Who doesn’t love the dosa – Indian style savory crepes, often served with a spiced potato stuffing. This hotel style Onion Dosa is a variation of the popular Rava Dosa recipe with more onions and some spices & herbs. This is one of the easiest dosa variants to make since no grinding and no fermentation of the batter is required. Make these dosas for a delicious breakfast or brunch. You can also enjoy them for a light lunch or dinner. The Onion Dosa recipe is not just vegetarian, but vegan too.
About Onion Dosa
If you are someone, who really can’t get enough of the Onion Dosa ever, then this recipe is a must try for you! Because with this recipe, you don’t have to head out to a restaurant. Instead, make and enjoy a restaurant style version of the same dosa at the comfort of your home.
Onion Dosa is a super popular South Indian breakfast dish. Not just all-over South India, but even in other regions, this dosa is an all-time favorite with many.
The typical texture of the onion spiked dosa is one of the USPs of the dish. So, not only is it a celebration for the palate, but is appealing to the eyes too. Just make sure to have it as soon as you make it.
This recipe of the Onion Dosa is quite a simple and easy one, where you just have to prepare the batter, temper it and use it to make perfectly golden and crisp dosas. You can opt to use ghee (clarified butter) in place of oil for cooking the dosas.
This hotel style Onion Dosa is best served hot or warm with an earthy coconut chutney, a comforting Sambar or even both. I know people who also eat it with tomato ketchup. You can try it too!
To make this instant Onion Dosa, just mix all the ingredients and allow the batter to sit for 15 to 20 minutes. Then, you are ready to make the dosas. While the batter is resting, you can prepare the Coconut Chutney. The ease of this recipe makes it a good option for breakfast or even brunch.
So, the usual ingredients that go in the batter of this Onion Dosa are onions of course, un-roasted rava or suji (semolina), rice flour, all-purpose flour or whole wheat flour, green chilli, ginger, crushed black peppercorns, chopped coriander leaves and salt.
To make the batter, you can use water or buttermilk. Sometimes, I prepare the batter with water and sometimes with buttermilk. Both ways the Onion Dosa tastes good.
The spices, herbs that go into the dosa batter impart their unique flavor too. Not to forget, the presence of onions, adding an element of crunch and some sweetness too.
I have tempered the dosa batter with mustard seeds, cumin seeds and curry leaves. This tempering gives a really nice flavor to the dosa and does not take more than 5 minutes.
Some more similar instant and wholesome dosa varieties that you can make in a jiffy are Oats Dosa and Wheat Dosa.
How to make Onion Dosa
Make Batter
1. In a mixing bowl, mix the following ingredients with spoon:
- ½ cup fine textured un-roasted rava or suji (semolina flour or cream of wheat)
- ½ cup rice flour
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour or whole wheat flour
- ½ or 1 teaspoon finely chopped green chillies or 1 green chilli
- ½ cup finely chopped onions or about 1 medium-sized onion
- 1 teaspoon finely chopped ginger or 1 inch, optional
- 9 to 10 black peppercorns, crushed
- 1 tablespoon chopped coriander leaves, optional
2. Heat 1 teaspoon oil in a small frying pan. Crackle ½ teaspoon mustard seeds first on low heat.
Then, add 1 teaspoon cumin seeds and 5 to 6 chopped curry leaves. Sauté for a few seconds or till the cumin seeds brown and splutter.
3. Add this tempering together with the oil to the other ingredients in the bowl. Also, add salt as required.
4. Pour water or buttermilk as required and make a thin batter without any lumps. Rest the batter for 15 to 20 minutes.
The batter should not be thick or of medium consistency. I added about 2.25 cups water to the batter. If the batter becomes too thin, then add some rice flour to slightly thicken it.
Make Onion Dosa
5. Heat a cast iron skillet, tawa or a non-stick pan. Using a small piece of cotton fabric, paper napkin or half of an onion which has been dipped in oil, grease the pan all over.
6. With a ladle, pour the prepared batter. First, start pouring the batter from the edges. Keep the heat to medium.
7. Then, move pouring the batter towards the center. If there are big gaps, then fill them lightly with the batter.
8. Drizzle ½ teaspoon oil on top. This dosa takes a little longer time to cook than the regular Dosa. The pan has to be really hot before you pour the batter.
9. Let the base becomes golden or crisp. Flip and cook the other side. Usually, I cook both sides. But you can just cook the base and when the top is also cooked, fold the dosa and serve immediately. Prepare all the dosas this way in batches.
