Pesarattu or Moong Dal Dosa with step by step photos. Pesarattu are crispy crepes made from ground whole mung lentils batter. These healthy crepes are a popular breakfast recipe from Andhra Pradesh.
The telugu word ‘Pesarattu’ is derived from two words “pesara” and “attu”.
– Pesara Means mung lentils or moong dal.
– Attu Means dosa.
Thus Pesarattu literally means Moong Dal Dosa. Pesarattu is also called as pesara dosa in telugu language.
Pesarattu is a healthy & nutritious Dosa variety. They are Vegan as well as Gluten-free.
They are very easy to make. Just Soak the lentils and then grind them. No need of fermenting the batter. You can use the batter straightway after grinding.
Pesarattu dosa can be made with whole moong beans or split yellow moong lentils. I usually make Pesarattu dosa with both whole green moong dal and the split husked yellow mung lentils.
The dosa made with yellow moong lentils has a texture similar to the North Indian Moong Chilla. Whereas the ones made with whole moong beans taste a bit different. But both are delicious.
Pesarattu Dosa is served with Upma. The dosa can be served with coconut chutney or allam chutney (ginger chutney). They also taste good with a simple coriander chutney.
I have compiled below some Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) and a few tips from the comments section where readers have asked me queries.
FAQ on Pesarattu
1. Can rice be added instead of rice flour?
Yes absolutely. For 2 cups of moong dal, add ¼ cup of rice.
2. Can I use leftover cooked moong dal to make dosa?
No, pesarattu dosa cannot be made with cooked moong dal.
3Can I use any other flour instead of rice flour?
Yes, you can use chickpea flour (besan) or any flour like ragi or jowar flour. But note that these flours will contribute their taste in the pesarattu.
4. Can I skip rice flour?
Rice flour gives a crispy texture to the dosa. But you can skip rice flour in the recipe.
5. What is the soaking time for whole green mung beans vs split yellow mung beans?
Soak the green moong beans for 4 to 6 hours or overnight. The split yellow moong lentils can be soaked for 1 hour to 3 hours. Less time taken for soaking results in a more crisp texture.
6. Can I use moong sprouts to make dosa?
Yes, you can easily make moong sprouts dosa. Grind the mung sprouts to a fine batter with the other ingredients mentioned in the recipe.
7. Can I add cream of rice instead of rice flour?
Yes, you can add cream of rice (idli rava) instead of rice flour.
8. Reader suggestions:
Instead of raw onions, add half fried onions on the top of the dosa and this enhances the taste of pesarattu. In hotels, they follow this method and fry the onions with ghee. Some cumin seeds can also be added while grinding the batter.
How to make Pesarattu or Moong Dal Dosa
1: Firstly, rinse the moong lentils a couple of times in water. Then soak the moong dal for 4 to 6 hours or overnight in enough water. Drain all the water. Below photo is of the soaked and drained moong beans on the next day.
2: Grind it into a smooth paste in the morning with the green chilly, ginger, coriander leaves, salt with some water (add water as required). Add the rice flour and stir well.
3: On a griddle, smear a little oil or ghee. With a big spoon, pour the dosa batter on the griddle and use the same spoon for spreading the moong dal dosa batter into a round shape. Sprinkle some of the finely chopped onions, green chilies and coriander leaves.
4: Drizzle oil at the sides and in the center.
5: Flip the dosa a couple of times until both sides are well cooked and browned.
6: Make all Pesarattu this way. Serve Moong Dal Dosa hot or warm with upma accompanied with coconut chutney. Or just plain with some coconut chutney or coriander chutney.
Some more Indian Dosa varieties
Pesarattu | Moong Dal Dosa
Ingredients
for pesarattu batter
- 2 cups green moong beans
- 1 green chilly - chopped
- ½ inch ginger - chopped
- 1 pinch asafoetida (hing) - optional
- ¼ cup chopped coriander leaves - optional
- salt as required
- 3 tablespoons rice flour - optional
toppings and other ingredients for pesarattu
- 1 medium-sized onion - finely chopped
- 1 green chilli - finely chopped, optional
- few chopped coriander leaves
- oil or ghee for frying the dosa - as required
serving suggestions
- upma - as required, optional
- coconut chutney - as required
- coriander chutney - as required
- ginger chutney - as required
Instructions
Making Pesarattu Batter
- Firstly, pick and rinse the moong beans.
