Tomato Dosa
Tomato dosa is an unique no-ferment dosa made with a blend of rice, lentils, fresh tomatoes and chillies. This is really a quick and easy recipe which is delicious and nutritious at the same time. Try introducing this tangy and spicy variation of dosa in your regular breakfast routine, and trust me it would be a regular choice going forward.
This recipe is quite close to my heart as it is a signature dish of my mom. I don’t think you would find any similar recipe on internet, which I am going to be sharing in this post. Tomato dosa or Thakkali dosa as we call in Tamil is a family favourite in our house and is made at least once in 2 weeks.
Conventional dosa is a slightly time consuming process in terms of soaking the rice and urad dal for longer and then grinding it in the wet grinder for the perfect texture, followed by overnight fermentation. So when you are tired or want to make a dosa batter for the coming week ahead in a quick and easy way, this dish is a saviour.
What makes this recipe really simple is the fact that all the ingredients including rice and various types of lentils along with the dry red chillies can be soaked together and ground at once. It is enough to soak the rice and lentil for just 3 to 4 hours, and the batter can be ground in normal mixer. So you can avoid the hassle of using the wet grinder too. The additional bonus here is that this dosa does not require any fermentation, so you can use it instantly for cooking. The ground batter can easily be stored in fridge and used for up to 3 to 4 days which makes it really convenient for breakfast on busy mornings.
Coming to the ingredients of this recipe, it is a mixture of idli rice or any other parboiled rice along with dosa rice or raw rice and mix of lentils – urad dal, toor dal and channa dal. Of course, we then have the red ripe tomatoes and dried byadagi chillies to get the gorgeous red colour. In addition to this I also like adding couple of green chillies and some curry leaves while grinding the batter and finally add some fresh coriander leaves to the batter just before making the dosas.
This dosa is almost a sibling of the ‘Adai dosa‘ in terms of the ingredients used and also the texture of the dosa, however tastes quite different and yum due to the addition of the tomatoes. This dosa is not as thick as ‘Adai dosa‘ or as thin as the regular dosa and the thickness should be somewhere in between. You can cook these dosas pretty crisp or slightly soft as per your preference.
Another interesting thing about this recipe is that we do not use any water to grind the batter as the juice in the fresh tomatoes is enough to aid the grinding. Be careful not to use water while grinding as it could make the batter quite thin. The batter for this dosa should be thicker than the regular dosa batter.
For getting the perfect Tomato dosas, I recommend using a good thick cast iron tawa as it distributes heat evenly and better. Just the way the Adai dosa cooked in cast iron tawa tastes better, the same is applicable to tomato dosa too. The reason behind is this is because since the batter is slightly thicker than the regular dosa batter, cooking it on cast iron provides better heat circulation and makes the dosa crisp. You could also use a non-stick dosa tawa too for making this dosa, but it would be only my second preference.
Serving Suggestion
Tomato dosa is a great choice for breakfast, however can be made for dinner too. In fact, this recipe is also a saviour where you decide to have dosa for dinner around noon, and you can easily soak the ingredients for 3 to 4 hours and the batter will be ready by evening. Though you can make the dosas instantly after grinding the batter, but I suggest resting the batter for around one hour for best results.
Tomato dosa pairs best with coconut chutney, however you can serve with any chutney of your choice. In addition to chutney, I also like having this dosa with ghee and sugar or ghee and jaggery. The kids will love this version in addition to some adults like me 😉
Tomato Dosa
Equipment
- Standard Measuring Cups & Spoons
- Cast Iron Dosa Tawa
Ingredients
- 1½ cup Idli Rice
- ¾ cup Dosa Rice
- ½ cup Urad Dal
- ½ cup Toor Dal
- 3 tbsp Channa Dal
- 7-8 Ripe Tomatoes medium sized
- 2 tsp Methi or Fenugreek Seeds
- 7-8 Byadagi Red chillies
- 1-2 Green Chillies
- 2 sprigs Curry Leaves
- ¼ tsp Asafoetida or Hing
- 3 tbsp Chopped Fresh Coriander Leaves
- Salt to taste
- Oil or Ghee for cooking
Instructions
- Wash the rice and dal . Soak the rice and all the dal together along with the fenugreek seeds and dry red chillies for around 4 hours.
- Drain the water from the soaked rice and dal. Chop the tomatoes roughly. Add the soaked rice and dal to mixer in batches along with some of the chopped tomatoes, green chillies and curry leaves and grind to a fine batter. Do not add water while grinding, the juice from tomatoes should suffice.
- Repeat the grinding process for the remaining rice, dal and tomatoes.
- Transfer the ground batter to a container, add salt and hing. Add fresh chopped coriander as well. You could rest this batter for 1 hour before making dosas. If you are in hurry, can make dosa immediately too.
- Adjust the consistency of the dosa batter before making the dosa. The batter should be thicker than the regular dosa batter and thinner than the adai dosa.
- Heat a cast iron dosa tawa. Spread some oil over hot tawa. Sprinkle some cold water on tawa, let it sizzle. Now pour a ladle of tomato dosa batter on tawa and spread it thin. Drizzle some oil and cook on medium flame.
- Once the sides start browning, flip the dosa and cook the other side.
- Once the other side is also cooked, apply some ghee on the crisp side, and flip it again and just cook for 10 seconds. This makes the dosa super crisp. Avoid this step if you prefer moderately crisp dosa.
- Serve hot with chutney of your choice. Continue making the remaining dosas.
Notes
- Use well ripe red tomatoes for this recipe to get the best colour and taste.
- Combination of idli rice and dosa rice gives the perfect ratio of softness and crispness to the dosa. You could also make this dosa just with dosa rice if you do not have idli rice. You can also use red rice for this recipe.
- Byadagi red chillies enhance the red colour of the dosa, so try using this variety of chilli or Kashmiri red chilli in the batter. If you are using the spicier variety, reduce the quantity to 3 or 4.
- Note not to add water while grinding the batter as the tomatoes will release it’s juice. You can always add water later after grinding the batter to adjust the consistency as required.
- Though it is not required to ferment this dosa, but resting the batter for one or two hours after grinding yields best results.
- Preferably use cast iron tawa for making this dosa and cook on medium flame
- Adding some ghee towards the end of cooking will make the dosa further crisp.
