Beetroot Pesarattu

Normally I plan ahead the menu for the next day, and the next too. There is always a fall back plan, just in case. We cannot have simple cereals for breakfast and get on with the day. My husband needs something hot for his breakfast. Once a neighbour told me that she keeps idli/ dosai batter in her fridge and feels like she has enough savings in a bank account. I am not one who regularly grinds for and stock some batter too. That said, I keep wondering what other than a quickly put together upma to make. Despite all the planning and contingency plans, I end up waking up some morningss wondering what I might put on the table.
One such morning, I randomly pulled out my jar of mung lentils and washed and soaked with the idea of a pesarattu. I prefer the whole green gram pesarattu to the ones made with the husk removed dhal. However, that morning was quite a lazy start. So, it was the dhal washed and soaked. While the dhal was soaking, I had this sudden idea to add some vegetables in the dosai. The regular onions or greens were not appealing that day. Then I spotted a lone beetroot in my refrigerator. I quickly peeled and scraped the vegetable and boiled as whole until it was soft enough to grind along. Automatically more chillis and some ginger were put to grind too. The batter was ready in minutes and gave it about 30 minutes and made the dosais. Even with the regular batter, my husband prefers the soft dosai to the crisp ones. So this was a perfectly soft pesarattu with a nice pink colour. It went very well with some pickle,  sambhar and milagai podi.


Beetroot Pesarattu

Ingredients:
Makes 6 medium size pesarattus
1 cup (heaped) green gram/ mung dhal
1 medium beetroot
3 green chillis
2 dry red chillis
1/2 " piece ginger
Salt to taste
Oil for drizzling

Method:
Wash and soak the dhal along with the red and green chillis for about 20 minutes.
Peel the beetroot off its skin and boil in some water just until about soft.
Retain this water for grinding the batter.
Cut the boiled beetroot in small pieces that your grinder jar would grind without stress of load.
Drain the soaked dhal and grind all the ingredients other than the oil, to a batter that is not very smooth. Mix well.
Heat the skillet, add a few drops of oil and wipe the surface so the oil oil slightly.
Pour the batter and shape into a circular pesarattu. Drizzle more oil around the sides.

Cook for a few minutes until the side has been done well. Flip to the other side and cook. Remove from the skillet and serve hot with desired accompaniments.
Susan - The Well Seasoned Cook's My Legume Love Affair event is now being managed by Lisa as the main hostess. This month is the Edition 86 of the same event and it is being hosted by Shaheen of Allotment 2 Kitchen. This recipe, I would like to send, for the same.