The Vegan Friendly Masala Dosa Making Class with The Naan-Americans Home Kitchen

Dosa is a popular Indian breakfast dish. Indigenous to the southern part of India, this crispy rice and lentil crepe has now gained popularity and is widespread across the world.

The dosa and its manifestations can now be seen in many Indian restaurants across the globe as well as food trucks and street food festivals in popular cities like New York, London ,Boston and more.

The classic representation of a Masala dosa would be the large perfect round shaped crepe, crisp and golden in the bottom and a white soft mesh like texture on the top. This now is generously smeared with the red garlic chutney and filled with the classic Onion-Potato filling and served with either sambar or coconut chutney or both on the side.

Despite it’s popularity and it’s ubiquitous nature, the Dosa making is still an art. One needs to know the tips and tricks to get that perfectly thin, round, golden, soft, crispy dosa. As easy as it may seem, the spicy potato filling needs some tweaks and tricks, love and care, to make it juicy and delicious and not dry and bland.

The cooking classes and culinary events with The Naan-Americans will help you with just that. Our goal is to show and teach our guests the small nuances,the tips and tricks, the hidden idea behind a recipe, so that our guests can go back home and recreate the dish with confidence and ease.

Our latest Masala dosa making class was one such beautiful experience. Our guest Erica is a lover of Indian food. She frequently dines at Indian restaurants and has even tried to cook some Indian dishes at home. She mentions that she probably has the largest Indian spice collection in her kitchen. Her only concern would be that since she is Vegan she always needs to make sure the restaurants don’t serve her dishes that are cream based or even throw in a dollop of butter on top of her Rotis or Naan.

This was her first Masala dosa making class. She was excited because everything in here was Vegan. There was no room for error. The class met all her requirements. No dairy, No meat. Just perfect. She had a vegetarian host-instructor for the night who is from Southern part of India and knows the in and out of Dosa making.

And what a beautiful evening it was. Our guest was super excited to attend this class, while getting a chance to free herself a bit and get that Me-time , that we all sometimes crave for.

She was ready to get her hands on the Dosa making starting with the potato filling. The instructor had few things prepped ahead of time and had displayed the whole ingredients needed for their cooking party this night. Soon enough the spicy potato mixture was cooking in the Kadai, the aroma of the sweet onions filling the tiny kitchen. The guest was proud and happy to learn this new dish which was good just by itself.

For the next hour and a half, the host chef and the guest worked together towards the next steps of Dosa making. They talked about everything from the techniques to get the right fermentation to the technicalities of the griddle. Our guest was excited to try her hands on her first dosa on the griddle. Soon enough she was a pro in spreading the batter into perfectly thin round circles. While they waited for the dosas to cook , they took some time to learn a little bit about each other. Together they enjoyed tasting dosas with a hot cup of Masala chai. Also vegan!!! A beautiful evening came to an end with lots of chit chat, laughter and of course the dosas to-go.

Next day, we heard back from our guest saying that the Dosas were a hit with her family, and even the kids! She can’t wait to try it in her own kitchen, now that she is equipped with all the knowledge and information needed to make this very popular dish. She is looking forward for her next class with The Naan-Americans!