at the same time as the dosa.
You can use fewer veggies, a lot more water, and more patient cooking techniques to make a real rava dosa (eg, this recipe). Or you can double down on veggies and have this recipe, which is probably a stronger fit for dinner than breakfast.
Either way, I hope you find the results rava-shing!
RECIPE - Note, this makes A LOT of pancakes. Probably serves 4 people though we soldiered through it with two.
INGREDIENTS
2 Cups semolina flour
1 Cup yoghurt
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of turmeric
t tablespoon of sugar
1 Cup grated carrots
1-2 diced onions
1 diced bell pepper
1 bunch diced scallions
1 handful of frozen peas
Water
Tamarind chutney and mint chutney (for serving)
RECIPE
Dice / grate your vegetables. This will look pretty and make you feel virtuous and prepared.
Ain’t no place like a mise en place.
Mix flour, yoghurt, salt, sugar, and turmeric in a large bowl. It will look bulky and clumpy, and that’s ok. Add water to thin it out. Add diced vegetables. If needed, add additional water. The batter should be a bit soupy. It’s not the most aesthetic mixture (understatement), but it will taste good. Let batter sit for ~15 min. Add a bit more water if needed (my batter was initially too thick).
The phrase “not good lookin’, just good cookin’” definitely applies here.
Add canola oil to a frying pan and put on medium heat. Once hot, spoon some batter to make pancake-sized dosas. If you have a big pan, you can make bigger dosas. Let the batter start to bubble and get mostly cooked. Because of the number of veggies, this may take a little bit. It’s more likely to turn out poorly if you flip too soon vs too late. Flip and make sure both sides are browned.
In these times, this is one of the more productive ways in whicha you can “flip out.”
Remove and add additional oil before adding your next round of batter. Repeat until batter is used up. Serve with tamarind and mint chutneys. Ask your husband for a quarantine haircut.