Note: The rava and the flours settle down at the bottom of the batter in the bowl. So, you have to stir the batter very well every time you make the dosa. In case the batter becomes thick after making a few dosas, then add some water or buttermilk. Stir and mix again.
10. Serve the hotel style Onion Dosa hot or warm with coconut chutney or vegetable sambar for a comforting breakfast, brunch or lunch.
You can also serve it with other chutney varieties like Tomato Chutney, Onion Chutney, Peanut Chutney or Ginger Chutney.
If you have any leftover dosa batter, then refrigerate it for 1 day. If the batter looks thick, add some water to thin it.
Expert Tips
- You can either use all-purpose flour or whole wheat flour in the batter.
- Ginger, black pepper and coriander leaves in the batter are optional. You can skip these.
- You can adjust the quantity of spices according to your taste. Some finely chopped fresh coconut can also be added to the batter.
- The batter can be prepared with water or buttermilk, whatever you wish to use. Make sure to make a batter, which is thin (not medium or thick) and free of lumps. In case your batter becomes too thin, add some more rice flour and mix.
- Prepare the buttermilk by dissolving 3 to 4 tablespoons curd (yogurt) in 2 cups water. Whisk well before adding to the other ingredients.
- Adjust the heat while cooking the dosa. The heat will depend on the thickness of the pan or skillet you are using. If using a heavy pan, cook on medium high heat. In case the pan is light or thin, then cook on medium-low to medium heat.
- This recipe can easily be doubled or tripled to make for more servings.
More Dosa Recipes To Try!
Karnataka Recipes
Breakfast Recipes
Breakfast Recipes
Breakfast Recipes
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Onion Dosa (Hotel Style Recipe)
Ingredients
Main ingredients
- ½ cup rava (sooji or semolina), unroasted and finer textured
- ½ cup Rice Flour
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour or whole wheat flour
- ½ to 1 teaspoon green chillies – finely chopped or 1 green chilli
- ½ cup onion – finely chopped or 1 medium-sized onion
- 1 teaspoon ginger – finely chopped or 1 inch ginger, optional
- 2.25 cups water or buttermilk or add as required – I added 2.25 cups water *check notes below on how to make the buttermilk
- 9 to 10 black peppercorns – crushed
- 1 tablespoon coriander leaves – chopped, (cilantro), optional
- salt as required
For tempering
- 1 teaspoon oil
- ½ teaspoon mustard seeds
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 5 to 6 curry leaves – chopped
Other Ingredient
- oil or ghee as required for roasting the dosa
Instructions
Making batter
- Take the rava, rice flour, all-purpose flour, green chillies, ginger, onion, coriander leaves, crushed black pepper in a mixing bowl.
- Heat 1 teaspoon oil in a small frying pan. Crackle the mustard seeds first on low heat. The mustard seeds should pop before you add the cumin seeds.
- Then add the cumin and chopped curry leaves. Saute for a few seconds till the cumin browns and splutters.
- Add this tempering mixture together with the oil to the other ingredients in the bowl. Add salt as required.
- Pour water or buttermilk and make a thin batter without any lumps. Keep the batter to rest for 15 to 20 minutes.
- The batter should not be thick or of medium consistency. If the dosa batter becomes too thin, then add some rice flour to slightly thicken it.
Cooking onion dosa
- Heat a cast iron skillet or tawa or non-stick pan. Smear a bit oil with a slice of onion or a small piece of cotton fabric or paper napkin. Keep the heat to medium.
- With a ladle pour the dosa batter from the edges towards the center.
- Sprinkle ¼ or ½ or 1 teaspoon of oil from the top.
- Let the base becomes golden and crisp. Flip and cook the other side. When both the sides are cooked, remove the dosa from the pan.
- Prepare all the dosas this way in batches.
- While making second dosa stir the batter very well as the rava and the flours settle down at the bottom of the batter in the bowl.
- Serve the hotel style Onion Dosa hot with coconut chutney or vegetable sambar. This dosa has to be served immediately.
Notes
- *To make the buttermilk – Mix 3 to 4 tablespoons of curd (yogurt) in 2 cups of water. Whip the buttermilk very well before you add it to the other ingredients.
- The recipe can be scaled to make a larger serving.
- Adjust the spices according to your taste preferences.
- You can skip ginger and black pepper if you want.
- Additionally, you can also add some finely chopped fresh coconut to the batter.
