Savoury, Cabbage, Onion Dosa Recipe (Cabbage Sanna Polo)

Savoury, Cabbage, Onion Dosa Recipe (Cabbage Sanna Polo)

Konkani’s make delicious, spicy, tiny dosas. These savoury, vegan dosas are served as a side dish for lunch & dinner. These small, round dosas are called sanna polo in Konkani. They aren’t had for breakfast, instead are a part of a Konkani cuisine meal. 

A simple, spicy rice batter is made by grinding together rice, grated coconut, dried red chillies, tamarind & salt. To this batter a variety of vegetables & other ingredients are added as toppings to make delicious dosas. 

Finely shredded cabbage or onions or pickled bamboo shoots, drumstick leaves, drumstick flowers, talinum (bombay bajji in Konkani), colcoasia leaves, basella/Malabar spinach (vali in Konkani), cauliflower etc are used to make these dosa, sanna polo. You have to trust me when I say, taste of these dosas depends heavily on the topping used. 

These ingredients are also used in pairs, cabbage-onion combo, drumstick leaves-onions combo, drumstick flowers-drumstick leaves combo etc. 

The same batter with all these toppings are also added into idli moulds, weaved jackfruit baskets or are rolled in banana leaves & are steamed to make sanna khotto/sanna muddo/sanna idli of Konkani cuisine. These spicy idlis are served steaming hot with lots of coconut oil on top, as a side dish for lunch, dinner. 

My personal favourite sanna polo is cabbage-onion sanna polo. These spicy, soft dosas taste great with cabbage, onions in them, as they add a nice crunch to these dosas. Here goes the recipe to make these delicious dosas. 

Ingredients:

  • 3/4 cup finely shredded cabbage
  • 1/2 cup finely chopped onion - 1 medium sized onion
  • 1 cup rice - any medium grained rice
  • 3/4 cup grated coconut (the more you add the better, softer dosas you make)
  • 6-8 dried red chillies
  • 1 lemon sized tamarind
  • Salt to taste
  • Oil for frying the dosas

Serves: 2

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 10 minutes

Passive time/Soaking time: 30 minutes

Preparation Method:

  1. Soak rice for a minimum of 30 minutes. 
  2. During this time you could keep ready grated coconut, wash well & then finely chop cabbage and onion. Drain out all the water from cabbage using a strainer and keep them aside.
  3. After 30 minutes of soaking, wash rice well, drain all the water & grind it along with grated coconut, tamarind, salt, dried red chillies into a smooth paste using just as much water as needed. We need a semi-thick batter in the end.
  4. Transfer this ground batter into a bowl, add in finely chopped cabbage, onion and mix in well. 
  5. Make sure cabbage, onions do not have any water in them. It’ll make the batter watery. We want a semi-thick batter in the end. If your batter gets watery, you’ll not be able to make dosas.
  6. And if your batter is too dry/thick even after you mix in cabbage, onions into it, add 1/2 cup of water to obtain a semi-thick consistency.
  7. Check & adjust salt. 
  8. Then heat up a frying pan, once it's hot, add a laddle full of batter onto the pan. Spread it out a little using the back of the laddle. Make small, round, thin dosas. 
  9. Fry them closed until they change colour completely on one side. 
  10. Drizzle a tablespoon of oil all over the dosa, flip it and cook it on medium flame until it cooks completely on the other side. You know it by the change in colour of the dosa.
  11. Remove the dosas off the frying pan, serve them hot as a side dish for lunch, dinner.
  12. Similarly, make dosas using remaining batter. 

Serving suggestions:

  1. Serve these spicy dosas as a side dish along with bland, flavourful dalithoy (Konkani style dal) & rice for lunch, dinner.
  2. Or serve these dosas hot along with curd rice for lunch, dinner as a side dish.

Side Note: 

These dosas (sanna polo) turn soft, tasty depending on 2 things:

  1. The quality of medium grained rice you use to make these dosas.
  2. The amount of grated coconut you use. The more coconut you use, the softer, tastier dosas you get.

There’s another trick to making these soft, tasty dosas (sanna polo). My mom uses 1/2 cup of urad dal (split black lentil) & adds it to the batter while grinding the batter. Here’s what she does, she fries urad dal until it starts to brown, once it cools down completely, she adds it to the batter while grinding it. It makes these dosas all the more soft & tasty.

Tags: Sanna polo, vegan, vegetarian, vegan dosas, spicy rice dosas, side dish, Konkani cuisine, Konkani recipe, Konkani food, GSB Konkani recipe, South Canara Konkani recipe, Konkani cooking, GSB Konkani cuisine. 

Privacy Policy