A dosa, dosai or dosay is a thin, savoury crepe in

Indian cuisine Indian cuisine consists of a variety of regional and traditional cuisines native to the Indian subcontinent. Given the diversity in soil, climate, culture, ethnic groups, and occupations, these cuisines vary substantially and use locally av ...

made from a

fermented Fermentation is a type of anaerobic metabolism which harnesses the redox potential of the reactants to make adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and organic end products. Organic compound, Organic molecules, such as glucose or other sugars, are Catabo ...

batter of ground

black gram The black gram or urad bean (''Vigna mungo'') is a bean grown in South Asia. Like its relative the mung bean, it has been reclassified from the genus ''Phaseolus'' to ''Vigna''. The product sold as black gram is usually the whole urad bean, wher ...

and

rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

. Dosas are served hot, often with

chutney A chutney () is a spread typically associated with cuisines of the Indian subcontinent. Chutneys are made in a wide variety of forms, such as a tomato relish, a ground peanut garnish, yogurt, or curd, cucumber, spicy coconut, spicy onion ...

and sambar.

History

Butter Dosa served with coconut chutney and sambhar

The dosa originated in

South India South India, also known as Southern India or Peninsular India, is the southern part of the Deccan Peninsula in India encompassing the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana as well as the union territories of ...

, but its precise geographical origins are unknown. According to

food historian Food history is an interdisciplinary field that examines the history and the cultural, economic, environmental, and sociological impacts of food and human nutrition. It is considered distinct from the more traditional field of culinary history, wh ...

K. T. Achaya, references in the

Sangam literature The Sangam literature (Tamil language, Tamil: சங்க இலக்கியம், ''caṅka ilakkiyam''), historically known as 'the poetry of the noble ones' (Tamil language, Tamil: சான்றோர் செய்யுள், ''Cā ...

suggest that dosa was already in use in the

ancient Tamil country Tamilakam () also known as ancient Tamil country as was the geographical region inhabited by the ancient Tamil people, covering the southernmost region of the Indian subcontinent. Tamilakam covered today's Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry, Laks ...

around the first century CE. However, according to historian P. Thankappan Nair, dosa originated in the town of

Udupi Udupi () also known as 'Odipu' () is a city in the Indian state of Karnataka. It is the administrative headquarters of Udupi district, and one of the fastest-growing cities in Karnataka. Udupi is one of the top tourist attractions in Karnataka an ...

Karnataka Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...

. Achaya states that the earliest written mention of dosa appears in the eighth-century literature of present-day

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

, while the earliest mention of dosaë in

Tulu literature The Tulu language (,Tigalari script: , Kannada script: , Malayalam script: ; ) is a Dravidian language whose speakers are concentrated in Dakshina Kannada and in the southern part of Udupi of Karnataka in south-western India and also in ...

appears a century later. In popular tradition outside of Southern India, the origin of the dosa is linked to Udupi, probably because of the dish's association with Udupi restaurants. The Tamil dosa is traditionally softer and thicker; the thinner and crispier version of dosa was first made in present-day Karnataka. A recipe for dosa can be found in ''

Manasollasa The ' also known as ''Abhilashitartha Chintamani'', is an early 12th-century Sanskrit text composed by the Kalyani Chalukya king Someshvara III, who ruled in present-day Karnataka. It is an encyclopedic work covering topics such as polity, gove ...

'', a 12th-century

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

encyclopedia compiled by

Someshvara III Someshvara III (; ) was a Western Chalukya king (also known as the Kalyani Chalukyas), the son and successor of Vikramaditya VI. He ascended the throne of the Western Chalukya Kingdom in 1126 CE, or 1127 CE. Someshvara III, the third king i ...

, who ruled from present-day Karnataka. The dosa arrived in Mumbai with the opening of Udupi restaurants in the 1930s. After

India's independence The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events in South Asia with the ultimate aim of ending British colonial rule. It lasted until 1947, when the Indian Independence Act 1947 was passed. The first nationalistic movement t ...

in 1947, South Indian cuisine became gradually popular in

North India North India is a geographical region, loosely defined as a cultural region comprising the northern part of India (or historically, the Indian subcontinent) wherein Indo-Aryans (speaking Indo-Aryan languages) form the prominent majority populati ...

. In

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

, the Madras Hotel in Connaught Place became one of the first restaurants to serve South Indian cuisine. Dosas, like many other dishes of South Indian cuisine, were introduced in

Ceylon Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

(Sri Lanka) by South Indian emigrants during

British rule The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or dire ...

