Travel to South India for Pesarattu (crepe-like bread) & tomato-peanut chutney with Alak on Aug. 21st
Join us for this Indian cooking class to make a dosa that will spice up your breakfast traditions
In South Indian heritage, there’s a very big tradition of eating hearty grain and cereal based breakfast foods. Dosa is a big part of that breakfast culture. It is a flat crepe made with a fermented batter of rice and lentils.
This particular dosa is very popular to the area of South India that our teacher, Alak, is from (the telugu-speaking region). The area grows a lot of moong beans. This dosa is called pesarattu (‘pesara’ means green gram/mung bean, and ‘attu’ means dosa).
It is unique since it does not require fermentation but only requires soaking the beans a few hours ahead of time. These beans and in turn, this dish is a rich source of protein, fiber and iron. It’s extra sweet with a tomato chutney on the side. Join us to learn Alak’s story and how to make the dish. Cook along with us or just watch for fun!
Ingredients for pesarattu/moong bean dosa
1 cup of mung bean (whole and green, with the husk)
¼ cup of rice (short or long grain)
½ inch piece of ginger
½ onion
1 tsp cumin seeds (optional)
Oil or ghee
Salt, to taste
4 eggs (optional)
Ingredients for tomato-peanut chutney (dipping sauce for pesarattu)
2 tomatoes
½ cup of roasted/plain peanuts
Whole and dried red chillies or red chili powder
1-2 green chilies (optional, if you have red chilies)
Tamarind paste (optional, if you’re using tart heirloom tomatoes)
½ tsp turmeric
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
Salt, to taste
About our Teacher
My name is Alak Nanda. After a decade long career in healthcare, pharma and stints in tech start-ups, I inevitably landed into the world of food!
I am the founder of PODI life. We’re a mom-daughter owned and run business selling PODIs (poh-dee). PODIs are heirloom spice, nut and herb blends made with quintessential South Indian ingredients (peanuts, coconut, spices and herbs). PODIs help people eat vegetable-forward meals!
We started the business five months ago, and it’s been incredible to build a community and share our intergenerational perspective on what it means to be American of South Indian heritage. South Indian home cooked food is often touted as 'yoga diet' because of it's veg-forward preparations.