Millet Dosa (Mixed Millet Dosa Recipe)

Millet dosa – vegan, gluten-free, nutritious South Indian breakfast usually served with sambar and varieties of chutneys. This crispy dosa without rice makes a healthy and diabetic-friendly breakfast.  

Millets are small seed grasses that are considered gluten-free supernatural and nutritious food as they are rich in nutrients, fibre, vitamins, proteins and have umpteen benefits. Millets are the best source of grain for celiac sufferers (people with gluten intolerance).

I have used three different varieties of millets in this dosa recipe- foxtail millet (korralu/thinai/navane), little millet (saamai/saama beyyam/saame akki) and kodo millet (arikelu/varagu/harka). These millet grains are available in the form of rice and semolina.

I’ve used semolina and all these varieties look similar with a slight colour difference. Check millet porridge recipe and how to cook millets in instant pot on the blog prepared with foxtail millet.

Millet dosa is one of the healthy dosa recipes and a great way to include it in a diet specifically for people with diabetes. Millets have a lower glycemic index (GI) than other grains so they help manage blood sugar levels

Tips and Tricks to make perfect Millet Dosa 

Making dosa at home is not a big deal, but making perfect and crispy dosa every time and at all-weather conditions might be little difficult. With few simple tips and tricks, you can make the perfect dosa every time.  

Ingredients proportion and batter consistency are the deciding factors of the texture of dosa. I find 3 portions millets to 1 portion urad dal always works well. The addition of a fistful poha (flattened rice flakes) while grinding helps to make dosa crisp.  

Fermentation is an important step and it could take anywhere between 6-14 hrs depending on the weather where you live. This process takes longer during cold weather and as less as 6 hours during extremely hot and humid weather. In hot weather, batter will ferment easily on a kitchen countertop.

On cold days, add a cup of hot water to the batter, mix well and place the container in a warm place probably in an oven with its lights on. Alternatively, you can ferment batter in Instant Pot to fast up the process on cold days.  

Do not skip methi seeds (fenugreek seeds) as it helps in the fermentation process. 

Millets must be soaked for a minimum of 6 hrs to make the grains more digestible. 

Is wet grinder better than a mixer grinder? 

Some people recommend grinding in a wet stone grinder for best results, but for me, a mixer grinder (an electric blender) does an equally good job. I’ve been using it for almost a decade and it gives me good results every time. I personally prefer the mixer grinder due to ease of use, cleaning and the best part is it requires less space for storage than the wet stone grinder.  

Don’t have a traditional Indian mixie? Then try powerful blenders such as Vitamix, Nutribullet or Ninja. However, a wet grinder is useful and saves time if you wish to make a big batch of batter. 

Substitutions and Variations  

You could use any 2 different varieties of millets instead of 3 (such as 1.5 cups of foxtail millet and 1.5 cups of other variety millet), or you could use any 1 type of millet (eg: 3 cups of foxtail millet). But make sure not to alter the millet and urad dal ratio (3 parts of millet: 1-part urad dal).  

Add finely chopped onions, green chillies & coriander as toppings on golden brown dosa for extra flavour and taste. 

Take the things a notch up by adding grated carrot, chopped coriander, finely chopped capsicum (bell pepper), onion, tomato and spinach. Mix these vegetables in the batter and make uttapam. Make this colurful millet uttapam in different shapes to appeal kids and encourage them to eat their healthy meals without any fuss or tantrums. 

Try adding pureed vegetables to help picky kids eat their nutritious meals. This wholesome dosa is specifically an ideal option to help kids struggling with the texture of food.  

Serving Suggestions

Like regular rice dosa, this nutritious dosa tastes good with vegetable sambar and any south Indian chutney – peanut coconut chutney, coconut coriander chutney, onion chutney or with simple sides such as tomato kurma, Bombay chutney, plain salna. 

This millet dosa without rice tastes equally good with condiments such as kobbari karam, karivepaku podi, ginger chutney, tomato pachadi, eggplant chutney (Vankaya Pachadi), carrot chutney, mango thokku.  

It is not only a very healthy breakfast but also a good choice for a light dinner with a simple chutney.

More Indian Breakfast Recipes 

Vegetable Upma

Instant Appe (Paniyaram)

Masala Oats

Uggani

Find the quantities and a short video in the recipe card at the bottom of the post.

Step by Step Instructions

Place all 3 millets in the 1st container and urad dal, and fenugreek seeds in the 2nd container.

Rinse and wash a couple of times with cold water and soak them for 8 hours.

Soak poha (flattened rice flakes) for 20 minutes.

Drain the water from urad dal, poha and millets.

Now grind millets along with urad dal and flattened rice flakes (poha) until smooth batter adding little water when necessary.

Transfer the millet batter into a container, close it with a lid and allow the batter to ferment.

Once the batter ferments well, add salt, and required water and mix until well combined.

Heat the dosa pan over medium flame, pour a ladle full of batter on hot dosa pan and spread it in a circular motion just like a pancake with the back of a ladle.

Drizzle little oil all around the dosa.

Once the base is crispy and light brown, loosen the dosa from the edges, fold gently and place it on a plate.

Enjoy hot and crispy millet dosas with sambar, chutney or any accompaniment of your choice.

Notes

Keep the batter for fermentation in a container that has enough room to raise.

Millets require less water while grinding. So add little water only when required.

Dosa batter should be of pouring consistency. Make sure it’s neither too thick nor too thin. The consistency must be of regular dosa. Decide how much water needs to be added depending on the thickness of the batter.

Millet batter may not rise as much as the regular dosa batter after fermentation.

Take out the required amount of fermented batter and store the remaining batter in an airtight container in the fridge.

Check out instant millet premix for dosa, uttapam and paniyaram on the blog.

KEEP IN TOUCH

Do let me know if you make this dietary fiber rich wholegrain millets dosa. If you like this recipe kindly consider rating it using stars in the comment section or on the recipe card to help more people find this recipe online. You can stay up to date by following me on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram or subscribing to my Youtube channel. Or why not subscribe to my blog and get simple recipes straight to your inbox

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