Sabudana Dosa is a soft savory vegan crepes made with sago or sabudana, idli rice and split black gram or urad dal. Sabudana is also one of the main ingredients in India when it comes to recipes made during the Hindu fasting period also known as vrat or upvas.
Take sabudana, urad dal and fenugreek seeds in a bowl.
Rinse them a couple of times. Add 1.5 cups water. Cover with a lid and soak for 5 hours.
Take idli rice in another bowl. Rinse a couple of times. Add ¾ cup water and soak the rice for 4 to 5 hours.
Grinding and fermenting batter
Before grinding, drain away all the water from the sabudana, urad dal and fenugreek seeds.
Add them in a grinder jar. Also add ½ cup fresh water.
Begin to grind. Once the dal and sabudana are lightly crushed, then add ¼ cup more water. Grind to a smooth batter. A few whole pieces of sabudana are fine, but there should not be too many. The batter should be light and smooth.
Its better to grind the sabudana and dal in two batches. Depending on the quality of urad dal and sabudana, you can add an overall ⅔ to ¾ cup water for grinding.
Pour the batter in a pan or bowl.
In the same grinder add the rice. Drain off all the water from the rice and then add. Also add ¼ cup water.
Grind rice till you get a fine rava like consistency in the rice batter.
Now pour the rice batter in the same bowl or pan which has the urad dal + sabudana batter. Mix very well.
Add ¼ to ½ teaspoon edible rock salt. Add salt as required. Mix very well. Cover with a lid and let the batter ferment for 8 to 9 hours or more.
Depending on the temperature conditions in your city you can keep for less or more time.The batter after being fermented should have a faint sour aroma with tiny air pockets in it. Just lightly mix or stir the batter before making dosa.
Making sabudana dosa
Now heat a well seasoned cast iron skillet or nonstick pan. The pan should be medium hot. You can keep the flame to a low or medium while making sabudana dosa.
If using an iron skillet, then spread ¼ to ½ teaspoon oil all over the pan. Use a silicon brush or spoon or kitchen towel or an onion halve to spread the oil. Do not spread oil on a nonstick pan. Do keep the heat to a low or medium-low, so that you are easily able to spread the batter.
If the pan base is very thick, then keep the flame to medium. If the pan is very hot, you won’t be able to spread the batter in a round circle.
Pour a ladle of the batter in the center.
With the ladle gently spread the batter to a neat round circle and a slightly thick dosa. You can even make thin dosa if you prefer.
Sabudana dosa take a longer time to cook than regular dosa. Do cook the dosas on a low to medium heat.
Cover the sabudana dosa with a lid and cook it for some minutes.
When the top looks cooked, you can spread some oil on it. You need to cook these sabudana dosas on one side only.
Cook till the base turn golden.
When the base has turned golden, remove and serve sabudana dosa. The leftover batter can be refrigerated.
Serve sabudana dosa hot or warm with coconut chutney, tomato chutney or peanut chutney.
Notes
Ensure that the sabudana is soaked well enough and softens completely after soaking.
You can make either thick or thin dosa according to your preferences.
Remember to use a well seasoned cast iron pan so that the dosa does not stick to the pan.
The fermentation time will vary with the temperature condition in your city. In a cold or cooler climate it will take more than 8 hours for the batter to ferment.
This sabudana dosa recipe can be scaled easily to make for a smaller serving or larger serving.