Our family is not a big ragi lover. I don't remember even my kids relishing the ragi koozhu. They used to prefer Cerelac or koozhu made out of wheat flour. But somehow, they never took to this healthy grain.
The only thing that goes down the throats of my family members is the Sattu Maavu Porridge, which also has ragi in it.
In my effort to somehow feed this nutritious grain, long ago, I had tried an instant version of ragi dosa, using ragi flour, which was not well taken at all. I had to kind of throw away the entire batter and used the remaining ragi flour to make the porridge and somehow finished it. Since then I completely abandoned any efforts of using ragi in our diet.
The other day, while shopping for vegetables, I saw these ragi sprouts, and again I was tempted to buy them. So I just took couple of packets of these and prepared the dosas. The recipe is adapted from my favorite Mallika Badhrinath's book.
The response was better, people had it without a word and were asking for more. But it really needs to be eaten hot from the tawa. So do try this nutritious dosas.
What you'll need
- Sprouted Ragi/Finger Millet – 2 cups (see notes)
- Raw Rice - ¾ cup (I used Sona Masoori)
- Par Boiled Rice – ¾ cup (Idly Rice)
- Urad Dal – ½ cup
- Salt to taste
Method
- Wash and soak both the rice for 3 hours.
- Wash and soak the urad dal for about 30 minutes.
- Soak the ragi sprouts for about 20 minutes.
- Grind all the above together to a smooth batter adding water whenever required. Grind similar to Dosa batter.
- Add salt and mix well.
- Ferment for 4 to 5 hours or overnight.
- For making the dosas, Heat a tawa.
- Adjust the consistency of the batter, by adding water if required. It should be of pouring consistency. Not very thick, not very thin, just like the regular dosa batter.
- Pour a ladle full of batter in the center of the tawa, and spread from from center to outside in a circular motion.
- Drizzle some oil on the sides, cook for a minute then flip over drizzle oil if required, cook till crisp.
- Remove from heat and serve hot with a milagai podi, ellu podi or a chutney of your choice.
Note:
- I used store bought ragi sprouts. You can sprout them at home too.
- You may use just soaked ragi, for that soak ragi for about 5 to 6 hours.
- The batter will have the ragi skin, don’t worry about that.
- While pouring the batter on to the tava, make sure the tava is hot enough, but not very hot, else you may not be able to spread the dosa properly.
- Serve immediate, unlike the regular dosa, it doesn’t taste good, when not hot.
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