We enjoyed a ragi dosa with spinach and cheese at Solitude Farm’s cafe in Auroville. While tearing the soft melt-in-your-mouth masterpiece and delivering it to our mouths, we marvelled over the nourishment that this six acre parcel of mother earth delivers.
Sarah, the cafe’s cook, is an intuitive one. She thrills at the produce that is delivered each day from the farm and has enough skill to transform it into mouth-watering dishes.
We’ll be sharing Sarah’s raw vegan carrot cake in an upcoming post. But, we loved our lunch so much developed our own recipe for ragi dosa to share with you.
Ragi is flour made of finger millet (Eleusine coracana L.). It’s dense, high in protein and has 5 to 30 times the calcium content found in other cereals. It’s both drought and monsoon tolerant so it’s a good crop for most of the India’s geography, though production is in decline throughout India.
Before going to India, we’d only seen millet used as bird feed. Now, we are hooked and look forward to eating it in these crispy dosas especially.
Pro Tip: Look for ragi flour at an Indian grocer.
Ragi Dosa with Spinach and Cheese Recipe
Yields 6 servings
Prep Time 10 minutes plus 2 hours fermentation time
Cooking Time 3 minutes per dosa so around 30 - 36 minutes
Total 45 minutes plus 2 hours fermentation
Ingredients
Equipment: you will need a large flat frying pan or tawa, plus a skillet or wok
2 cups ragi (finger millet) flour
1 cup dosa (dosai) flour
water
½ teaspoon salt – or to taste
2 – 4 Tablespoons ghee or coconut oil – divided
1½ teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 sprig of fresh curry leaves
6 cups of fresh whole leave spinach
6 ounces of soft melt-y cheese, grated and divided in 12 portions
Method
Add the ragi and dosa flours to a mixing bowl and whisk in some water to make it the consistency of dosa batter (like thin pancake batter but not as thin as crepe batter). Add salt to taste.
Set the bowl of batter in a warm place for at least 2 hours to allow it to ferment. Tip: Here in Canada, I place mine in an oven with the light on for warmth. If you live in a warm climate like India, this won’t be necessary.
Wait for the batter to be ready then heat 1 Tablespoon of ghee or coconut oil in a pan or wok and add the mustard and cumin seeds plus the curry leaves. When the seeds pop and splutter, add the spinach and turn the burner to low. Cover with a lid and cook until the spinach is bright green and wilted. Remove from heat and set aside.
Heat a dosa tawa (flat fry pan) on medium-high heat and spread a little of the remaining ghee or coconut oil to grease the surface. Pour a ladleful of batter in the centre of the pan and use the flat base of the ladle to spread the batter in circular patter.
Sprinkle a little more ghee or oil on the surface while bubbles are forming. When the edges are brown, carefully loosen and lift the dosa to turn it.
Turn the dosa again and add a bit of spinach and a portion of cheese. Melt the cheese briefly under a hot broiler.
Enjoy on their own or with sambhar soup and/or coconut chutney.
Thanks for trying this facesplacesandplates.com recipe.
