Dosa is a typical dish that many South Indians have for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Dosa is a fermented batter made from rice and black gram, poured into the hot pan, and spread uniformly in a circular shape and cooked. It is very easy to make once you have the batter ready to be used. A dollop of chutney made from coconut, tomato or mint, idli podi and sambar along with the dosa is usually preferred, and is best served when it is hot. The Dosa is a delicacy that you must have when you come to South India. Since eating plain dosa can get boring at times, a variety of dosas have been created to get a taste of new flavour.
1. Rava Dosa
Rava Dosa is a dosa which is made using rava or semolina, rice flour, and general purpose flour. Mix all of these ingredients into a batter form and the batter does not require fermentation and can be directly used to make the dosa. The crucial part of this dosa is rava, hence its name. Depending on the person’s wish, they can add curry leaves and herbs to the dosa for taste or eat it as plain rava dosa.
2. Mysore Masala Dosa
Mysore Masala Dosa commonly called as masala dosa is favoured by almost everyone in South India and is found in any South Indian restaurant you visit. It consists of a plain dosa with mashed potato masala served with dollops of various chutneys and sambar. The best breakfast a person can have and one of my personal favourites. One cannot miss out on the taste of this dosa.
3. Poha Dosa
Poha or atukulu in this dosa is the main ingredient. This dosa is a specialty of Andhra Pradesh and is eaten by many Telugu people. This dosa is incredibly soft and airy, capable of lasting for a long time. Perfect for lunch boxes or breakfast. Usually, dosas are cooked only on one side but for this type of dosa, it is cooked on the side.
4. Neer Dosa
Neer means water in many of the Indian languages. Made from a dosa batter which is extremely diluted and is in runny form, is the Neer dosa. It is best tasted with jaggery and coconut chutney. It requires simple preparation of the mixture and no fermentation is required. They go well with non-vegetarian dishes too.
5. Kovil Prasadam Dosa
Kovil means temple in Tamil and Prasadam refers to the food created for the Gods. Kovil Prasadam is food set up in front of God or with keeping prayer in mind and is given to the people who visit the temple. This dosa uses ginger as one of its ingredients and tastes amazing with ginger chutney.
6. Godhambu Dosa
Godhambu Dosa means wheat dosa. This type of dosa is instant and requires no fermentation. The batter for this dosa is made out of wheat and poured into the hot pan like any other dosa. It is highly nutritional and perfect for an evening snack.
7 Rava Masala Dosa
This dosa is a combination of masala dosa and rava dosa. This dosa has a netted appearance with mashed potato masala stuffed in it. The rava dosa can also have few herbs and spices added to it for a sensational taste. This dosa has a taste that you cannot forget.
8 Ragi Dosa
Ragi is a type of grain used in cooking. It is cooked in various formats and is exquisite for health. They bring down the high sugar levels and cools the body too. For dosa, the ragi powder is mixed in a little amount for the dosa batter and is poured on the hot tava and spread evenly. The cooked dosa has a brown colour because of the ragi. For the people who want to eat healthy, ragi dosa is the perfect choice. This ragi dosa tastes best when eaten with a dollop of chutney, potato fillings or sambar.
9. Uppu Huli Dosa
This type of dosa has a sweet and sour flavour on point. It is a mix of tamarind and red chilies. This mixture gives the dosa a unique red colour. This dosa is perfect to eat without any side dishes as it will overwhelm the taste of the dosa. But it can be eaten with a type of chutney or sambar that will compliment the taste of the dosa.
10. Navratan Dosa
Navratan stands for nine gems in Sanskrit. Similarly, the Navratan dosa is made using nine types of lentils mixed with the rice batter. You can make amazing dosas after the batter has fermented overnight. This dosa is healthy as it also includes poha and fenugreek.
11. Sweet Banana Wheat Dosa
This type dosa is extremely popular amongst little children.You can essentially make it the same way you make the wheat dosas. You can serve it with sliced bananas and grated nuts and a bit of chocolate syrup. It is a tasty treat too good to forget.
12. Davangere Benne Dosa
Its origins go back to the city of Davangere of Karnataka. This dosa is made using homemade butter or benne. It is just known as the butter dosa. You have to use a generous quantity of butter with rice batter and you have to cook the dosas with more butter. You can serve the dosa with a small piece of butter on top but it should be hot. You can serve the dosa with coconut chutney and sambar.
13. Egg Dosa
A modern type of dosa, for those who are craving Indian style and Westen style breakfast. You can pour the rice batter into the pan and an egg is cracked on the dosa while you cook the dosa. The dosa is served along with the half fried egg that you cook and you can serve it with pepper sprinkled on top and with a side dish of your choice.
14. Open Masala Dosa
Dosas are usually folded into halves and served but in this type of dosa, it is kept open with mashed potato masala placed on top of it. Before you add the masala, sprinkle the dosa idli podi on top of it. You can add chopped coriander leaves, carrot and coconut shavings for garnish.
15 Steamed Dosa
This dosa is also known as Set Dosa and you have to prepare it with no oil, unlike the other dosas. This dosa has a very soft texture and taste. It tastes best with coriander chutney, tamarind chutney or mashed potatoes with masala and various herbs. This type of dosa is healthy. Also when you want to eat something light, this dosa will be an excellent choice for you.
16. Pesarattu Dosa
This dosa is prepared by mixing the rice batter with moong dal and is used like any other dosa batter. This dosa is a famous breakfast dish in Andhra Pradesh and one of my personal favourites. The dosa is filled with chopped onions and then closed from both the sides. You can also serve these dosas with upma. It tastes best when it is crispy and served hot with coconut chutney.
17. Brown Rice Dosa
If you are into fitness and health, then you can definitely add this dish to the list. You can make these dosas out of brown rice and a little bit of rice batter. It is cholesterol free and full of nutrition. It tastes best when accompanied with coconut chutney.
18. Avocado Dosa
Avocado is a fruit which you can also called as “BeNNehaNNina” in Kannada and you can make a wonderful dosa out of this fruit. Though this fruit might be expensive, it is good for health and high nutritional values. You can make dosas mixing the rice batter with one large avocado and one cup of urad dhal. This dosa batter requires overnight fermentation and you can use it like any other dosa batter that you use. They taste good with honey as well as sambar and chutney. This dosa tastes best when it is served hot.
19. Ali Pota Dosa
Ali Pota means “scooping into” in Tamil. This dosa is soft and spongy when compared to the other dosas. This dosa is generally included in breakfast or dinner in the homes of the people of this state. This type of dosa requires fermentation overnight and the dosa batter is used the same way as every other dosa batter. This dosa tastes best when you serve it hot and when you tag them with groundnut chutney or tamarind chutney. This dosa is spongy enough to absorb the chutney straight away.
20. Onion Dosa
For this type of dosa, the main ingredient is onions. Apart from the usual rice batter, grind the tamarind, chopped onions, coriander and red chilies into a fine paste and you can alsoadd the paste to the rice batter. It is poured like any other dosa but to get it crispy and thin, it should be evenly poured into the hot pan and cooked on a medium flame. After you cook the dosa on one side, you can flip it so that the other part of the dosa is also well cooked. It tastes amazing when it is served hot with coconut chutney.
Eating most of these dosas as a snack is common in India. Dosas are traditional South Indian breakfast dishes with a taste and flavour that cannot be compared to any other dish. As well as being healthy, this dish is a delicacy that cannot be forgotten and you can enjoy it at any time.