- Then soak the moong beans overnight in enough water.
- Drain and add the moong beans along with ginger, green chilies, asafoetida, coriander leaves and salt in a grinder jar.
- Add some water and grind into a smooth batter.
- Remove the batter in a bowl or pan.
- Stir in the rice flour and mix well. The consistency should be similar to a dosa batter.
Making Pesarattu
- On a griddle or flat pan, spread a little oil or ghee.
- With a ladle, pour the dosa batter on the griddle and use the same spoon for spreading the moong dal dosa batter into a round shape.
- Pour some oil on the sides and in the center of the dosa.
- Sprinkle the finely chopped onions, green chilies and coriander leaves.
- Press these with the spatula so that they get stuck to the batter which is getting cooked.
- Flip and cook both sides a couple of times till crisp and browned.
- Serve the moong dal dosa or pesarattu hot with upma and coconut chutney.
Notes
- This pesarattu dosa can also be made with spilt green gram or sprouted moong.
- If using yellow moong, then you can soak the lentils for 1 to 3 hours.
- Instead of adding rice flour, you can also grind both soaked rice and green moong beans together.
- The moong dal dosa can be had plain too.
Hi,
Excellent article.
It’s just Pesarattu, not Pesarattu Dosa, as Attu means Dosa in Telugu.
bapuram, thanks for the info. but i have to mention as website is visited by non-telugu readers also.
Is it really 1/4 tbsp of rice flour?
sonal, thanks for letting me know. this is an technical error which has happened when we changed the recipe card. its not 1/4th tbsp. its 3 to 4 tablespoons. i will update the post.
Yummy and healthy recipe! I made it without rice flour but turned out really good. Husband loved it! Thanks a lot! I love all your recipes and you explain them really well!
thanks prajakta and nice to know. rice flour can be skipped.
All these recipes are my favourites and well you illustrated with a suitable diagrams as well. Every Saturday i used to share awesome receipes in my twitter
time line. This Saturday with Pesarattu Doasa …
Do you have any privacy Issues, Policy matters regarding my twitter share..
Please let me know..
Thank you so much for the amazing recipes.
welcome sanjiv. thanks for your positive feedback on recipes. we appreciate when user share the content on social media with a link back to the site. because it spreads the word about the website and get more visitors to it. so we are thankful to you for sharing the recipes.
Hi…. can you suggest which dosa tawa should i buy…..i will be making a dosa for the first time.
best is to use a cast iron pan for making dosa. online cast iron pans are very expensive. so try searching in local markets in indian cities. you should be able to get one.
By cast iron pan do you mean an iron tawa? Like we use to make rotis?
yes iron tawa, but flat ones. roti tava are sometimes even concave shaped ones.
Hi I have a question!
If I am goi to use rice instead of rice flour, how much raw rice do I use? And how long do I soak it? Thank you!!!
you can soak 3 tablespoons rice. you can soak overnight. soak both the moong beans and rice together.
Thank you!
Welcome Lydia
A very yummy dish… A healthy one..and was a huge hit at home..
Thank you
welcome and thankyou sreeja 🙂
Thanks for the perfect recipe, today tried mong dal sprouts chat n tomorrow will try this. In M.P. we make mong dal bhajiya of this batter. This recipe is very good for kids, thanks again
welcome vibha. in gujarat also moong dal bhajiya is made. i have added this recipe too. though not as healthy as moong dal dosa, but once in a while is fine 🙂
Thank you so much for this wonderful recipe. I really love all your recipes. Can I add palak puree to it to make it more nutritious.
yes you can add palak puree. then just grind everything – moong dal, palak and rest of ingredients together with some water.
? it’s very useful to beginners.
thankyou so much shaila 🙂
Hi, very nicely explained. I have cream of rice at home can I use that instead of rice or its flour?
yes you can use cream of rice.
Awesome recipes…lf u don’t mind.. I would like to give a small suggestion. as I am basically from A.P..In this recipe…it tastes very good.. if u can add half fried onions..on the top of dosa instead if adding raw onions.This will enhance the taste of pesarattu..In hotels they do this and fry with ghee..its yummy
thankyou for your suggestion would surely try this way 🙂
healthy & delicious dosa……….a must try recipe.
thanks sudha
I like this receipe instead of green gram moong dal, with some raw rice for crispy and tasty, it can be eaten with coconut chutney, tomato chutney or sambar etc.
thanks.
thank you so much for these superb recipes . I have tried many of them and all were perfect. you are really awesome!
welcome shreyasi. glad to know this.
