Paruppu Dosai, Lentil Crepes

          Dosas, this is one tiffin that we have at least 2 or 3 times in the week, either for breakfast or dinner. Apart from the regular dosa made from a fermented rice and urad dal batter, we can make so many varieties, using other flours and lentils. Paruppu Dosai is made using rice and tuvar dal/ split pigeon peas, again the batter need not be fermented and you can make dosas with just the plain batter, or add some grated vegetables or chopped greens to it and make the dosas more healthier. I have added some chopped greens ( arai keerai ) to the batter, the dosas turned out really good, thin and crispy, you can serve it with any chutney of your choice..

Need To Have

• Parboiled Rice - 2 cups
• Tuvar Dal/ Split Pigeon Peas - 1/2 cup
• Dried Red Chillies - 6
• Cumin Seeds/ Jeera - 2 teaspoons
• Chopped Spinach - 21/2 to 3 cups
• Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
• Salt to taste

Method

          Wash and soak the rice and tuvar dal for about 2 hours, then grind into a coarse batter along with the red chillies and cumin seeds.

          Add the asafoetida, salt and chopped spinach and make a thin batter ( like for rava dosa  or a very thin pancake batter ).

          Heat a tawa or griddle, take about 1/2 cup of the batter and pour it to form a thin dosa ( if needed after pouring the batter, just tilt the pan from side to side, so that the batter can spread some more ). Add a little oil on the edges, cover and cook till you see that it's turning golden and you can lift it easily from the pan, flip it and cook the other side, till brown spots appear, remove and serve it warm with any chutney.

Note
When you add chopped spinach to the batter, only if the batter is thin and the tawa/ griddle is hot, as soon as you add the batter to the pan, you can see holes appearing in the batter, with the sizzling sound and the dosas/ crepes will have that lace-like texture.
The dosas are very crispy and taste really good when served straight off the griddle, they loose the crispiness as they get colder.
If you don't like adding the spinach as such, you can saute it lightly and add to the batter.