Easy hotel style Onion Dosa that are crispy as well as soft and lacy. The recipe is quick to make with a batter made of semolina, rice flour, all-purpose flour, onions, herbs and spices. No grind and no fermentation is required making this recipe a quick breakfast or brunch option.

Recipe Snapshot

  • Prep time: 25 minutes
  • Cook time: 20 minutes
  • Total time: 45 minutes
  • Yield: 6 · 6 Onion Dosa
  • Category: Breakfast
  • Cuisine: South Indian

Ingredients

  • ½ cup rava ((sooji or semolina), unroasted and finer textured)
  • ½ cup Rice Flour
  • 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour (or whole wheat flour)
  • ½ to 1 teaspoon green chillies (- finely chopped or 1 green chilli)
  • ½ cup onion (- finely chopped or 1 medium-sized onion)
  • 1 teaspoon ginger (- finely chopped or 1 inch ginger, optional)
  • 2.25 cups water (or buttermilk or add as required - I added 2.25 cups water *check notes below on how to make the buttermilk)
  • 9 to 10 black peppercorns (- crushed)
  • 1 tablespoon coriander leaves (- chopped, (cilantro), optional)
  • salt (as required)
  • 1 teaspoon oil
  • ½ teaspoon mustard seeds
  • 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
  • 5 to 6 curry leaves (- chopped)
  • oil (or ghee as required for roasting the dosa)

Method

Making batter

  1. Take the rava, rice flour, all-purpose flour, green chillies, ginger, onion, coriander leaves, crushed black pepper in a mixing bowl.
  2. Heat 1 teaspoon oil in a small frying pan. Crackle the mustard seeds first on low heat. The mustard seeds should pop before you add the cumin seeds.
  3. Then add the cumin and chopped curry leaves. Saute for a few seconds till the cumin browns and splutters.
  4. Add this tempering mixture together with the oil to the other ingredients in the bowl. Add salt as required.
  5. Pour water or buttermilk and make a thin batter without any lumps. Keep the batter to rest for 15 to 20 minutes.
  6. The batter should not be thick or of medium consistency. If the dosa batter becomes too thin, then add some rice flour to slightly thicken it.

Cooking onion dosa

  1. Heat a cast iron skillet or tawa or non-stick pan. Smear a bit oil with a slice of onion or a small piece of cotton fabric or paper napkin. Keep the heat to medium.
  2. With a ladle pour the dosa batter from the edges towards the center.
  3. Sprinkle ¼ or ½ or 1 teaspoon of oil from the top.
  4. Let the base becomes golden and crisp. Flip and cook the other side. When both the sides are cooked, remove the dosa from the pan.
  5. Prepare all the dosas this way in batches.
  6. While making second dosa stir the batter very well as the rava and the flours settle down at the bottom of the batter in the bowl.
  7. Serve the hotel style Onion Dosa hot with coconut chutney or vegetable sambar. This dosa has to be served immediately.

Kiyaan Singh’s Kitchen Note

Keep this recipe as a working base: cook once as written, then adjust spice, texture, and serving style for your own table.