A ghee roast dosa is a thin, crisp dosa made by spreading a thin fermented rice-and-urad batter over a hot seasoned tawa, letting it set, then spooning ghee around the edges and over the surface and cooking it until the underside is deep golden. The ghee goes on after the batter sets, not before, and the batter is thinner than you would use for idli.
At a glance
- A 1965 study in Applied Microbiology found Leuconostoc mesenteroides to be the predominant organism behind both the souring and the gas that leavens idli batter.
- A 2018 study in the Journal of Food Science and Technology gives the usual rice to black gram ratio as 3:1 to 4:1 and says fermented batter keeps about 5 days refrigerated.
- A 2024 review in the Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine puts ghee's smoke point at about 250°C and describes ghee as 99.5 per cent fat with under 0.5 per cent moisture.
- On USDA FoodData Central's 900 kcal per 100 g and ICMR-NIN's 5 g teaspoon, one teaspoon of ghee adds 45 kcal to a dosa; a 15 g tablespoon adds 135 kcal.
What is a ghee roast dosa?
It is a plain dosa cooked with ghee instead of oil, spread thin and left on the tawa until crisp and golden. Nothing else goes in: no potato filling, no podi. The name describes a method, not a masala, and it is a different thing from the Mangalorean dish that shares the words "ghee roast".
What should the batter be like?
Thinner than idli batter, fermented, and sour enough to taste. We take ordinary idli-dosa batter, rice and black gram (urad dal) soaked, ground and left overnight, and thin a portion with water until it falls off the ladle in a ribbon rather than a lump. Thick batter cannot be spread thin, and a thick dosa will not crisp through.
The fermentation is not optional. A 1965 study in Applied Microbiology that isolated the organisms in idli batter found that, although the flora changes in sequence, the predominant organism responsible for souring and for gas production was the lactic acid bacterium Leuconostoc mesenteroides, with Streptococcus faecalis growing later. The authors described the batter's rise as a leavening action caused by that bacterium.
For proportions, a 2018 study in the Journal of Food Science and Technology says rice and black gram dal are generally taken in the ratio of 3:1 to 4:1. It used 3:1 by weight, added 0.9 per cent salt and fermented the batter at 30°C for 12 hours, by which point its pH had fallen to 4.95. That was idli batter; dosa batter is the same preparation thinned, and we use its ratio as our starting point.
How hot should the tawa be, and how do you season it?
Hot enough that a few drops of water flicked onto it sizzle and vanish at once, and seasoned so that the batter grips without sticking. No published source we opened gives a tawa temperature for dosa, so we give none.
To season between dosas, rub the hot surface with half an onion dipped in a little oil, or wipe a thin film of oil over it with a folded cloth and wipe most of it off again. Pools of fat stop the batter spreading; a dry tawa makes it stick.
How do you make ghee roast dosa step by step?
Spread, set, ghee, roast: that is the whole method. Quantities are our starting points.
- Thin the batter. Whisk in water a little at a time until it pours in a ribbon. Taste for salt.
- Heat the tawa on a medium-high flame until water drops sizzle and vanish. Rub it with the oiled onion or cloth and wipe off the excess.
- Pour and spread. Pour a ladleful into the centre and, with the flat base of the ladle, spread it outward in a steady spiral, pressing lightly so the batter thins as it goes. Once it starts to set, it stops moving.
- Let it set. Leave it until the surface turns from glossy to matt. Do not add the ghee yet.
- Add the ghee. Spoon it around the rim so that it runs under the edge, then dot the rest over the surface. Our starting point is one to two teaspoons for a large dosa.
- Roast. Lower the flame a touch and cook until the edges lift on their own and the underside is deep golden. A thin dosa does not need turning.
- Fold and serve straight away; it softens as it sits. Wipe the tawa, re-season lightly and pour the next one.
When should the ghee go on, and why does the dosa crisp?
After the batter has set, and before it colours. Put ghee on the tawa first and the batter slides over it in a lump instead of spreading thin; pour it on while the surface is still wet and it sinks in and the dosa stays soft. Once the surface has turned matt, ghee at the rim runs under the edge and ghee on top stays on top, and the dosa crisps from both sides.
That is kitchen observation, not a measured mechanism: we found no study on dosa crispness that we could open. A dosa is a thin layer of wet batter on a very hot surface, and in our experience the edges lift and go brittle first, with the fat stopping the thin sheet from sticking as it shrinks, so the whole dosa lifts in one piece.
Does ghee brown a dosa faster than oil?
