Adai Avial

Adai is a protein rich food made of lentils. I also add greens to my adai as an enrichment. It is traditionally served with avial (a vegetable stew), jaggery and butter. The protein rich adai with vitamin rich avial, iron rich jaggery and fatty butter makes a balanced diet. Iron is best absorbed along with proteins and I wonder how the elders arrived at this combination.

When it comes to variation with the recipe, the options are unlimited. Sometimes, I add spinach or drumstick leaves, sometimes, shredded cabbage and so on.

Normally, channa dal, urad dal & rice are added to the batter. However, I add toor dal and moong dal also. This time I have used black urad dal which is more nutritious than the skinless urad dal. You can include any kind of lentil to the batter and the dish tastes yummy with just anything. This is a healthy, balanced diet for kids and can be served as a rich evening snack or an early dinner.

Ingredients:

Onion - 1 medium chopped
Spinach - a few leaves (optional) or shredded cabbage (optional)
Oil - 2 tsp/adai to cook & grease the adai (You can reduce it to 1 tsp. I use sesame oil)

For the batter:
A bowl of lentils & rice(Channa dal, rice, urad dal, toor dal, moong dal) - I use equal proportion of the dal varieties and a handful of rice. This time I used black urad dal and used a little less than normal.
Shallots or sambar onions - 5 to 10
Cilantro - 1/4 bunch
Red Chillies - 4
Green Chillies - 1
Ginger - a medium piece
Curry leaves - 10 to 15
Salt to taste
Hing a pinch



Method:
1) Soak the lentils, rice and red chillies for 2 to 3 hrs. Add the rest of the ingredients and grind them to a coarse paste adding water. It should be coarse to get crispy adai. Just whip once or twice.


2) Mix the chopped onions to the batter. Add a little water. It should be of dropping consistency; not so watery.
3) Heat a griddle, drizzle a little oil. Pour the batter using a ladle and spread it to make a perfect round. Don't make it very thin like dosa. After pouring a batter, just spread a little using the ladle. Drizzle oil and cook on both the sides till golden brown. This take a slightly higher cooking time than dosa. So be patient.

Serve hot with avial, jaggery (optional) & a dash of butter on the adai (optional).

Check out the avial recipe here.
I served adai with avial, capsicum chutney, butter & jaggery.



Variation: You can add a handful of shredded cabbage or chopped spinach ( 5 leaves) to the batter. In that case, add just before pouring on the tawa.



Sending this to Susan's My Legume Love Affair 14