The steps of Recipe is very good…!
Hello,
I tried this recipe and dosas turned out awesome. Thanks for the amazing recipe.
I put the left-over dosa batter in the fridge. Two days later, can I still use the batter to make dosas?
welcome swati. glad to know this. not sure as it might become litter sour.
in the pessarutu desa recipe it is mentioned in the end then instead of using rice flour, rice can also be soaked overnight with the moong ki dal, pl advise how much rice can be soaked.
thanx shilpa
hi shilpa, you can soak 1 tbsp rice with the moong lentils.
Dear Dassana I have been frequenting your site for a while now and don’t know how i held back from commenting all this while. I keep away from any form of social networking actually (out of choice) but to not comment here would be to do you a disservice. I hope you realize that your blog is so much more than a blog – it’s a great and godly service from you to the vast community of people like me who don’t have inclination or time or simply just don’t feel like taking that dreaded first step since it all seems so daunting. If you manged to reduce our craving for ‘eating out’ the battle against most of the lifestyle diseases is won. You make it all seem so simple – which i believe truly helps us overcome the mental obstacles towards trying out things.. Keep continuing your wonderful blog , its our go-to site and live saving device all rolled into one. As i sign off i just wanted to mention as a snippet , there is a printed little subtext on every Bharat Gas receipt/outlet (if you care to notice) , it says ‘Cook Food Serve Love’ – well you seem to have perfected that to an art and you are truly an inspiration to all of us who are striving to get there. Love & God Bless.
PS : Havent yet tried your the Pesarattu recipe though i have had wonderful ones in Chennai. I’m sure this will be a hit as well
thanks a lot anusha for your sweet and generous feedback. i feel humbled. its good you commented finally 🙂 i have seen the logo of bharat gas and i would actually used to like it. i know sometimes you don’t have the energy or inclination to cook after a hectic day of work. but its important we make an extra effort and cook our own food with fresh ingredients. healthy eating and healthy living is very important which we are missing and forgetting these days in the mad race of life.
please add 1 table spoon zeera to this recipe it tase good and helps to digestion also nice receipe , instead of riceflour we can add rice directly to the green gram while grinding the paste also nice receipe it taste delicious
thankyou
welcome rasi. thanks for sharing your suggestions.
i don’t know some receipies, so i am looking some telugu vantalu receipies and i followed it . it is so helping me
Thanks l radhavamsi
Very perfect recipee !!!
thanks suman
Can this dosa be served with any rasam.
sunita, this dosa is usually served with chutney and upma.
Today I tried your Pesarattu recipe. Its come out awesome. I have earlier tried your paneer recipes, n so many others too. It was always a hit. Your blog is inspiring my kitchen and I always keep referring ur blog for more ideas and tips. Thanks so much for sharing.
welcome aishwarya. glad to know that you are liking the recipes. thanks for sharing this positive feedback. keep visiting the site.
This recipe has been very helpful…. thank u very much…
welcome sneha
Hi dasssana really your recipes are very nice taste .just I want to know measurement details . Actually you are using cup right can I know the cup means how much ml means 250ml cup or 200ml ? And also tbsp and tsp .can you please
thanks radhika. i use 250 ml cup. 1 tbsp is about 15 ml and 1 tsp is about 5 ml.
i left the green gram soaked for like two days and it has sprouted like a tree now..is it still good to use?
if the sprouts do not stink, then you can still make the dosa with the moong sprouts. just rinse the sprouts in water first and then grind them in the mixer.
I am curious about this discussion of using different pans for roti and dosas. Is it because oil is not used in the pan for cooking roti but oil is used in the pan for cooking dosas and that the residual oil in the pan from cooking dosas will smoke while cooking the roti because the roti is cooked at a higher temperature? I am inexperienced with cooking Indian breads so I don’t know. Personally, I don’t mind a bit of smoke. It may taint the food a bit but its still food and besides I have an exhaust fan over my stove. Before heating up the pan for say cooking roti, wiping any excess oil from it with some paper will reduce the smoking. Paper absorbs oil very well. Don’t wash your iron pan with soapy water!
not that reason. if pans which are used to make rotis are used to make dosa. then the dosa sticks to the pan. since while we make rotis, oil or ghee is not used. so its like the pan is not seasoned with oil. one has to literally scrape the dosa from the pan, as it just sticks to the pan and also on high heat gets burned.