We found no study that measured it, and the sources we did open argue against the common explanation. Ghee's smoke point is not low: a 2024 review in the Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine gives it as about 250°C, higher than most other edible oils, and says ghee is used as a frying medium because of its relative stability at high temperatures. So a low smoke point is not the explanation.
Nor does ghee carry much of butter's water or milk solids onto the tawa. The same review describes making ghee as heating butter on a slow fire until all the water has evaporated, with the milk solids precipitating and being filtered out, and puts the result at 99.5 per cent fat with under 0.5 per cent moisture. USDA FoodData Central's SR Legacy entry for clarified butter (ghee) lists 100 g of fat, 0.5 g of water and no protein or carbohydrate per 100 g. Whatever browns on a ghee dosa is mostly the batter. Our article on ghee's smoke point and when it matters covers the figure itself and why a premium ghee is wasted in a deep fryer.
How much ghee per dosa, in grams and calories?
One teaspoon is 5 g and 45 kcal; two teaspoons 10 g and 90 kcal; one tablespoon 15 g and 135 kcal. These use ICMR-NIN's household measures (teaspoon 5 g, tablespoon 15 g) and USDA FoodData Central's SR Legacy entry for ghee: 900 kcal and 60 g of saturated fat per 100 g, which is 9 kcal and 0.6 g of saturated fat per gram.
| Ghee on one dosa | Grams (ICMR-NIN measure) | Energy (grams × 9) | Saturated fat (grams × 0.6) | Against ICMR-NIN's 1 to 2 teaspoons a day |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 teaspoon | 5 g | 5 × 9 = 45 kcal | 5 × 0.6 = 3 g | Half the upper limit |
| 2 teaspoons | 10 g | 10 × 9 = 90 kcal | 10 × 0.6 = 6 g | The whole upper limit, from one dosa |
| 1 tablespoon | 15 g | 15 × 9 = 135 kcal | 15 × 0.6 = 9 g | One and a half times the upper limit |
The figures are for the ghee alone; the batter, chutney and sambar are not counted. ICMR-NIN's guidance is to "Limit ghee or butter to just 1 to 2 teaspoons/day or avoid, if possible", and it calls saturated fat use high when more than 10 g a day of visible saturated fat is consumed on a 2,000 kcal diet. These are population guidelines; if a doctor or dietitian has set your fat intake, follow their figure. Our guide to ghee spoon measures in grams explains why USDA and ICMR-NIN weigh a tablespoon differently.
How long does dosa batter keep, and how do you store it?
Not long at room temperature, and about five days in the fridge, on the one study we could open. The 2018 Journal of Food Science and Technology study of idli batter says fermented batter "cannot be stored at 30°C for more than a day", that it "can be stored under refrigerated conditions for about 5 days", and that local outlets refrigerate it at 4 to 8°C to extend its shelf life to 5 to 7 days. It describes spoiled batter as over-fermented, very sour and separating whey.
That study was on idli batter, in a laboratory and in a survey of outlets, not in a home bowl, so treat its figures as a guide. Refrigerate the batter once it has risen, thin only what you need, and keep the rest thick and covered. If you are choosing one for the tawa, ours is made as described on the bilona process page: milk set to curd, churned, and the butter clarified slowly over a wood fire. Himdhara's A2 bilona ghee is that ghee, and every jar carries a batch code.
The short version
A ghee roast dosa is thin fermented batter spread in one pass over a hot, lightly seasoned tawa, left to set, then given ghee at the rim and over the top and roasted until deep golden. Ghee's smoke point of about 250°C and its near-zero water and solids mean a low smoke point is not why a ghee dosa browns; what browns is mostly the batter. Each 5 g teaspoon of ghee adds 45 kcal, and two teaspoons reach the top of ICMR-NIN's suggested daily limit.
Sources
Further reading behind the figures above. Himdhara's own numbers — yields, batch results — come from our production records and the batch reports on the lab reports page.
- Mukherjee SK, Albury MN, Pederson CS, van Veen AG, Steinkraus KH (1965). Role of Leuconostoc mesenteroides in leavening the batter of idli, a fermented food of India. Applied Microbiology.
- Regubalan B, Ananthanarayan L (2018). Shelf life improvement of idli batter by addition of mustard essential oil as bio-preservative. Journal of Food Science and Technology.
- Kataria D, Singh G (2024). Health benefits of ghee: Review of Ayurveda and modern science perspectives. Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine.
- ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition (2024). Dietary Guidelines for Indians. ICMR-NIN, Hyderabad.
- U.S. Department of Agriculture (2019). Butter, Clarified butter (ghee). FoodData Central (SR Legacy).