Kickstarting My Sunday, The Healthy Way

99% of Delhi (Punjabi households especially) must be enjoying a hearty Sunday Brunch of either Chhole Bhature/Poori Aaloo or waking up to the heavenly aroma of the quintessential Sunday- lunch, Rajma-Chawal!
Once upon a time, my perpetual hue and cry used to be - “why I belong to that odd 1%”? For a little while during the lockdown, we too experienced Sunday in its full glory with Amritsari Kulcha, Pindi Chhole, Pyaz Waali Chutney right down to tall glasses of Sweet Lassi becoming none less than a ritual but the 'euphoria' ended even before it had begun and things are back to normal again! 
Wow, this phrase, 'things are back to normal' sounds like music to ears, even if it's only in reference to my kitchen. How we all are wishing to wake up to the day when life returns to its usual happy 'grind'.

Coming back to the Sundays in my kitchen, I look for traditional recipes and give them a healthy twist to satiate my family’s 'Sunday Cravings'. This way I manage to break the monotony of preparing the same thing, the same way over and over again and the flavours are packed with nutrition. My kitchen cupboards are always stocked with maximum variety of Millets, Quinoa, Oats, both whole and their flours. For rice, I prefer to use hand-pounded Brown or Red variant over the white one and white sugar is a complete no-no even for the desserts! These are few simple n easy steps towards eating healthily.

So what's cooking? Well, today I bring to you, a very interesting and healthy variation for dosa and idlis that I had learned on one of my trips to Jindal, Bangalore. 
Its not always necessary to use rice to prepare dosa. You can easily replace the rice with healthy, humble millets without compromising with the taste. In fact down South, Jowar and Ragi dosa are integral part of their regular diet. It's one of the easiest ways to pack your dosa/idlis with nutrition. Click here for Ragi Dosa recipe.

Jowar is the Indian name for Sorghum. It's known as jonnalu in Telugu, jola in Kannada, and cholam in Tamil.
Jowar grain requires a good amount of soaking time so you need ample time well in advance to prepare the batter. However, I'm going to share with you two recipes today - the traditional one, as I learned in Bangalore and the other, I have modified as per my convenience and taste. Both are still arguably simple to make and gives a healthy kick-start to start your day.  

The traditional way to make Jowar dosas is by soaking and grinding whole grain (Jowar) and whole urad (Gota urad) and leaving the batter to ferment. 

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup whole urad, popularly known as Gota Urad

• 1/2 cup jowar grains whole

• 1/2 cup rice (I use brown rice)

• 1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds

• salt to taste (pink Himalayan salt is a healthy choice)

• ghee to make dosa or to pour over idli
  
  Method:
  
  Wash jowar, gota urad, and the rice separately many times until the water runs clear. 
  Soak them separately (fenugreek seeds with dal) for good 7-8 hours or overnight. 
  Soaking these for longer helps the batter to ferment quickly. 
  Drain the water. 
  Grind all three separately but make sure not to add too much water that batter becomes thin or runny. 
  Now transfer them to a large container, add salt, and blend nicely. 
  Cover and leave for 6-8 hours to ferment. 
  I usually soak them all the first thing in the morning, grind them at night and leave them overnight to ferment. 
  In the morning, give the batter a stir. It should appear frothy and foamy and fluffed. 
  Adjust the consistency (thin, pouring consistency for the dosas and moderately thick for the idlis)
  Grease a dosa pan (preferably a heavy iron skillet) and heat it until hot. 
  Pour the batter and spread it in a circular pattern to make a dosa. 
  Cook it on medium to high flame. 
  Drizzle little ghee on the edges and flip it. 
  Once nicely roasted, you can add potato masala or serve plain with sambar or chutneys of your choice. 
  If you want to avoid ghee all together, check out how to make no oil dosa. 

Next is a no grind, only fermentation recipe, and therefore saves the soaking time.

Ingredients:
3 cups jowar flour or sometimes I even use 2 cups jowar flour and 1 cup brown rice flour 
1 cup urad dal flour
1 tsp fenugreek seed powder/ methi 
2 tbsp curd
salt to taste

Method:
In a bowl mix both the flours with fenugreek seed powder.
Add the curd and water to whisk the mixture to a thick batter.
The batter should be like the ground dosa batter consistency.
Cover the batter leave it overnight to ferment or up to 8-10 hours depending on the temperature in your city. 
Once fermented, gently stir the batter and add salt to taste.
Blend well and the batter is ready to make dosas.
There maybe slight dullness in the color due to the jowar flour but the taste & texture of the dosa is great and worth trying.

Serve crispy dosas with sambar or chutneys.

With the same batter, I have made Masala Idlis and they have come out super soft and fluffy.

Tip:
You may take any cup for measurements but make sure the flours are taken in the same ratio as mentioned in the recipe.
If trying this for the first time, you can take a small cup. But trust me, you won't be disappointed with either the taste or the texture! 

The nutritional benefits of the humble Jowar / Sorghum are immense. When compared to rice and wheat Jowar is said to have the highest calcium, thiamine, phosphorous, and protein content.

With the highest dietary fiber as compared to other grains, Jowar makes an excellent choice for weight loss and is good for growing children.

It is also gluten-free and the presence of sorghum wax in jowar is beneficial in lowering cholesterol, lowers blood pressure, thus has immense cardiac benefits.

Here’s to a Happy-Healthy-Sunday with yummy jonnalu idlis and jola dosa!!