Thavala Adai

Thavala Adai

This dish is traditionally made in Bronze Vessels known as “Vengala Uruli” or “Vengala Thavalai” in Tamil or in Brass vessels. Other Adai varieties are cooked in “Tawa”, but this adai is made in “Thavalai”. Hence it is called as “Thavala Adai”. But nowadays we are not using Bronze or Brass vessels for cooking. Hence now this is cooked in Tawa to suit our convenience.

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Thavala Adai

0.0 from 0 votes
Recipe by S Kamala
Course: SnacksCuisine: Indian, TamilDifficulty: Easy
Servings

6

servings
Prep time

15

minutes
Cooking time

40

minutes

This Adai is made with rice, thuvar dal, Bengal gram dal , Urad dal, red chillies, black pepper and cumin.

Ingredients

  • Raw Rice – 2 cups

  • Thuvar Dhal – 1/2 cup

  • Bengal gram (Channa) Dal – 1 tablespoon

  • Urad dal – 1 tablespoon

  • Red Chillies – 4

  • Black Pepper – 1 teaspoon

  • Cumin (Jeeragam) – 1 teaspoon

  • Coconut gratings – 1/2 cup

  • Oil – as required

  • Mustard – 1/2 teaspoon

  • Urad dhal – 1 teaspoon

  • Asafoetida powder – a pinch

  • Curry Leaves – few

  • Salt – 1 teaspoon or as per taste

Directions

  • Wash the rice and spread it in a clean cloth. Allow to dry under shade for 10 to 15 minutes. Then put it in a mixie and grind it to a coarse powder. Remove and keep aside.
  • Then put all the dals along with red chillies, pepper and cumin and grind this also to a coarse powder.
  • Combine both the rice and dal powder and mix well. Keep it aside.
  • In a thick-bottomed frying pan, add one or two teaspoons of oil and heat. When hot, add mustard and when it starts popping, add urad dhal and asafoetida powder and curry leaves chopped finely. Fry till the urad dhal turns light brown.
  • Add 4 cups of water (water ratio is 1:2 – measure the rice dal powder and add double the amount of water), salt and bring to a boil. Reduce the flame and add coconut gratings and the rice flour, stirring continuously till it becomes a thick dough.
  • Switch off the stove and cover with a lid, leaving it for ten minutes.
  • Remove the lid and when the dough is warm enough to handle, knead it well.
  • Heat a tawa and grease it. Take a lemon-sized dough and make a ball, flattening it like making a vada.
  • Put it in the tawa, adding five to six or more at a time. Pour a little oil around the adai and cook till it turns light brown. Turn the adai and cook the other side.
  • Finish all the dough in this manner.

Recipe Video

31 Comments

  1. I want to try this for long time. must try soon 🙂

  2. Hello Aunty,

    I was wondering what to eat for lunch for myself and saw this. It looked so appetizing, that I tried it right away. It came out very well and was so yummy. My mother typically makes arisi upma and with the leftover makes such patties. How is this different from arisi upma?

    • Hi Meenakshi,

      Thank you for your kind feed back. It is similar to “Upma adai” and not much different from arisi upma. But for this thavala adai, we are grinding chillies and adding more thuvar dhal. Originally this adai is prepared using the “Vengala Thavalai” and hence it got the name also.

  3. Hello,

    I tried this adai yesterday, it came out very well,

    Just added few ginger and curry leaves to it.

    Thank you.

  4. Hello Aunty,am a long time fan of urs…since am newly married n living in Holland,have tried many of ur recipes,all tasted good.:)….today i did this adai,it came out very well….
    keep rocking….cheers…

  5. hi very nice dish , my grand ma and mom used to make this , i was alsso making it , this difference ,
    my mom used to make with all dals and rice soaaked and grind like suuji and then she made it . i ll try this soon thanks

  6. i must try this.

  7. I make thavalaiadai with 2cups of Idli rava and 1cup of dal (mixture of tuvar, chena and moong dal -1/3 cup each) powdered like rava in mixie, and rest of the ingredients same as above, with lesser red chillies, and one green chillie and some grated ginger for flavour comes out crisp and tastes good,may be you can try this variation

  8. hello mam
    so nice…!! frm birth was in chennai!! nw wen i came back to my native place was missing chennai badly!! through this again i feel reconnected..!! hearty thanks….!! pls do continue…! all the best..!!

  9. hi,
    this recipe looks quite tempting and diff from theadai we usually make. m going to try it surely.
    can you please share some recipes using bajra flour?
    Thanks in advance.

  10. hi, i tried this recipe. it came out well. to my surprise my mother in law was impressed by this tasty dish. thanks a lot mam… 😉

    • Thank you Suhasini for your kind feed back.

      • hi aunty, can u teach us some recipe with fruits for my little daughter..hmmm..she never takes fruits 🙁

        • Hi Suhasini,

          Most of the children do not like fruits and vegetables. We have to include them in someway to their diet. You can make milkshake with fruits. Make home made mixed fruit jam. Even you can make fruit pulav and fruit rice. (Fry some fruit pieces in a little ghee and add cooked rice).

  11. thavala adai

    thank u so much aunty for the testy recipe. plz teach me how to make adasam.

  12. gomathy ramesh

    all your receipies are very nice and today only I saw your receipe.

  13. your receipies are so nice aunty,

  14. K Raman Krishnamachari Raman

    How can we make thavala adai using venkala thavalai. Can you please elaborate the traditional process?

  15. Do I need to soak rice and dhal?

  16. Sathyapriya

    Hi aunt,

    How r u? Am a big fan of your site..
    Very nice recipes u have posted.. Thanks a lot
    Today I tried this Adai, It turned yummy.. Yet to try lot more from ur site.. Keep rocking aunt..

  17. Shobana madhu

    My thavalai adai keeps breaking. What am I doing wrong

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