Authentic Indian Dosas take two days of fermenting rice in preparation for making the batter. I'd love to have a go one day, but in a quest to replicate the idea in a dish you can put together in half an hour, here is my 'inspired by Dosa' Quick Indian Pancakes recipe.
Gram (chickpea) flour is a must here - and if you want to make these pancakes gluten-free you can use 260g gram flour rather than half-and-half with plain white.
If you don't have all of the spices listed to hand - don't worry! Just make them anyway. Any combination of indian spices would work well here, whatever you can find lurking on your spice rack.
The batter will make 6-8 pancakes but the first one or two might not be pristine - call them the cook's perk, and just serve up the final 4 with the potato filling, and dollop of mango chutney (or my favourite, brinjal pickle) and perhaps an onion bhaji.
Vegan
Quick Indian Pancakes with Spiced Potato Filling
BookmarkIngredients
- For the pancakes:
- 130 g gram chickpea flour
- 130 g plain white flour
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 tsp each of: mustard seeds cumin seeds, coriander seeds - all ground together in a pestle and mortar.
- ½ tsp salt
- Rapeseed or sunflower oil for frying
- For the Potato Filling:
- 500 g frozen mashed potato trust me here - this is so much easier than boiling/baking and mashing your own. But of course that would be fine if you don't have frozen mash to hand.
- 3 tbsp rapeseed or sunflower oil
- 1 clove of garlic or 1tsp lazy/squeezy garlic
- 1 red chilli or 1tsp lazy/squeezy chilli
- 1 cm root ginger grated (or 1tsp lazy/squeezy ginger)
- 1 tsp garam masala
- 1 tsp turmeric
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 4 spring onions finely chopped
Instructions
- Mix the gram and plain flours together, and add the bicarbonate of soda, ground spices for the batter, and salt. Make sure there are no lumps of gram flour. Gradually add 400ml water until you have a thin pancake batter, and whisk with a fork until smooth. (If you do get lumps of flour, a handheld blender will soon get rid of them).
- Microwave the frozen mashed potato in a large bowl according to packet instructions.
- Place a small frying pan on a medium heat, and add the 3 tbsp oil. Add the garlic, chilli, ginger, garam masala and turmeric. Fry gently for a couple of minutes then remove from the heat. Pour this spiced oil into your mashed potato, followed by the lemon juice and spring onions. Stir until well combined.
- Place a large frying pan on a high heat. Add a splash of oil, and spread it around with a spatula. Spoon in some batter and swirl around until it just coats the entire pan. When the top of the pancake has almost dried out, use a spatula to spread a quarter of the potato mixture over the pancake. Leave it for another minute until fully heated through, then tip onto a plate, roll up and cut in half.
- Best eaten immediately!
ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION
Oh wow, that’s some epic comfort food right there! Looks totally delicious kate 🙂