In August 2021, I was diagnosed with cancer. After reading up and talking to a nutritionist at the hospital, I decided to put myself on a ‘diet’. Consequently, I am eating less red meats, white sugar and carbohydrates and no wine or alcoholic drinks. A close friend of mine suggested that I check out ragi / red quinoa as a great source of protein.

1 cup ragi flour / finger millet

1/2 cup semolina / suji

½ cup rice flour

½ cup curd / yogurt

1 inch ginger (finely chopped)

1 green chilli (finely chopped)

1 tsp cumin powder

½ tsp pepper powder

1 tsp salt

3½ cup water

oil for cooking

Making the batter

Firstly, in a large mixing bowl take ragi flour,  semolina and rice flour.

Add curd, ginger, green chilli,  coriander leaves, cumin, pepper and salt.

Add 1-2 cup water and mix well to form a lump free batter.

Rest the batter for 15-20 minutes.

Frying the pancakes / dosas

Add the remaining water or as required and prepare a flowing consistency batter.

Carefully pour about one small laddle of the dosa batter on to a hot tawa or non-stick frying pan.

Cover to cook. The pancake/ dosa develops small bubbles in it making it soft and fluffy.

Sprinkle ½ or 1 tsp of oil around the surface when the edges of the dosa are cooked.

Once the dosa roasts to golden brown, flip over and cook for a little while.

Serve instant ragi dosa immediately with coconut chutney. The dosa goes well with chicken curry or a prawn curry.

I have kept extra batter in a jar in the fridge and used it the next day. It works well and you can enjoy fresh dosas the day after!

As a variant, I switched out the rice flour for mung bean flour and added an egg to the batter for consistency. Works well!