For me, inspirations comes in all forms. Looking at a beautiful picture-I get inspired to paint. Looking at the 'seconds' needle- I get inspired to keep trying. Looking at a tempting food- huh, lets see. Do I get inspired to cook? gosh no, with no second thoughts, I would dig in right away.
But, I do get inspired to cook-looking at a tempting food picture. And that is what I did when Madhur Jaffrey talk about the delicious and healthy Moongdal Chilla in her cookbook. I liked her idea of adding lightly mashed peas to the dosa-which gave a vibrant look to the dosa. Yellow and green!
Have you read her book? I was enchanted at the start, with her perfectly pictured spoon of fresh garam masala and the reason for making them fresh, to a wide range of Indian dishes with healthier options, and finally her question in blissful ignorance-And, to end, would you care for a paan? oh.. I would, definitely!
MOONGDAL DOSA/CHILLA WITH PEAS
[in Andhra its called as Pesaratu]
- 3/4 cup Yellow Moongdal
- 1/4 cup Frozen Green Peas
- 1/4 cup Idli rice [can substitute with any short grain rice]
- 1/2 tsp grated Ginger
- 1 Red Chili
- 1/8 tsp Baking soda(Optional)
- 1/4 tsp Turmeric
- 1/2 Onion minched or very finely chopped
- Coriander leaves - 2 tbsp chopped finely
- Oil for frying
- Salt to taste
Soak the moongdal in water for overnight or for at-least 4-5 hours, and grind adding little water to make a dosa batter.
Cook the green peas for 5-10 minutes and slightly mash it with your finger. Add the green peas, onion, salt, turmeric, baking soda and coriander leaves to the dosa batter.
Make dosas slightly thinner, than the normal dosa, to cook it evenly. And make sure to add 1/4 tsp of oil or more at the edges of dosa while cooking.
And, to end, would you care for some more interesting moongdal dosa recipes? Here are other reasons to be inspired-
Gita's Kitchen
Or rather should I say Healthy Kitchen? In her kitchen, she inspires us by making moongdal dosa with brown rice. Weight watchers, you might want to keep a close tab on her blog! Almost all her recipes are health-friendly.
Priya's Easy N Tasty recipes
Substituting rice with Oats in otherwise normal moongdal dosa-gives us an insight about her touch of creativity! With wide variety of innovative dishes from all around the world, her space is definitely one of the essential bookmark in everyone's kitchen.
Simple Indian Food
Gives us a traditional and an authentic pesaratu! A blog with almost all Indian recipes you would look out for. You name it, and she has it. Not just recipes, her blog is also a path to- hundreds of active Indian food bloggers through her blogger series.