Hi…I love the format of your recipes – you have both pictures and print versions. I have been looking for a similar template to post my mother’s family recipes. Would you be willing to tell me what program/template you used to achieve this look? Is this WordPress? I would really appreciate your help on this. Thanks so much.
Kamali
thanks kamali. i use wordpress with thesis theme. please go through the below two links.
https://www.vegrecipesofindia.com/how-to-start-a-food-blog/
https://www.vegrecipesofindia.com/food-bloggers-resources/
I ended up buying lot of cast iron tavas here in US. They say we have to season it so that it does not get rusted. But that meant applying lot of oil and seasoning it in the oven . Does it not mean that it has lot of fat on it? Because after applying coats and making it sit in oven for coulple of times, does it become fat later on?
hi neelima. oil is a kind of fat. so yes some fat is there. just season it once before you use the pan. if you use the pan regularly then no need to season it.
Sometimes I make lot of mung daal sprouts and freez them. Can I thaw them and make dosas?
you can make dosa with the thawed moong sprouts.
Dear Dassana,
I am a great fan of your food blog. Please help in finding a good cast iron/ iron griddle. I don’t like using non stick cookware. If I am not wrong ( as seen in the picture) you have used an iron griddle as well. Does it require too much oil? I am an north Indian so please give me tips to find a good, traditional iron dosa griddle. Thanks a lot. Happy cooking 🙂
hi rashi. the iron griddle used in the pic is a 5 year old hawkins anodised flat dosa pan. it is made of iron but was anodised. in the sadar bazaars or local bazaars you will be able to get cast iron tava or griddle. if the pan is really good, then does not require much oil. however no rotis or chapatis should be made in a pan or tava meant for making dosa. keep two pans one for dosa and the other for rotis.
once you get the pan, then wash and then season it with oil. meaning apply some oil and keep for 1-2 days before making the dosa. the first few dosas will break, but later you will be able to make nice dosas. also when applying oil, use a half cut onion and dip it in oil and rub the onion on the pan before spreading the dosa batter. you can also dip a clean piece of cloth or paper napkin in the oil and then rub it on the tava.
Thanks Dassana for the quick reply. Really appreciate your advice. Right now I use Lodge Logic cast iron griddle for rotis and non – stick Calphalon one to make dosas. I will buy a separate cast iron griddle for dosas. You are such an incredible cook 🙂
thanks rashi. buy a good brand for the cast iron griddle. i am sure you will be able to get good ones in america.
Hi all,
One sure to work tip for seasoning iron tava is to
put the tava on stove;
add a tsp of sesame oil;
add 1/2 to one tsp of mustard seeds ;
wait till the mustard starts spluttering;
spread the whole thing on the tava and remove ithe oil and seeds.
The tava is good to use.
( Was given this tip by my grandmother who doesn’t eat onions.
Have been using this method for many years)
Happy cooking 🙂
thanks priya for this handy tip. its good for folks who do not include onions and garlic in their food.
Love your Pesarattu. It is authentic & very very healthy.
i havent come across this dosa before and it sure does look exciting 🙂 what i love about ur posts is they are so detailed… whatever u see here you feel u can make it…simply cos its so covered so nicely by u along with pics !
thanks beena. these dosa pic needs to be updated.
the moong dal dosa is a popular breakfast in andhra.
i would love to try new recipes for sweets and food and snacks
Hi ,
If we are using yellow moong dal should we need to soak them overnight?
Your recepies are so good and i have tried a lot and they came out well. Hats off to your work
thanks. no need to soak yellow moong dal overnight. you can soak them for 1 to 2 hours.
Hi Dasanna,
I have never lived in Andhra, but my parents are from Andhra, they moved to Bangalore about 55 yrs ago. But since my origin is Andhra and have relatives I get to cook Andhra recipes along with Bangalore ones.
I understand that if the moong dhal is soaked over night the texture of dosa will be thick. For thin dosas and crisp texture, you need to soak only for two hours. Does it really work like that? Can you tell me please?
Manjula
hi manjula, i soak the green moong beans overnight. the yellow moong dal can be soaked for 1 hour to 2 hours. green moong beans can be soaked for 4 to 5 hours too. less time for soaking, then they will be more crisp.