Millet and sweet potato Uthappam-vegan, gluten free.
Purple sweet potato has become my new obsession, both for its nutrient composition/anthocyanin content, and obviously for the lovely shade of purple you get when you use them in any dish.
This recipe is a colorful and nutrition upgrade from regular uthappam. Uthappam is traditionally made from urad dal, rice along with onion, green chilies. Here, I chose to add millets along side the urad dal, and skip the rice. That itself is a step up in terms of making the recipe nutrient dense. Then we add lovely purple sweet potato, to add a good serving of phyto antioxidants. The last step is to make these savory little pancakes that look like they came from a fairy land.
A no complication involved, fool proof straight forward process, once you make the batter for a fun, satisfying and nourishing breakfast. ‘Unicorn pancakes’ is what my little one calls them, which I kind of agree, just on the savory side. Try it and sprinkle some purple on the plates.
Millet Sweet Potato Uthappam
Equipment
- High speed blender
Ingredients
- 2 cups millet of your choice. I used barnyard millet
- 1 cup urad dal
- 3 purple sweet potatoes- steamed or cooked
- salt to taste
Batter mix ins- optional and quantities can be per preference
- red onion chopped
- green chilies chopped
- chopped kale or spinach or any green of your choice
- cilantro chopped
- cabbage chopped
Instructions
- Soak the millets and urad dal in a bowl of water for atleast 6 hours, overnight preferred. Drain the water and add the millet/ dal mixture to highspeed blender jar. Grind into a smooth paste, and add few spoons of water as needed to complete the process.
- Have your purple sweet potatoes that are cooked ahead ready. Add them to the blender jar to the batter and blitz until you see a lovely pink- purple hue. The consistency should be of thick pancake batter.
- Take the batter into a bowl. Add mix ins of your choice. I love adding at least a cup of greens – usually kale +spinach, onions, loads of cilantro, green chilies. You can add cabbage- white or red as well. Add salt per taste.
- Heat a nonstick or cast iron griddle. Use a spray of avocado oil, if needed to increase the non stick nature of your pan. Use a spatula or ladle to pour and spread batter on the griddle, as if you are making pancakes. Give it a good minute before you flip the uthappam to cook the other side. You can cover the griddle with a lid in between the flipping process. Once you see the golden brown shades on both sides, take the uthappams to a plate, serve with your favorite chutney.