Broken Wheat (Dalia) and Mixed Dals Adai – No Rice

August 6, 2021 (Last Updated: September 16, 2022)

Make these delicious, nutritious broken wheat and mixed dals adai for a weeknight dinner. They take 10 minutes of prep work, contain four different lentils ( easily swap one out), a whole grain and require no fermentation.

Adai is one of my favourite dinner options for weeknights because it is fairly more nutritious a regular dosa, requires no fermentation and when made right – it can be crispy and delicious. Growing up, Amma made adais about once a month and I loved having it with vellam/jaggery and avakkai pickle.

The combination of Adai and Aviyal make sense to me. Adai, the main dish has lentils, spices and usually contains a grain as well. Usually, vegetables are not added to adai as it is already quite ‘heavy’ because of the lentils and grains. At home, I like to add onions, curry leaves and coriander leaves or if available, moringa leaves. Adais are cooked with generous fat (ghee and oil) so serving it with a simple, mild flavoured coconut and yoghurt dish that is filled with vegetables makes it a delicious combination, not just for taste but also for balance.

If you are looking for more easy weeknight dinner ideas, you should try this 12 minute Mushroom Peas curry.

What are in these broken wheat and mixed dal adais?

Broken wheat, also known as daliya, laapsi or wheat rava
Moong dal
Masoor dal
Toor dal/Channa dal
Urad dal
Red chillies
Ginger
Pepper
Hing
Onions, coriander and curry leaves

Swap the dals with what you have in your pantry. I prefer using this combination because toor and channa have a unique flavour, make the adais crispy but can be heavy to digest for some so to compensate, the moong and masoor are light on the stomach and add to volume. Urad helps to bind everything together. Adding hing and ginger helps to make these lentils easy to digest for you!

These adais are not very crispy. If you like yours crispy, add 2 tbsp rice and grind together.

Broken Wheat and Mixed Dals Adai

These broken wheat and mixed dals adai contain no rice, require no fermentation and are ideal for delicious and nutritious weeknight dinner.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Indian

Keyword adai, high protein

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 15

Soaking time 4

Servings 4

Ingredients

1 cup broken wheat also known as daliya, lapsi, wheat rava, godumai rava
¼ cup moong dal
¼ cup split urad dal
¼ cup toor dal
¼ cup masoor dal
1 inch ginger, grated
3 dried red chillies
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp hing/asafoetida
salt to taste
water to grind
1 cup finely chopped onions
finely chopped curry leaves and coriander

Instructions

Rinse and soak all the lentils and broken wheat along with the chillies in plenty of water for 4 hours.
Grind adding chillies, ginger, pepper, hing and salt to a coarse yet spreadable batter. Add water as required.
Add chopped onions, curry leaves and coriander leaves.
Make adais using a mix of sesame oil and ghee.

Notes

Adais take longer than dosais to cook, so be patient and also be a little generous with fat to make these. It is worth the little extra love!

I shared this recipe a couple of days ago on my Instagram reels. Not surprised that so many of you love it! Who doesnt love a easy and nutritious weeknight dinner? You should watch that reel here on my Instagram.

Please leave a comment below if you made this recipe, have any questions or thoughts! Your comment will help me learn more about your preferences and will help other readers.

Love this post? Here are some links if you would like to share them with your friends: