Are you looking for easy ways to incorporate oats into your diet? Then this recipe is for you. Oats Dhokla is an instant dhokla recipe prepared with powdered oats and semolina in equal proportion. This simple steamed dhokla is a perfect guilt free snack anytime and a perfect party/potluck appetizer too.
This year I decided to incorporate oats as much as I can in our day to day cooking. That’s when I started my oats challenge on Instagram, and that got me into a regular rhythm. Oats smoothie, oats porridge, instant oats, oats dosa have become our breakfast routine now. As we were repeating these often, I stopped posting it in IG. I didn’t want you all to get tired of seeing the same recipe. But this challenge opened up the doors for exploring Indian oats recipes. I tried quite a few recipes and will post them one by one. But I got to share one thing; powdered oats is the secret of incorporating oats in daily cooking. I add a handful in our idli/dosa batter, in our ragi pudding, and in smoothies too. Please do share your interesting oats recipes too. :-)
And here is how you prepare the oats flour,
- Dry roast the old fashioned oats and let it cool for a couple of minutes. Then dry ground it and store it an air tight container.
I know I should have explained about the different types of oats in my previous but missed it. Here are the three different types of oats based on how they are cut and rolled,
Steel cut oats: These are unrolled oats. The whole oat groats are cut into to two or three small pieces, and this takes the longer time to cook. I rarely use this but this is a great substitute for rice.
Old Fashioned Oats – These are rolled oats. The whole oat grouts are dehusked and steamed before rolling them into flat flakes. This is what I mostly use for my overnight oats, pudding, dosa and other oats based recipes.
Instant Oats: These are also called as quick oats. The rolled oats are further processed and cut into smaller pieces so that it cooks easily. I use these instant oats when time is pressing.
Back to the dhokla recipe, I took my besan dhokla recipe which I posted last September as the base recipe for this oats dhokla. The preparation and procedure are very much similar. Instead of besan I used powdered oats and semolina/rava and also used yogurt for the sourness instead of citric acid and modified the tempering ingredients as well.
So here is how I prepared my oats dhokla, 
Ingredients:
- Oats Flour – 1/2 cup
- Rava/Fine Sooji /Semolina – 1/2 cup
- Water – 1/2 cup
- Baking soda – a pinch
- Hing – a pinch
- Ginger – 1-inch piece
- Green chilly -1
- Chopped Cilantro – 1 tbsps + for garnish
- Salt – 3/4 tsp
- Sugar – 1 tsp
- Curd – 1/4 cup
- Fruit salt – 1/4 tsp
- For tempering:
- Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
- White Sesame seeds – 2 tsps
- Curry leaves – 5 (broken into few pieces)
- Green chili – 1
Prep – Work:
- Chop the ginger and green chili and coarsely grind them.
- Chop the cilantro, green chili and break the curry leaves into small pieces for tempering and set aside.
- Prepare the oats flour as mentioned above.
Steps:
- In a wide mixing bowl, add the rava, powdered oats, baking soda, hing, salt, salt, sugar and ginger chili paste, chopped cilantro and yogurt.
- Now mix it nicely without any lumps and then add ½ cup of water and mix again.
- Let it rest for 15 minutes.
- I don’t have Dhokla steamer, and this is how I steam it.
- In a wide flat kadai or pan (with lid), I added about 1 cup of water and let it boil. Once the bubble starts to form, add a small plate or like stainless steel coaster.
- Meanwhile, grease a wide plate or bowl with one tsp of oil that will go inside you flat pan.
- At this stage add the Eno fruit salt and stir vigorously. The batter should rise nicely. Now pour this mixture into the greased plate and place that inside the pan and cover it with the lid.
- Let it steam for about 20 to 22 minutes. Remove the lid and insert a toothpick and if it comes out clean, then the Dhokla is done.
- Turn off the heat and let it cool for 5 minutes. With a knife, go around the edges so that we can separate the Dhokla quickly.
- Now turn it upside down on a plate and overturn it again so that the base goes down.
- Tempering:
- Heat a small pan or kadai and add oil.
- Once the oil is hot, add the mustard seeds, sesame seeds, hing, chopped green chilies, and curry leaves. Sauté for a couple of minutes and spread this tadka on top of the Dhokla.
- Then garnish it cilantro and chop the Dhokla into small squares or your favorite shapes and serve it with green chutney and sweet chutney.
Notes:
- Adding rava helps in getting the proper texture. I have to try reducing the quantity. So far I have tried preparing dhoklas with equal measure.
- Vegan Dhokla
- Instead of yogurt, you can add ¼ of citric acid and add ¼ more cup of water to prepare the dhokla mix.
- Adjust the salt and spice as per your preference.
- Grated coconut can be added during the tempering.
Oats and Rava Dhokla
Ingredients
- Oats Flour - 1/2 cup
- Rava/Fine Sooji /Semolina - 1/2 cup
- Water - 1/2 cup
- Baking soda - a pinch
- Hing - a pinch
- Ginger - 1-inch piece
- Green chilly -1
- Chopped Cilantro – 1 tbsps + for garnish
- Salt - 3/4 tsp
- Sugar - 1 tsp
- Curd - 1/4 cup
- Fruit salt - 1/4 tsp
For tempering
- Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
- White Sesame seeds – 2 tsps
- Curry leaves – 5 broken into few pieces
- Green chili - 1
Instructions
Prep – Work
- Chop the ginger and green chili and coarsely grind them.
- Chop the cilantro, green chili and break the curry leaves into small pieces for tempering and set aside.
- Prepare the oats flour as mentioned above.
Steps
- In a wide mixing bowl, add the rava, powdered oats, baking soda, hing, salt, salt, sugar and ginger chili paste, chopped cilantro and yogurt.
- Now mix it nicely without any lumps and then add ½ cup of water and mix again.
- Let it rest for 15 minutes.
- I don’t have Dhokla steamer, and this is how I steam it.
- In a wide flat kadai or pan (with lid), I added about 1 cup of water and let it boil. Once the bubble starts to form, add a small plate or like stainless steel coaster like below.
- Meanwhile, grease a wide plate or bowl with one tsp of oil that will go inside you flat pan.
- At this stage add the Eno fruit salt and stir vigorously. The batter should rise nicely. Now pour this mixture into the greased plate and place that inside the pan and cover it with the lid.
- Let it steam for about 20 to 22 minutes. Remove the lid and insert a toothpick and if it comes out clean, then the Dhokla is done.
- Turn off the heat and let it cool for 5 minutes. With a knife, go around the edges so that we can separate the Dhokla quickly.
- Now turn it upside down on a plate and overturn it again so that the base goes down.
Tempering
- Heat a small pan or kadai and add oil.
- Once the oil is hot, add the mustard seeds, sesame seeds, hing, chopped green chilies, and curry leaves. Sauté for a couple of minutes and spread this tadka on top of the Dhokla.
- Then garnish it cilantro and chop the Dhokla into small squares or your favorite shapes and serve it with green chutney and sweet chutney.
Notes
Vegan Dhokla
Instead of yogurt, you can add ¼ of citric acid and add ¼ more cup of water to prepare the dhokla mix.
Adjust the salt and spice as per your preference.
Grated coconut can be added during the tempering.
Oats dhokla looks interesting and different. Gonna try this tomorrow.
Please let me know how you liked it. Thanks
Oats dhokla s Jagadish fav too. I will try your version sometime
Thanks.. Please let me know how it turned out. :-)