This brown rice adai is a healthier alternative to traditional adai which is usually made with white rice. But switching to brown rice does not really compromise on the flavors and can be a good recipe to make for dinner. Paired with butter and brown sugar, they form an excellent combination that is really tasty and would entice you to go for more.

I am blogging about the guilt-free indulgences that I practice at my home this week and believe that making simple swaps to whole grains and flours made of whole grain and eliminating processed food from our everyday diet can bring a big change.

Adai Made With Brown Rice in a cast iron pan. - 1

I am working towards that goal and I work on different substitutions to make in the recipes that we commonly make with more processed ingredients.

One ingredient that also happens to be the staple for South Indians is rice. My family cannot live without Thayir saadham (yogurt rice) and yesterday I swapped the rice for steel-cut oats to make Oats thayir saadham .

My today’s recipe is Adai which is a crepe made with rice and lentils. In today’s recipe, I have swapped the white rice with brown rice and also used lentils with skin to make it more fiber-rich and less processed.

The lentils used in the adai can be mixed or matched and there is no hard set of rules of which lentils to use or not to use. Using more channa dal / Kadalai paruppu yields crispier adais.

More Moong dal / Payatham paruppu yields softer adais. More Urad dal / Ullutham paruppu yields a more dosai-like texture. I have used equal quantities of 4 different lentils and most of them with the skin to make them less processed and fiber-rich.

I love my adais with (only with) vellam (jaggery) and vennai (butter). My kids have taken over my taste buds and luckily my husband also likes it the same way.

I make adai once a month at least and have been making it this way for over a year. In this Adai Made With Brown Rice, there is absolutely no compromise on the flavors (in fact they taste much better), and is definitely a swap we can make for better.

Brown Rice Adai top with butter. - 2

Preparation time - 10 minutes plus about 4 hours of soaking time Cooking time - about 5 minutes per adai Difficulty level - easy

Ingredients to make Adai Made With Brown Rice - (Makes 12 adais)

  • Brown rice - 1 cup
  • Masoor dal - ¼ cup
  • Whole urad dal (with skin) - ¼ cup
  • Split Moong dal (with skin) - ¼ cup
  • Channa dal - ¼ cup
  • Red chilies - 4
  • Green chilies - 2
  • Onions - 1 cup (finely chopped)
  • Curry leaves - few
  • Salt - to taste
  • Oil - to make the adais
3 Rice Adai in a pan. - 3

Procedure-

  • Wash and soak the rice and lentil together for about 4 hours.
Rice and lentil in a bowl. - 4
  • Drain the mixture and then grind it with salt and chilies. It is up to one’s preference to grind it coarse or fine. I sort of make it neither too smooth nor too coarse. Also, the consistency of the batter should be sort of on the thicker side and not like dosa batter.
Rice and lentil paste in a bowl. - 5
  • Add the curry leaves and the chopped onions to the batter and mix well.

  • Heat the pan and then make a crepe with a couple of ladles of the batter. Once again depending on your preference, you could make the adais thicker or thinner. My mother likes it thicker and softer whereas I like it thinner and crispier. Make a small hole in the center of the crepe after spreading. This allows the adais to cook well in the center as well. Pour about a teaspoon of oil around the adai and let it cook till golden brown.

  • Flip it to the other side and let it cook on the other side as well.

Fliping Adai and cooking. - 6
  • Remove and serve the Adai Made With Brown Rice hot with vellam (jaggery) and butter or with aviyal or sambhar.
Brown Rice And Lentils Crepe is ready. - 7

Similar Recipes

  • Masala Dosai With Peanut Chutney
  • Instant Vellam Dosai Made With Ragi Flour And Whole Wheat Flour
  • Pesarattu From Andhra Pradesh - Spicy Green Gram Crepes
  • Pumpkin Adai With A Twist - Butternut Squash Lentil Crepes

Recipe

Adai Made With Brown Rice - 8

Equipment

  • ▢ saute pan
  • ▢ spatula

Ingredients

  • ▢ 1 cup Brown rice
  • ▢ ¼ cup Masoor dal
  • ▢ ¼ cup Whole urad dal with skin
  • ▢ ¼ cup Split Moong dal with skin
  • ▢ ¼ cup Channa dal
  • ▢ 4 Red chilies
  • ▢ 2 Green Chilies
  • ▢ 1 cup Onions finely chopped
  • ▢ few Curry leaves
  • ▢ to taste Salt
  • ▢ Oil to make the adais

Instructions

  • Wash and soak the rice and lentil together for about 4 hours.
  • Drain the mixture and then grind it with salt and chilies. It is up to one’s preference to grind it coarse or fine. I sort of make it neither too smooth nor too coarse. Also the consistency of the batter should be sort of on the thicker side and not like dosa batter.
  • Add the curry leaves and the chopped onions to the batter and mix well.
  • Heat the pan and then make a crepe with couple of ladle of the batter. Once again depending on your preference, you could make the adais thicker or thinner. My mother likes it thicker and softer whereas I like it thinner and crispier. Make a small hole in the center of the crepe after spreading. This allows the adais to cook well in the center as well. Pour about a teaspoon of oil around the adai and let it cook till golden brown.
  • Flip it to the other side and let it cook on the other side as well.
  • Remove and serve the Adai Made With Brown Rice hot with vellam (jaggery) and butter or with aviyal or sambhar

Nutrition

Other similar recipes

  • Karadayan Nombu Adai | Vellam Adai and Uppu Adai
  • Quinoa Brown Rice Adai | Vegan And Gluten Free Crepes
  • Pumpkin Adai With A Twist - Butternut Squash Lentil Crepes
  • Karacha Dosai - Instant Wheat Dosai - Godhuma Dosai

More Idli / dosai

  • Moong Dal Chilla | Moong Cheela
  • Tomato Dosa | Instant Thakkali Dosai
  • Idli | Fermented Rice Cake - Vegan And Gluten Free
  • Neer Dosa | Neer Dosai - Vegan And Gluten Free Rice Crepes
Adai Made With Brown Rice - 9

Adai Made With Brown Rice

Equipment

  • saute pan
  • spatula

Ingredients

  • 1 cup Brown rice
  • ¼ cup Masoor dal
  • ¼ cup Whole urad dal with skin
  • ¼ cup Split Moong dal with skin
  • ¼ cup Channa dal
  • 4 Red chilies
  • 2 Green Chilies
  • 1 cup Onions finely chopped
  • few Curry leaves
  • to taste Salt
  • Oil to make the adais

Instructions

  • Wash and soak the rice and lentil together for about 4 hours.
  • Drain the mixture and then grind it with salt and chilies. It is up to one’s preference to grind it coarse or fine. I sort of make it neither too smooth nor too coarse. Also the consistency of the batter should be sort of on the thicker side and not like dosa batter.
  • Add the curry leaves and the chopped onions to the batter and mix well.
  • Heat the pan and then make a crepe with couple of ladle of the batter. Once again depending on your preference, you could make the adais thicker or thinner. My mother likes it thicker and softer whereas I like it thinner and crispier. Make a small hole in the center of the crepe after spreading. This allows the adais to cook well in the center as well. Pour about a teaspoon of oil around the adai and let it cook till golden brown.
  • Flip it to the other side and let it cook on the other side as well.
  • Remove and serve the Adai Made With Brown Rice hot with vellam (jaggery) and butter or with aviyal or sambhar

Nutrition