Tirunelveli Tirunelveli (), also known as Nellai and historically (during British rule) as Tinnevelly, is a major city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the administrative headquarters of the Tirunelveli District. It is the fourth-largest munici ...

and

Tuticorin Thoothukudi (formerly called Tuticorin) is a port industrial city in Thoothukudi district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It lies on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. The city is capital and headquarters of the district. ...

merchants who settled there were instrumental in the spreading of South Indian cookery across the island by opening restaurants ( vegetarian ''hotels'') to meet initially the needs of the emigrant population. Dosa has found its way into the culinary habits of the Sri Lankan people, where it has evolved into an island-specific version which is quite distinct from the Indian dosa. In both forms, it is called ''those'' ( or ) or ''thosai'' ( or ) in Sinhala and in

Sri Lankan Tamil Sri Lankan Tamils ( or ), also known as Ceylon Tamils or Eelam Tamils, are Tamils native to the South Asian island state of Sri Lanka. Today, they constitute a majority in the Northern Province, form the plurality in the Eastern Province a ...

. As in Sri Lanka, dosa was introduced far abroad since the early 18th century, by the migration of the

Indian Tamil diaspora The Tamil Nadu diaspora ( (''Ayalakat Tamiļar'')) comprises people who have emigrated from South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, (and other adjacent Tamil speaking areas) to other non-Tamil Indian states and other countries, and people of Tamil Nad ...

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

and later in the

Western World The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to various nations and state (polity), states in Western Europe, Northern America, and Australasia; with some debate as to whether those in Eastern Europe and Latin America also const ...

, and through the worldwide popularisation of Indian and South Indian cuisines since the second half of the 20th century.

Names

Dosa is the

anglicised Anglicisation or anglicization is a form of cultural assimilation whereby something non-English becomes assimilated into or influenced by the culture of England. It can be sociocultural, in which a non-English place adopts the English language ...

name of a variety of South Indian names for the dish, for example, ''dosai'' in

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

, ''dōsaë'' in Tulu, and ''dosha'' in

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...

. The standard transliterations and pronunciations of the word in various South Indian languages are:

Nutrition

Dosa is high in

carbohydrate A carbohydrate () is a biomolecule composed of carbon (C), hydrogen (H), and oxygen (O) atoms. The typical hydrogen-to-oxygen atomic ratio is 2:1, analogous to that of water, and is represented by the empirical formula (where ''m'' and ''n'' ...

s and contains no added

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...

s. As its key ingredients are rice and

, it is a good source of

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residue (biochemistry), residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including Enzyme catalysis, catalysing metab ...

. A typical homemade plain dosa without oil contains about 112 calories, of which 84% is

and 16% is protein. The fermentation process increases the

vitamin B B vitamins are a class of water-soluble vitamins that play important roles in cell metabolism and synthesis of red blood cells. They are a chemically diverse class of compounds. Dietary supplements containing all eight are referred to as a vita ...

and

vitamin C Vitamin C (also known as ascorbic acid and ascorbate) is a water-soluble vitamin found in citrus and other fruits, berries and vegetables. It is also a generic prescription medication and in some countries is sold as a non-prescription di ...

content.

Preparation

A mixture of rice and white gram that has been soaked in water for at least 4–5 hours is ground finely to form a batter. Some add a bit of soaked

fenugreek Fenugreek (; ''Trigonella foenum-graecum'') is an annual plant in the family Fabaceae, with leaves consisting of three small Glossary_of_leaf_morphology#Leaf_and_leaflet_shapes, obovate to oblong leaflets. It is cultivated worldwide as a semiar ...

seeds while grinding the batter. The proportion of rice to lentils is generally 3:1 or 4:1. After adding salt, the batter is allowed to ferment overnight, before being mixed with water to get the desired consistency. The batter is then ladled onto a hot ''

tava A ''tava(h)'' / ''tawa(h)'' (mainly on the Indian subcontinent), ''saj'' (in Arabic), ''sac'' (in Turkish), and other variations, is a metal cooking utensil. The tawa is round and is usually curved: the concave side is used as a wok or frying ...

'' or griddle greased with oil or ''

ghee Ghee is a type of clarified butter, originating from South Asia. It is commonly used for cooking, as a Traditional medicine of India, traditional medicine, and for Hinduism, Hindu religious rituals. Description Ghee is typically prepared by ...

''. It is spread out with the base of a ladle or a bowl to form a pancake. It can be made either thick like a pancake, or thin and crispy. A dosa is served hot, either folded in half or rolled like a wrap. It is usually served with chutney and sambar. The mixture of white grams and rice can be replaced with highly refined wheat flour or

semolina Semolina is the name given to roughly milled durum wheat mainly used in making pasta and sweet puddings. The term ''semolina'' is also used to designate coarse millings of other varieties of wheat, and sometimes other grains (such as rice or ma ...