- Cook the dosa on medium to medium high heat depending upon the thickness of the pan. If your pan is not heavy then cook on medium-low to medium heat. For a heavy skillet use medium high heat.
Nutrition Info (Approximate Values)
This Onion Dosa post from the archives first published in April 2014 has been updated and republished on March 2023.
We have a favorite Southern Indian restaurant where we always fight over the onion rava cheese masala dosa. As an American, I know how to cook most French and Italian food, but have been hesitant to try cooking Indian because it seemed so intimidating! I’m very happy to have found your website and can’t wait to try out a few recipes.
Have you explained some of the required items and basics? For example: I don’t believe I have the correct pan to cook the dosa.
indian cooking looks intimidating, but is not. you can try with simple and easy recipes first. not yet. i do not have any page or post mentioning the basics. but in the post, at times i do mention about the kind of pan to be used. dosas can be made in a well seasoned iron griddle.
I have tried the recipe and it turn out to be one of my favourite recipe. Thanks alot.
welcome ishantini
Hi Dasaana,
Thanks for all ur recipies. Its awesome,
1 Can we make rava dosa without rice flour?
2 can we grind rice in the grinder to make rice flour?
Waiting for ur response
thanks
welcome harpreet. better to use rice flour. to make rice flour at home, first rinse the rice with water. drain them. spread them on a cloth or on a plate and dry them in shade or sunlight. when there is no moisture on them (totally dried) then grind them in the grinder.
Nice recipes you have here 🙂 I would even up the rava to 1 cup. It turns out even more crispier.
thanks for the suggestion vani.
Thanks for the recipe. I made rava dosa for the first time and it turned out very well.
I didn’t have green chilli on hand so i substituted with chilli masala and it still turned out good.
welcome sharmilee. thanks for sharing your positive feedback.
Superb recipe!!!
thanks gopika
Hi Dasana
Thanks again for this awesome recipe. And thanks to you my friends consider my culinary skills par excellence. You have saved me the bother of waiting for the batter to ferment in winters. The rawa dosa comes out just perfect. Keep up the great work..
welcome sridevi. glad to know that recipes are helping you. do try some more recipes.
I tried ur onion rava dosa recipe for the first time..it really came out well..thanks.. Looking forward for more easy dosa recipes
welcome jyoti. glad to know this.
Hello Dassana,
I tried this recipe and kaju katli recipe from your blog and both came out very well. Thanks for the detailed step by step instructions.
Cheers
Vaish
welcome vaish. thanks for sharing positive feedback on recipes.
your recipe sounds yummy and great job with the photos too
thanks karen
Dassana
Lovely recipe .my entire family enjoyed this dosa!
Keep going Dassana will try more of your recipes!
thanks a lot sindhu for the feedback.
Hi Dassana,
Let me initiate by thanking you for such delicious recipes illustrated by lovely pictures. You are my second inspiration of cooking after my fiancé (coz he’s a foodie and I love to cook for him) and trust me every recipe I have tried so far from your blog, was loved by him 😉
Recently came across this post and thought of sharing a suggestion. Instead of adding the tempering to the mixture, you can put very little oil and add the mustard seeds,jeera,curry leaves and let them crackle. Once they start crackling, instead of using ladle, use your bare but obviously clean hands to sprinkle the mixture on the crackled seeds on tawa. Make sure to form a well netted dosa. This way the dosa becomes thinner and crispier. The freshly crackled seeds and curry leaves leave a divine aroma and flavour in your mouth 🙂
Please make sure to be quick enough to not to let the seeds burn else it will ruin the effort. For this method we should use a flat tawa as the concave one will result in batter accumulation at the centre.
thanks a lot smriti. also thanks for sharing your suggestion. what you mention must be giving a really good rava dosa. since i make rava dosa for breakfast on some days, i will try your method. sometimes i also pour the batter by hands. i agree on making dosa on the flat tava. will definitely try. thanks once again.
I luv ur website….i hv made lots of stuff using ur ideas n all of dem turned out to be grt…..infact i recommended it to my frnds as well who r trying sumthng fr d first time….. Thanx u made a grt cook….;)
thanks a lot rups. hugs 🙂
I’ve been making Rava Dosa for a very long time. But, I still checked your recipe, because all your recipes are awesome, easy & written so clearly with easy to follow instructions.
So, both are recipes are same 🙂
But, thanks Dassana for taking time and writing this great blog.
thanks deepta. sorry, could not understand which recipes are same? let me know.
Very nice, easy, I tried it today… Came out very good nice tasty…
thanks vrishali