Cholam/ Sorghum/ Jowar adai is a delicious savory lentil pancake. This millet adai prepared with lentils and cholam/ sorghum millet (small grain) which is used in making variety of yummy main dishes. Adding this Cholam millet to our diet yields lot of health benefits; as it is rich in protein, iron, fiber and is packed with vitamins and minerals. The good thing about jowar/ sorghum/ cholam is it aids in weight loss as well. Great news right?

Traditionally adai is prepared with rice and lentils. But to keep it healthy and to get back to the roots I started preparing adai with millets and they seem to to turn pretty soft and tasty. Trust me. I have been making adai with millets for the past 3 years; and never thought to post it in the blog, don’t know why. Adai can be made with any millet variety. But for first timers you could try with barnyard millet first as it tastes more or like rice. People will like it in the first try itself. Got to be little cheeky at times

Yes adai with millets turn to be soft and I follow my mom’s secret from regular adai and it indeed worked with millets too. So i added little raw rice in the recipe for crispiness. But you want it t be just with millets you could skip rice.

Usually adai batter requires no fermentation. But leaving the batter aside for 2 to 3 hours in warm place will help the batter to ferment a little bit. This little fermentation gives mild sour taste and also yields in soft and more tasty jowar adai. This leftover adai better can be used to make snacks/ fritters. Yes millet kunukku. Try this recipe next time.

Adai is usually served as breakfast/ tiffin along with recipes like these Aviyal,Tiffin sambar,Chutney,Butter or even jaggery. Recently I had posted another variety of adai using tapioca/ maravalli kizhangu and the recipe goes here Tapioca/ Maravalli kizhangu adai.

Other recipes that might interest you:

Cholam adai, Jowar adai, Sorghum adai

Recipe by Sandhya Riyaz

5.0 from 1 vote

Course: Breakfast, DinnerCuisine: Indian, South IndianDifficulty: Easy

Servings

servings

Prep time

minutes

Cooking time

minutes

Soaking time

hours

Fermentation time

hours

Ingredients to make Cholam adai

1 cup, Vellai cholam/ Sorghum
2 tablespoon, Raw rice
1/2 cup, Toor dal
1/2 cup, Chana dal
2 tablespoon, Urad dal (whole and white)
2 nos., Dry red chili (depending on spice level)
1/2 teaspoon, Cumin seeds/ Jeera
Salt – to taste
¾ cup, Water (approx. for grinding)
1/4 cup, Oil (to make adai)
1 nos., Onion (small sized, chopped finely)
Curry leaves – few

Directions to make Cholam adai, Jowar adai, Sorghum adai

Wash and soak vellai cholam/ sorghum, raw rice,urad dal, chana dal and toor dal together in enough water for 3 hrs.
After 3 hours in a blender soaked cholam millet, dals, red chili, cumin seeds and salt. Grind it into coarse batter, a texture between smooth and corse. Transfer the ground batter to a bowl and keep it aside for 2 to 3 hours. This step is optional, My mom always keeps the batter aside for 3 hours, this helps the batter to ferment a little and yields in better taste and soft adai.
Finally to the batter add chopped onions and curry leaves. Mix it really well.
Heat a tawa and pour a ladle of batter and spread it thick not thin like dosa. Drizzle some oil around the adai and cook it medium flame. Cook adai well as it is thick it will take a little long to cook than regular dosa. When one side is cooked flip it over to the other side. When both sides look cooked transfer it a plate. Serve hot with aviyal, mint chutney or puli kuzhambu. Repeat the process till all the batter is over, leftover batter can be refrigerated and used as dinner or breakfast.

Notes

* 1 cup = 235 ml

how to make cholam adai with step by step images

Wash and soak vellai cholam/ sorghum, raw rice, urad dal, chana dal and toor dal together in enough water for 3 hrs.
After 3 hours in a blender soaked cholam millet, dals, red chili, cumin seeds and salt. Grind it into coarse batter, a texture between smooth and corse. Transfer the ground batter to a bowl and keep it aside for 2 to 3 hours. This step is optional, My mom always keeps the batter aside for 3 hours, this helps the batter to ferment a little and yields in better taste and soft adai.
Finally to the fermented batter add chopped onions and curry leaves. Mix it really well.
Heat a tawa and pour a ladle of batter and spread it thick not thin like dosa. Drizzle some oil around the adai and cook it medium flame. Cook adai well as it is thick it will take a little long to cook than regular dosa. When one side is cooked flip it over to the other side. When both sides look cooked transfer it a plate. Serve hot with aviyal, mint chutney or puli kuzhambu! Repeat the process till all the batter is over, leftover batter can be refrigerated and used as dinner or breakfast.