. File:ಸಂಪಣೆ.JPG, Rice batter File:Dosa-Preparation.jpg, Batter poured on a

or griddle File:Dhosai making.jpg, Batter being spread uniformly File:Dosa ready 1.JPG, After being cooked for some time

Serving

Dosas can be stuffed with fillings of

vegetables Vegetables are edible parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. This original meaning is still commonly used, and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including flowers, fruits, ...

and sauces to make a quick meal. They are typically served with a vegetarian

side dish A side dish, sometimes referred to as a side order, side item, or simply a side, is a food item that accompanies the entrée or main course at a meal.Sambar *

Chutney A chutney () is a spread typically associated with cuisines of the Indian subcontinent. Chutneys are made in a wide variety of forms, such as a tomato relish, a ground peanut garnish, yogurt, or curd, cucumber, spicy coconut, spicy onion ...

Idli podi Idli, iddena, iddali or idly (; plural: idlis) is a type of savoury rice cake, originating from South India, popular as a breakfast food in Southern India and in Sri Lanka. The cakes are made by steaming a batter consisting of fermented de-hu ...

or ''milagaipodi'': A lentil powder with spices and sometimes desiccated coconut, mixed with sesame oil or groundnut oil or

Indian pickle South Asian pickles are a pickled food made from a variety of vegetables, meats and fruits preserved in brine, vinegar, edible oils, and various South Asian spices. The pickles are popular across South Asia, with many regional variants, nativ ...

Variations

Masala dosa Masala dosa (Tamil: மசாலா தோசை, , y/dōsai) is a dish of South India is believed to have originated in Karnataka, particularly Udupi. The dish was popularized in Chennai during the 1940s by restaurateur K. Krishna Rao, who h ...

is a roasted dosa served with potato curry, chutney, and sambar, while saada (plain) dosa is prepared with a lighter texture; paper dosa is a thin and crisp version. Rava dosa is made crispier using semolina. Newer versions include Chinese dosa, cheese dosa, paneer dosa, and pizza dosa. Though dosa is typically made with rice and lentils, other versions exist. File:Masala Dosa from Kochi, Kerala, India -2069313.jpg, Masala dosa served traditionally with chutney, sambar, sauteed potato filling File:Tomato Dosa chutney.jpg,

Uttapam An uttapam, uthapam, utapam or uttappam is a type of dosa from South India. Unlike a typical dosa, which is crisp and crepe-like, an uttapam is thicker, with toppings. The name is derived from the Tamil words ''appam'' and ''utthia'' or ''uttr ...

is one of the many varieties of dosa prepared in India and served for breakfast. File:మినప అట్లు (2).jpg, Urad plain dosa File:గోధుమపిండి అట్టు (2).jpg, Wheat flour dosa File:Dosa (Plain).jpg, Plain dosa File:Paper Masala Dosa.jpg, Paper roast, a wafer-thin crispy dosa, served in restaurants File:Amini Ghee Roast.jpg, Ghee roast, known as ''nei dosa'' in Tamil File:Butter Dosa.JPG, Butter dosa, known as ''benne dose'' in Kannada File:Pesarattu and Ginger chutney.jpg, ''Pesarattu'' (moong dal dosa) and ginger chutney in Andhra Pradesh File:NeerDosa.jpg, Mangalorian ''neer dosa'' popular in South Canara districts, Karnataka File:Kambu adai.JPG, Kambu (bajra/pearl millet) dosa File:Rava Dosa of Salem.jpg, Rava dosa made from sooji rava flour, more popular in Karnataka and Udupi restaurants in Mumbai File:Aate ka dosa.jpg, Wheat batter dosa, known locally as ''godi mau'' or ''godhumai mavvu'' dosa File:Ragi dosa.JPG, Ragi dosa made of

ragi flour Finger millet (''Eleusine coracana'') is an annual herbaceous plant widely grown as a cereal A cereal is a grass cultivated for its edible grain. Cereals are the world's largest crops, and are therefore staple foods. They include rice, ...

mixed with small portions of rice and urad dal File:Onion Chilli Tomato Uthappam.jpg, ''Uthappam'' or ''utthapa'', a version with onion, chilli, and tomato File:Methi dosa on a pan.jpg, ''Methi dosa'' on a pan, known as ''vendhyam dosai'' in Tamil Nadu File:Masala Dosa 02.jpg, Masala dosa at a street food center File:Table Dosa.jpg, "Table dosa" which covers almost half of the table File:Mysore Mallige Dosey.jpg, Mysore Mallige Dosey File:Indian dosa masala.jpg, Indian street dosa masala in Varanasi, India File:Onion Dosey.jpg, Onion dosa, with coconut chutney and potato curry File:Set Dosey.jpg, Set dosa, a set of 3 dosas with coconut chutney, curry and Mysore ''bonda''

World record

On 16 November 2014, 29 chefs, at Hotel Daspalla in Hyderabad, India, created a dosa that was long and weighed , earning the

Guinness World Record ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, listi ...

for the longest dosa.

