Vegan Indian Dosas

This month’s Daring Cooks Challenge was hosted by Debyi of Healthy Vegan Kitchen. She chose Indian Dosas for this month's challenge.

Despite my claims to be an omnivore, I do not think I ever had ventured into the vegan world. And I was excited. In retrospect, I should not have decided to make this challenge and the Dobos Torte at the same time. But at that time, I did not know any better.

So, the challenge was really a three-part adventure: the dosas (pancake/crepes), the filling and the sauce or topping. I started with the filling and the first thing I did was to dump quite a bit of oil into the skillet. I did not realize that I should not have done that until a few minutes into cooking. No biggie, I thought, reluctant to re-chop the veggies and determined to read the instructions carefully. Until I reached "mash the chickpeas" part. I mashed them for a while but really should have used processor to save time and get finer texture -- the chickpeas skins did not really go too well with this delicate meal. The pancakes turned out quite well, I ended up making another batch of it and the sauce was quite good. Overall, this was an interesting experiment (albeit quite time consuming). I don't know if I'll make this very recipe again, maybe with some modifications.


Thank you, Debyi, for an interesting challenge and an introduction to vegan cooking.

The recipe:

Dosa Pancakes
1 cup (120gm/8oz) spelt flour (or all-purpose, gluten free flour) – I used gluten-free all purpose flour
½ tsp (2½ gm) salt
½ tsp (2½ gm) baking powder
½ tsp (2½ gm) curry powder
½ cup (125ml/4oz) almond milk (or soy, or rice, etc.)
¾ cup (175ml/6oz) water
cooking spray, if needed
Directions:
Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl, slowly adding the almond milk and water, whisking until smooth.
Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Spray your pan with a thin layer of cooking spray, if needed.
Ladle 2 tablespoons of batter into the center of your pan in a circular motion until it is a thin, round pancake. When bubbles appear on the surface and it no longer looks wet, flip it over and cook for a few seconds. Remove from heat and repeat with remaining batter. Makes 8 pancakes.

Curried Garbanzo Filling: This filling works great as a rice bowl topping or as a wrap too, so don’t be afraid to make a full batch.
5 cloves garlic
1 onion, peeled and finely diced
1 carrot, peeled and finely diced
1 green pepper, finely diced (red, yellow or orange are fine too)
2 medium hot banana chilies, minced
2 TBSP (16gm) cumin, ground
1 TBSP (8gm) oregano
1 TBSP (8gm) sea salt (coarse)
1 TBSP (8gm) turmeric
4 cups (850gm/30oz) cooked or canned chick peas (about 2 cans)
½ cup (125gm/4oz) tomato paste
1.Heat a large saucepan over medium to low heat. Add the garlic, veggies, and spices, cooking until soft, stirring occasionally.

2.Mash the chickpeas by hand, or in a food processor -- IN FOOD PROCESSOR!!!!

3. Add the chickpeas and tomato paste to the saucepan, stirring until heated through.

Coconut Curry Sauce: This makes a great sauce to just pour over rice as well.

1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic
½ (2½ gm) tsp cumin, ground
¾ (3¾ gm) tsp sea salt (coarse)
3 TBSP (30gm) curry powder
3 TBSP (30gm) spelt flour (or all-purpose GF flour)
3 cups (750ml/24oz) vegetable broth
2 cups (500ml/24oz) coconut milk
3 large tomatoes, diced

1.Heat a saucepan over medium heat, add the onion and garlic, cooking for 5 minutes, or until soft.

2.Add the spices, cooking for 1 minutes more. Add the flour and cook for 1 additional minute.

3.Gradually stir in the vegetable broth to prevent lumps. Once the flour has been incorporated, add the coconut milk and tomatoes, stirring occasionally. Let it simmer for half an hour.