Culinary Aromas
- Oct 23, 2020
- 3 min read

Kodo Millet Dosa

Updated: Nov 2, 2020

I'm in love with Kodo millet. This millet is the closest to rice, I would say, in taste. Hence without compromising on taste, we can reap all its health benefits and at the same time enjoy mouth watering dishes.

Kodo millet or Koda millet goes by several other names in India - Varagu in Tamil, Kodra in Hindi, Arka in Kannada, Arikelu in Telugu.

Food made from millet grains are very good for diabetics since it helps in regulating blood glucose levels. Regular consumption of kodo millet keeps check on blood pressure, cholesterol levels and signs of cardiovascular disease. Weight watchers will love this millet as it has high fiber content - will keep one fuller much longer, helps prevent constipation and regulates bowel movement.

Try this dosa recipe and you will be amazed at how close it is to a regular rice based dosa. In this post, I show how to make kodo millet dosa batter first without any rice. Also I walk you through how to season a tava and then make plain and masala dosa with red chutney (mysore style) with this batter. Also, the same batter can be used to make delicious paniyaram/paddu/appe with lots and lots of veggies.

Consume Kodo millet regularly in your diet for a healthy living... Here are some of my millet recipes that you can try.

Video

Ingredients

3 cups unpolished Kodo millet
1 cup whole Urad dal
2 tbsp Chana dal
2 tsp methi/fenugreek seeds
Water as needed
1½ tsp Salt (used after grinding the batter)

1 cup = 250 ml or 128 gms

Instructions

Making Batter

Wash all the ingredients well and transfer to a bowl.
Add about 4 - 5 cups of water to cover fully. Millets absorb a lot of water.

Soak for 5 - 6 hours.
Grind in a blender or a wet grinder until smooth consistency. This takes about 35 minutes in a wet grinder. If you are using a mixer, do it in batches. Use the nutrient rich water that the millets soaked in, as needed for grinding.
Add salt and mix the batter with your clean hand. Mixing with hand helps greatly with fermentation.
Transfer to a deep bowl for enough space for the batter to rise and ferment.
Cover and keep in a warm place for about 8 hours.
Mix the batter and add little water if it’s too thick for dosa batter consistency. Please check video for the consistency.

Notes

Don't throw away the nutrient rich water. It can be used for grinding as well for watering plants.
I usually leave it overnight in the oven with just the oven light on. It provides enough warmth for the fermentation process to work well even during winter.
I recommend watching the video for getting a feel for the batter consistency

Making Dosa

Warm a tava or a girdle on medium flame. Tava should hot not be very hot when spreading dosa. If the tava is very hot, the batter will stick and it will make it difficult to spread it.
Seasoning the tava using Onion helps in preventing the dosa from sticking to the tava.

Plain dosa

Pour a ladle full of batter and spread in a spiral motion. Add ½ tsp oil around.
Cover and cook for about 2 min or until golden brown.
Flip and cook for 30 seconds or until done.
Crispy and a well done healthy dosa is ready to be devoured...

Masala dosa

Pour a ladle full of batter and spread in a spiral motion. Add ½ tsp oil around.
Cover and cook for about 2 min or until golden brown.
Remove the lid. Spread a tbsp of red chutney (recipe here) on the dosa
Add the potato masala. Fold and cook for 30 secs
Enjoy with coconut chutney and sambhar.

Notes