In popular culture

* In a November 2019 video promoting her campaign for presidency,

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Vice President A vice president or vice-president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vi ...

Kamala Harris Kamala Devi Harris ( ; born October 20, 1964) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 49th vice president of the United States from 2021 to 2025 under President Joe Biden. She is the first female, first African American, and ...

cooked masala dosa with actress and comedian

Mindy Kaling Vera Mindy Chokalingam (born June 24, 1979),Additional archive on June 25, 2015. known professionally as Mindy Kaling (), is an American actress, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. Known for her work on television, she has received a Tony Awa ...

.27 November 2019
US presidential candidate Kamala Harris cooks masala dosas with Mindy Kaling
. ''The Hindu''. Retrieved 23 July 2023. * The 2023

Tamil culture Tamil culture refers to the culture of the Tamil people. The Tamils speak the Tamil language, one of the oldest languages in India with more than two thousand years of written history. Archaeological evidence from the Tamilakam region indicat ...

-inspired

cooking video game Simulation video games are a diverse super-category of video games, generally designed to closely simulate real world activities. A simulation game attempts to copy various activities from real life in the form of a game for various purposes such ...

Venba features dosa as an in-game recipe.

Related foods

: a thick relatively soft crepe mostly topped with diced onions, tomatoes, cilantro or cheese, sometimes described as an Indian pizza *

Pesarattu Pesarattu ( Telugu: పెసరట్టు; ), pesara attu, pesara dosa (mung bean dosa), or cheeldo is a crepe-like bread, originating in Andhra Pradesh, India, that is a variety of dosa. It is made with green gram batter, but, unlike a typ ...

: made from

green gram The mung bean or green gram (''Vigna radiata'') is a plant species in the legume family.Brief Introduction of Mung Bean. Vigna Radiata Extract Green Mung Bean Extract Powder Phaseolus aureus Roxb Vigna radiata L R Wilczek. MDidea-Extracts P ...

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (ISO 15919, ISO: , , AP) is a States and union territories of India, state on the East Coast of India, east coast of southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, seventh-largest state and th ...

, served with a ginger and tamarind chutney *

Appam An appam or vellayappam is a type of thin pancake originating from South India. It is made with fermented rice batter and coconut milk, traditionally cooked in an ''appachatti'', a deep pan similar in shape to a wok. It's a popular dish in Indi ...

: a pancake prepared from patted rice batter, served with sweet coconut milk or sugar * Chakuli pitha: the batter contains more black gram and less rice flour *

Apam balik ''Appam, Apam balik'' (; Jawi script, Jawi: ) also known as ''martabak manis'' (), ''terang bulan'' (), peanut pancake or ''mànjiānguǒ'' (), is a sweet dessert originating in Fujian cuisine which now consists of many varieties at speciali ...

: made from a mixture of flour, eggs, sugar, baking soda, coconut milk and water *

Jianbing ''Jianbing'' () is a traditional Chinese street food similar to crêpes. It is a type of ''bing (bread), bing'' generally eaten for breakfast and hailed as "one of China's most popular street breakfasts." The main ingredients of ''jianbing'' a ...

: a Chinese dish *

Bánh xèo ''Bánh xèo'' (, ) is a crispy, stuffed rice pancake popular in Vietnam. The name refers to the sound (from ''xèo'' – 'sizzling') a thin layer of rice batter makes when it is poured into the hot skillet. It is a savoury fried pancake made of ...

: a Vietnamese dish *

Lahoh Lahoh ( , or ), is a spongy, flat pancake-like bread.Mohamed Diriye Abdullahi, ''Culture and Customs of Somalis'', (Greenwood Press: 2001), p. 113. It is a type of flatbread eaten regularly in Somalia, Djibouti, Kenya, Ethiopia, Yemen and Saud ...

: a Somali dish *

Injera Injera (, ; ; ) is a sour fermented pancake-like flatbread with a slightly spongy texture, traditionally made of teff flour. In Ethiopia and Eritrea, injera is a staple. Injera is central to the dining process in Amhara community, like br ...

: an Ethiopian dish made with fermented

teff ''Teff'' (), also known as ''Eragrostis tef'', Williams lovegrass, or annual bunch grass, is an annual grass, a species of lovegrass native to Ethiopia, where it first originated in the Ethiopian Highlands. It is cultivated for its edible seed ...

batter

References

{{Malaysian cuisine Andhra cuisine Articles containing video clips Burmese cuisine Fermented foods Indian breads Indian fast food Karnataka cuisine Kerala cuisine Malaysian breads Mangalorean cuisine Pancakes Singaporean cuisine South Indian cuisine Sri Lankan pancakes Tamil cuisine Telangana cuisine Vegetarian dishes of India Indo-Caribbean cuisine Hindu cuisine Indian cuisine South Asian cuisine Vegetarian cuisine