The Daring Kitchen (September 2009)...Indian Dosas

This month the "daring challenge" was Indian Dosas. I've never had Indian food before, so this was a first. I liked the fact that it was vegetarian, as I want to eat vegetarian more often. You were allowed the freedom to change the filling of the dosas, as long as you stayed within the vegetarian theme, but I stuck with the recipe that was offered up. I made the sauce first, and then the filling, and then the dosas.

This recipe comes in 3 parts: the dosas (like crepes), the filling and the sauce. I cut the recipe for the dosas in half, but I went with a full batch of the filling and sauce, because I thought that it might still be good in a wrap or with rice. However I am going to post the full recipes. Here it goes:

Indian Dosas

Coconut Curry Sauce
1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic
½ tsp cumin, ground
¾ tsp sea salt (coarse)
3 TBSP curry powder
3 TBSP spelt flour (or all-purpose GF flour)
3 cups vegetable broth
2 cups coconut milk
3 large tomatoes, diced

Directions:

1. Heat a saucepan over medium heat, add the onion and garlic, cooking for 5 minutes, or until soft.
   
   
   
2. Add the spices, cooking for 1 minutes more. Add the flour and cook for 1 additional minute.
   
   
   
3. Gradually stir in the vegetable broth to prevent lumps. Once the flour has been incorporated, add the coconut milk and tomatoes, stirring occasionally.
   
   
   
4. Let it simmer for half an hour.
   

Curried Garbanzo Filling
This filling works great as a rice bowl topping or as a wrap too, so don't be afraid to make a full batch.

5 cloves garlic
1 onion, peeled and finely diced
1 carrot, peeled and finely diced
1 green pepper, finely diced (red, yellow or orange are fine too)
2 medium hot banana chilies, minced
2 TBSP cumin, ground
1 TBSP oregano
1 TBSP sea salt (coarse)
1 TBSP turmeric
4 cups cooked or canned chick peas (about 2 cans)
½ cup tomato paste

Directions:

1. Heat a large saucepan over medium to low heat. Add the garlic, veggies, and spices, cooking until soft, stirring occasionally.
   
   
   
2. Mash the chickpeas by hand, or in a food processor.
   
   
   Add the chickpeas and tomato paste to the saucepan, stirring until heated through.
   

Dosa Pancakes
1 cup spelt flour (or all-purpose, gluten free flour)
½ tsp salt
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp curry powder
½ cup almond milk (or soy, or rice, etc. I used soy milk.)
¾ cup water
cooking spray, if needed

Directions:

1. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl, slowly adding the almond milk and water, whisking until smooth.
   
2. Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Spray your pan with a thin layer of cooking spray, if needed.
   
3. Ladle 2 tablespoons of batter into the center of your pan in a circular motion until it is a thin, round pancake. When bubbles appear on the surface and it no longer looks wet, flip it over and cook for a few seconds. Remove from heat and repeat with remaining batter. Makes 8 pancakes.

To assemble the dish, spread some garbanzo filling in a dosa, and roll it up. Spoon sauce over the top. Serve with rice, if desired. I served mine with Basmati rice.


This was quite good. It was really interesting. Separately each piece of the dish was nothing special, and some things like the sauce even had a slightly odd flavor on its own. But combined, the flavors melded quite nicely. I would probably make this again, if I'm ever in the mood for Indian. However I might use the food processor next time for chopping up the veggies for the filling, to speed things up.