High protein lentil dosas with the goodness of fresh moringa leaves, muringa ela ada dosas are crispy, tasty and healthy; the breakfast trifecta! Don’t let the name confuse you, Muringa, of course is Moringa; Ela means Leaf and Ada is a type of Dosa made with Lentils.
There are numerous benefits of starting your day with a high protein breakfast. Protein keeps you full for longer, reduces cravings and controls your blood sugar levels. Since the body uses more calories to burn protein, it can also help you lose weight. South Indian breakfasts are generally heavier on carbohydrates and while they undoubtedly taste great, they can also get you off to a slower start in the morning.
Is Moringa a Superfood?
No. And neither is anything else!
Superfood is nothing more than a marketing term popularised by the media, health and wellness industry and food companies to describe certain foods that are nutrient dense. Berries, green leafy vegetables, certain nuts and seeds and whole grains like quinoa are often seen on lists of superfoods. Every couple of years, a new ‘trending’ ingredient, often exotic, is added to this list. Turmeric, chickpea flour and moringa are just a few examples. This is not to say that these ingredients aren’t good for you. As part of a balanced diets they provide many benefits. But to tout them as superfoods is both exaggerating and misleading. You cannot get all essential nutrients from any one food and no one food can compete with a healthy, balanced diet.
Growing Muringa
Muringa is a fast growing, incredibly hardy tree native to the Indian subcontinent. When I say fast growing, I really mean it – it goes from seed to fruit in a year! Every year before the monsoons and after the first harvest, we’ll give our muringa trees a good haircut. If they get too tall, then you won’t be able to reach the fruit. When I say good haircut, I mean a really good one! Muringa benefits from what’s called hard pruning – cutting it way down, about 3-5 feet. We even cut it down to 6 inches one year, meaning to remove the tree entirely but it persevered! Despite the hardiness of the plant, the branches are not very strong and sometimes, can break under the weight of the fruit. We had an entire section give way once because of around 100 drumsticks weighing it down. It was free drumsticks for all that day and drumstick sambhar for us for days! Typically, the leaves are plucked for use in recipes before the tree starts fruiting. Once the fruits come in, the leaves can get bitter.
Muringa Ela Ada recipes are as common as the Moringa tree itself in Kerala. However, since the traditional recipe doesn’t pack much in terms of nutrients, I thought I’d switch it up a bit. Instead of a dosa recipe made with rice, coconut and moringa leaves, this recipe is closer to the Tamil version of ada. I guess you could call this cheater’s ada, since we actually use leftover dosa batter to make this easy recipe even easier! This little tip is courtesy of my stepmother who has spread it far and wide in the family! Spiced simply with red chillies and asafoetida, this is definitely a recipe to save!
The Right Pan for Muringa Ela Ada Dosas
So the heading is a little misleading because we already know the answer to this – A traditional cast iron tawa obviously makes the best dosas. However, we have to account for certain variables. Dosas are made almost daily in my home in Kerala. This means that the tawas are seasoned daily which makes maintaining them very easy. At my place in Mumbai, we only make it once every other week. Moreover, cast iron tawas take pretty long to heat up and cool down. If I’m in a rush to leave the house straight after breakfast, this becomes an issue. The tawa also gets really hot and in the hot summer months, it gets pretty unbearable in the kitchen. I posit that the non-stick pan is just as good for making dosas. Traditionalists might disagree, but I challenge you to try it out. I made these Adas for breakfast one day and we used both our cast iron and granite tawa together to bust out adas quickly for the family. The granite tawa certainly held its own, making adas that were just as crispy as the cast iron. This really surprised my family, who were convinced that non-stick pans are useless for dosas! I genuinely love the Wonderchef Granite Set which comes with a Dosa Tawa. These pans look great and two years into using them, the handles have stayed steadfastly strong!
*Part of my work with Wonderchef involves testing their products and developing recipes for their online blog. While I receive the products free of cost, I am not obligated to review them in a positive light on my website. All opinions expressed are my own.
The main portion of this dosa is made with four types of dals – toor, urad, chana and moong. Simply soak them for over an hour and they’ll be ready for the mixer. Blending this can be tricky, since the dal needs to be blended very coarsely. Adas should have some bite to them. It took me just six pulses to grind my dal. Ada dosas also require a bit of oil to make them crispy but it’s totally worth it. Don’t stress if you don’t have access to fresh moringa leaves because you can substitute them with spinach or coriander leaves. You can also just leave it out entirely. If you are adding leaves you might have to add a bit more dosa batter to adjust the consistency. Serve the dosas with thick coconut chutney, pickle or if you’re feeling particularly indulgent, some butter!
If you like this recipe, check out these other South Indian Breakfast dishes!
Muringa Ela Ada
Equipment
- Mixer Grinder
- Dosa Tawa
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp Urad Dal
- 2 tbsp Toor Dal
- 2 tbsp Chana Dal
- 2 tbsp Moong Dal
- 1 Dry Red Chilli
- ½ tsp Asafoetida
- ½ tsp Salt
- ½ cup Water
- ½ cup Idli/Dosa Batter
- 1 cup Fresh Moringa Leaves
Instructions
- Wash all dals thoroughly and soak along with the red chilli for a minimum of 1 hour.
- Discard the soaked water and transfer the dal and chilli to a mixer along with the asafoetida and salt.
- Add 1/2 cup of water to the mixer and pulse until you have an extremely coarse mix. Be careful not to over-mix.
- Transfer the ground mix to a bowl and add the idli/dosa batter.
- Add the moringa leaves and mix well
- You may have to add a bit more dosa or idli batter depending on the consistency of your ada batter.
- Place a dosa tawa on medium heat.
- Once hot, add a ladle of batter to the centre and gently but quickly spread it out in a circle.
- Make a small hole in the centre with a spoon or the back of the ladle. This helps the dosa cook evenly.
- Add some oil around the dosa and to the centre as well.
- Cook for 3 minutes and then flip and cook the other side for a further 2 minutes or until crispy.
- Serve immediately with your preferred accompaniment.
