Onion Dosa (Hotel Style Recipe)

Who doesn’t love the dosa – Indian style savory crepes, often served with a spiced potato stuffing. This hotel style Onion Dosa is a variation of the popular Rava Dosa recipe with more onions and some spices & herbs. This is one of the easiest dosa variants to make since no grinding and no fermentation of the batter is required. Make these dosas for a delicious breakfast or brunch. You can also enjoy them for a light lunch or dinner. The Onion Dosa recipe is not just vegetarian, but vegan too.

About Onion Dosa

If you are someone, who really can’t get enough of the Onion Dosa ever, then this recipe is a must try for you! Because with this recipe, you don’t have to head out to a restaurant. Instead, make and enjoy a restaurant style version of the same dosa at the comfort of your home.

Onion Dosa is a super popular South Indian breakfast dish. Not just all-over South India, but even in other regions, this dosa is an all-time favorite with many.

The typical texture of the onion spiked dosa is one of the USPs of the dish. So, not only is it a celebration for the palate, but is appealing to the eyes too. Just make sure to have it as soon as you make it.

This recipe of the Onion Dosa is quite a simple and easy one, where you just have to prepare the batter, temper it and use it to make perfectly golden and crisp dosas. You can opt to use ghee (clarified butter) in place of oil for cooking the dosas.

This hotel style Onion Dosa is best served hot or warm with an earthy coconut chutney, a comforting Sambar or even both. I know people who also eat it with tomato ketchup. You can try it too!

To make this instant Onion Dosa, just mix all the ingredients and allow the batter to sit for 15 to 20 minutes. Then, you are ready to make the dosas. While the batter is resting, you can prepare the Coconut Chutney. The ease of this recipe makes it a good option for breakfast or even brunch.

So, the usual ingredients that go in the batter of this Onion Dosa are onions of course, un-roasted rava or suji (semolina), rice flour, all-purpose flour or whole wheat flour, green chilli, ginger, crushed black peppercorns, chopped coriander leaves and salt.

To make the batter, you can use water or buttermilk. Sometimes, I prepare the batter with water and sometimes with buttermilk. Both ways the Onion Dosa tastes good.

The spices, herbs that go into the dosa batter impart their unique flavor too. Not to forget, the presence of onions, adding an element of crunch and some sweetness too.

I have tempered the dosa batter with mustard seeds, cumin seeds and curry leaves. This tempering gives a really nice flavor to the dosa and does not take more than 5 minutes.

Some more similar instant and wholesome dosa varieties that you can make in a jiffy are Oats Dosa and Wheat Dosa.

How to make Onion Dosa

Make Batter

1. In a mixing bowl, mix the following ingredients with spoon:

• ½ cup fine textured un-roasted rava or suji (semolina flour or cream of wheat)
• ½ cup rice flour
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour or whole wheat flour
• ½ or 1 teaspoon finely chopped green chillies or 1 green chilli
• ½ cup finely chopped onions or about 1 medium-sized onion
• 1 teaspoon finely chopped ginger or 1 inch, optional
• 9 to 10 black peppercorns, crushed
• 1 tablespoon chopped coriander leaves, optional

2. Heat 1 teaspoon oil in a small frying pan. Crackle ½ teaspoon mustard seeds first on low heat.

Then, add 1 teaspoon cumin seeds and 5 to 6 chopped curry leaves. Sauté for a few seconds or till the cumin seeds brown and splutter.

3. Add this tempering together with the oil to the other ingredients in the bowl. Also, add salt as required.

4. Pour water or buttermilk as required and make a thin batter without any lumps. Rest the batter for 15 to 20 minutes.

The batter should not be thick or of medium consistency. I added about 2.25 cups water to the batter. If the batter becomes too thin, then add some rice flour to slightly thicken it.

Make Onion Dosa

5. Heat a cast iron skillet, tawa or a non-stick pan. Using a small piece of cotton fabric, paper napkin or half of an onion which has been dipped in oil, grease the pan all over.

6. With a ladle, pour the prepared batter. First, start pouring the batter from the edges. Keep the heat to medium.

7. Then, move pouring the batter towards the center. If there are big gaps, then fill them lightly with the batter.

8. Drizzle ½ teaspoon oil on top. This dosa takes a little longer time to cook than the regular Dosa. The pan has to be really hot before you pour the batter.

9. Let the base becomes golden or crisp. Flip and cook the other side. Usually, I cook both sides. But you can just cook the base and when the top is also cooked, fold the dosa and serve immediately. Prepare all the dosas this way in batches.

Note: The rava and the flours settle down at the bottom of the batter in the bowl. So, you have to stir the batter very well every time you make the dosa. In case the batter becomes thick after making a few dosas, then add some water or buttermilk. Stir and mix again.

10. Serve the hotel style Onion Dosa hot or warm with coconut chutney or vegetable sambar for a comforting breakfast, brunch or lunch.

You can also serve it with other chutney varieties like Tomato Chutney, Onion Chutney, Peanut Chutney or Ginger Chutney.

If you have any leftover dosa batter, then refrigerate it for 1 day. If the batter looks thick, add some water to thin it.

Expert Tips

1. You can either use all-purpose flour or whole wheat flour in the batter.
2. Ginger, black pepper and coriander leaves in the batter are optional. You can skip these.
3. You can adjust the quantity of spices according to your taste. Some finely chopped fresh coconut can also be added to the batter.
4. The batter can be prepared with water or buttermilk, whatever you wish to use. Make sure to make a batter, which is thin (not medium or thick) and free of lumps. In case your batter becomes too thin, add some more rice flour and mix.
5. Prepare the buttermilk by dissolving 3 to 4 tablespoons curd (yogurt) in 2 cups water. Whisk well before adding to the other ingredients.
6. Adjust the heat while cooking the dosa. The heat will depend on the thickness of the pan or skillet you are using. If using a heavy pan, cook on medium high heat. In case the pan is light or thin, then cook on medium-low to medium heat.
7. This recipe can easily be doubled or tripled to make for more servings.

This Onion Dosa post from the archives first published in April 2014 has been updated and republished on March 2023.