Dosa, an authentic Indian vegan meal: ecoTrain Simple Vegan Cooking On A Budget Month!

in ecoTrain4 years ago (edited)

Being a vegan my everyday food is vegan. 5 years back when I was vegetarian I used to eat dairy products. In the vegetarian society in India, the dairy products have so much indulged in cooking that in even authentic vegan recipes dairy products are started to add in a delusion that recipe will become rich.

Here I will talk about DOSA, the staple food of south India which has become special food in north India. In south India, Dosa is an authentic vegan food but when it is treated in north India as a special food some dairy ingredients are started to add in the recipe to make it rich and tastier but still, the authentic vegan recipe of Dosa is more delicious, healthy and economical.


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Dosa with Sambar and coconut chutney. Seasonal fruit mango makes the meal complete!


Making of Dosa

Dosa is very simple and easy to prepare with minimum ingredients. It requires only 2-3 ingredients. To make dosa we must plan in one day advance. In south India, Idli, Dosa, Uttapam etc it is prepared every day and the same batter is used for all these recipes so they have batter ready all the time. If we want to prepare it once in a while we have to plan in advance.

Take 3 cups of rice and 1 cup of urad dal(split and de-skinned black lentil (Lens culinaris)). Wash thoroughly and soak in sufficient water separately for about 6-8 hours. Add 2 tsp of fenugreek seeds with dal while soaking.


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Grinding dal and rice seperately after soaking for 6 hours


Grind them separately to a fine paste, consistency should not be watery. Mix both of them, cover with a cloth and keep at a warm place for 12-18 hours for the fermentation process. At this stage, so many people add dairy curd in a delusion that it will ferment well and become sour, but it is not true. It doesn't require any curd to become ferment and sour. It naturally ferments and become sour.
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Fermentation completed after 12 hours. The fragrance of fermented batter is so satisfying!!


Making of Sambar

When Dosa batter is ready, keep aside and prepare sambar. Dosa is always eaten with Sambar and coconut chutney.
The base of sambar is Toor dal (split pigeon peas). Cook dal in a pressure cooker add a pinch of turmeric before boiling.
Make vegetable stock with various seasonal vegetables. I used cluster beans, onion, bottle gourd, tomato etc. Pumplin, brinjal can be used. No need to strain the stock. Stock with vegetable will be used to make sambar.


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Cooking dal and the making of vegetable stock


Now we will make sambar by cooking dal, stock and various species altogether.
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Preparation of Sambar!


Heat oil in a heavy bottom pan and cumin seeds, mustard seeds, asafoetida, green chilli, curry leaves. Saute them for a while and add cooked dal and vegetables with stock.
To develop the taste following ingredients are added while cooking-

  • Salt as per taste
  • Jaggery to balance the taste not to make it sweet.
  • Tamarind past for sourness.
  • Garam masala powder
  • Sambar Masala
    What is Sambar Masala?
    It is a powdered mix of different spices mainly like coriander seeds, cumin seeds, red chilli, fennel seeds, fenugreek seeds, chana dal, dry mango(amchur), black pepper etc.
    All the above spices are taken whole and roasted for a few minutes separately. Cooldown and ground to a fine powder.
    Sambar masala is also available readymade in the market.
    After adding all the above bring it to a boil and taste. If required balance the taste with adding more salt, jaggery, tamarind paste and sambar masala.
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    Sambar is ready!

Dosa

Now to make dosa take some batter and adjust the consistency with water. It should be free-flowing but not watery. Add salt as per taste.
Heat an iron or non-stick pan and spread the batter evenly. Add oil as required and cook till becomes golden brown.
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Making of Dosa!


Coconut Chutney

It is very easy to prepare and no cooking required to prepare it.
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  • Take coconut flesh and cut into small pieces.
  • Add green chilli, tamarind paste, salt, green coriander leaves and ground to make a fine paste. Chutney is ready. ( As shown in the 1st photograph of this post)

Serve this meal hot! Dosa should be served hot directly from pan to plate, as it tastes the best while it is hot!


Why it is simple, budget and a healthy vegan meal?

  • It requires only a few ingredients like rice, pulses, vegetables and some spices.
  • Rice and pulses are very basic ingredients of any meal so available at a very reasonable cost in every country.
  • Some spices might be unavailable in some countries in that case that spices can be skipped and can be prepared with very basic spices like turmeric, chilli, cumin salt etc.
  • Making sambar might be tricky for some people so it can be skipped and Dosa can be served with chutney, which is very easy to make and dosa taste grate with only chutney also.
  • This complete food is a healthy option as it contains rice and pulses which are a good source of carbohydrate and protein. Spices used in it have various health benefits. Most important it is a fermented food so easy to digest and good bacteria developed in it are good for gut health. There is no deep-frying and only little oil is used to prepare this meal.

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 4 years ago  

ahhh PERFECT and THANK YOU ! I was just telling some friends the other day how good Dosas are and they are pretty easy to make.. I use to buy the mix when i lived in India so it was so easy to make.. but i have never tried fermenting it myself.. I will TRY .. great meal, and SO cheap and Best for health with the fermentation..

I think you must try to ferment the batter and make dosa and Idli with that. You will love it for sure.
Thanks for this wonderful initiative @ecoTrain Simple Vegan Cooking On A Budget Month!

 4 years ago (edited) 

This post has been submitted to the OCD community curation initiative.. supporting great posts in the ecoTrain community! Congrats and keep posting great content!

Muy rico tu plato y bien presentable. Aunque prefiero las panquecas con miel y frutas y no con sopa. La sopa la comería con arepas, que es lo típico en mi país. Pero igual tu plato se ve delicioso. Un abrazo!

आपके कमेंट के लिए बहुत-बहुत धन्यवाद!

Dosa is delicious !

Just had it for breakfast... 😋😋

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 4 years ago  

Never tried Dosa with Mango 😀 - have to try to feel the difference.

Ha ha, it is not actually dosa with mango. As mango season is going on we used to eat mango with every meal every day!

Hola @chetanpadliya… He elegido tu post para mi iniciativa diaria de reblogear. Este es mi aporte para Hive…
Sigamos trabajando y aportando ideas para crecer en Hive!...
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Hello @chetanpadliya... I have chosen your post for my daily reblogging initiative. This is my contribution to Hive...
Let's keep working and giving ideas to grow in Hive!

I was just telling my son yesterday that I would love some Indian food right now. The homemade restaurant we usually go to was burned down :( So I was going to look for some recipes. The last time I made an Indian dish from scratch it took me 8 hours! This looks so delicious, @chetanpadliya

That's a beautiful Dosa. I love it so much @chetanpadliya!