Barley Dosa (Barley Savoury Crepe)

Barley Dosa (Barley Savoury Crepe)


While I am excited about writing up several recipes just now this particular recipe will give me more satisfaction. Reason is because it is packed with a lot of goodness and it is the first time I have tried using barley in a dish. My experience eating and cooking barley was always limited to boiling it and drinking the ‘broth’ and discarding the barley. Barley water is said to be particularly good for lactating mothers. My other experience incorporating barley in my diet was through breakfast cereal which had barley as well but it was not significant. I recently found how much I had undermined the goodness in barley and that was my wake up call. Barley has soluble fibre, beta-glucan. This is supposed to help reduce blood glucose and hence considered very good for diabetics and also reduces risk of type 2 diabetes. Moment I read about barley’s role in controlling blood sugar, I became quite impatient as I wanted to come up with nice recipes so my mom could enjoy them. Barley also has insoluble fibre which helps the maintenance of bowel function by regularising it and hence reducing the risk of caners like colon cancer. Barley is also supposed to contain anti-oxidants specifically ones that help slow down oxidative damage by gathering up free radicals that form when body cells use oxygen. They also contain several vitamins and minerals, phytochemicals and big bonus is that they are very low in fat. Barley is also said to help weight reduction.

I went looking for barley flour and could not find any in the supermarket, did get bread flour that is supposed to contain lot of barley. I later found barley flour at Asian grocers which is now in my pantry. First on my agenda though, was to use the pearl barley I already have at home. I wanted to keep the recipe simple and familiar and decided on dosa. I think it is a nice way of eating this good grain as the dosa has lentil (lentil-urd/blackgram, parboiled rice and ofcourse barley). Parboiled rice is healthier than raw rice. This dish I thought will be a wholesome and hearty combination of grains.

½ cup par-boiled rice (idli rice)

½ cup urd dal (blackgram)

½ cup barley

1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds

Salt to taste

Rinse all grains and lentils separately. Soak urd dal and fenugreek together and rice and barley separately for atleast 6 hours.

Grind urd first, add rice, grind and then add barley. Grind well to form a fairly loose batter, just like usual dosa. Add salt, mix and allow to ferment overnight.

On a hot pan, pour a ladle full of batter and spread to desired thickness (I like thin crispy dosa). Drizzle a bit if oil and cook until edges become brown. Turn and cook other side for a minute or so.

Serve with a tangy chutney like tomato chutney.