Name: Ragi Dosa Recipe | Finger Millet Dosa Batter
Prep time: 5 h
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 13 h 15 min
Ingredients: Ragi/Finger Millet - 3 cups; Urad Dal - 1/2 cup , whole; Fenugreek seeds - 1 tbsp; Water - 2 cups or necessary for grinding; Salt - 2 tsp; Oil/Ghee for making Idli or Dosas

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Table of Contents

ABOUT

Ragi Dosa is a nutritious breakfast made with finger millet (Ragi) and Urad dal. This is basically a south indian crepe made like traditional crispy dosa. However there are many variants to this dosa, where there is an instant ragi dosa which doesn’t need any soaking or fermenting , more or less similar to Rava Dosa and instant wheat dosa recipe.

Ragi is a super food with lots of nutritional benefits as like other millets. They are rich source of dietary fibre and iron. There are many dishes with ragi such as Ragi malt, Ragi Iddiyapam, Ragi puttu and so on. This tastes best with Idli Podi, Kara Chutney or Coconut Chutney.

Ragi Dosa is one of my staple breakfast for years now. I have been eating millets for quite long time and ragi is one of my favorite millet and I like to add lots of carrots, onions and coriander in the batter and eat mostly like uthappam and it will be so yum and filling. This is a all in one batter where you can make uthapams, paniyaram, idle and dosa with the same batter. Trust me it all tastes so good!!

ADD-ONS/VARIATIONS

To this batter you can soak and grind, Kambu (Bajra), Oats and other millets of your choice. You can even make it a complete mixed millet dosa. If you want more flavours, add chopped onions, coriander and ginger to the batter and make uthappams. You can also add vegetable puree like beetroot, carrot and make it colorful and healthy.

TIPS AND NOTES

Make sure to wash the Ragi thoroughly , since it tends to have dust and stones.
It is preferable to use a Grinder over Mixer jar as it makes your batter ferment better in other words gives you more yield.
Grinding in Mixer jar will create more heat and thus affects the outcome. However if you are grinding small quantity you can use mixer. In such cases, the tip is to keep the soaked urad dal in fridge for 30 mins before grinding. This ensures that the batter is not heated up and you get a fluffy batter.
Don’t add too much of water while grinding ragi initially. Firstly grind it without adding water. There after slightly add water and grind to get fine batter. Else ragi will remain as such here and there.
To get super spongy Idli , take a portion of freshly ground batter and store separately. Do not make dosa out of that separated batter to get super spongy Idli throughout.

STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS WITH PHOTOS

Wash Ragi thoroughly for 2-3 times. Ragi will have many dust particles. So it is necessary to wash at least twice or thrice before soaking. Soak the Ragi separately in a bowl for 4-5 hours.

Wash Urad dal till there is no cloudy color. Soak Urad dal and fenugreek seeds together for 1 hour. Soaking urad dal for longer will yield less batter. In order to get more yield, and fluffier batter, soaked urad dal may be strained and kept in fridge for 1/2 hour.

Make sure to grind both ragi and urad dal separately, and then mix them together. See the notes and tips for grinding. Add water as per the requirement to get the batter consistency. Ragi will not grind properly if you add more water as they are small and will remain as it is. So always grind them initially with less or no water and then add water gradually.
For Urad dal, in case you didn’t keep it in fridge, you can use ice cubes instead of water to reduce the heat and to give super fluffy batter. This is done , when you use mixer jar instead of wet grinder as mixer jar generates more heat while grinding and affects the batter.

Add salt and mix the batter. Ferment it overnight or 6-8 hours. If you have a hotter climate the fermentation happens quicker. In case of low temperature cities or during winter, it takes some time to ferment even up to 12 hours. In such case you can use instant pot to ferment.

Now in a hot dosa tawa make crispy dosa as we do for normal dosa. You can even make Idli with these batter. Refer tips and notes.

Happy Eating !!!

STORAGE

This batter after fermenting should be stored in refrigerator immediately to avoid over fermentation which leads to sour taste and if your climate is hot , it comes around 1.5 weeks maximum. You can add onions, coriander and veggies if your batter still reaches a sour taste.