The complete guide · South Indian breakfast
Masala dosa
Masala dosa is a South Indian crepe made from fermented rice and urad dal batter, cooked crisp on a hot griddle and folded around a spiced potato filling. It is served with coconut chutney and sambar. One regular masala dosa has about 280 kcal by MasalaDosa.in's ingredient-level estimate.
What is masala dosa?
Masala dosa is a dosa with a filling. The dosa is a thin crepe made from a fermented batter of rice and urad dal (black gram), cooked on a flat iron griddle called a tava until the underside turns golden and crisp. The filling is a soft potato curry tempered with mustard seeds, curry leaves, onion and green chilli. In South India this filling is simply called “masala”, which is where the name comes from.
A masala dosa is folded or rolled around the potato and served straight off the tava with coconut chutney and sambar. It is a breakfast and evening-tiffin dish in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Kerala, and Udupi-style restaurants have made it a standard order across India.
What goes into a masala dosa
A masala dosa has five parts. The batter and the filling are always there; the fat and the side dishes change from kitchen to kitchen.
| Part | What it is | Typical ingredients |
|---|---|---|
| Batter | Fermented rice and lentil batter | Rice and urad dal in a 3:1 or 4:1 ratio, fenugreek seeds, salt |
| Potato masala | The filling | Boiled potato, onion, green chilli, ginger, mustard seeds, urad and chana dal, curry leaves, turmeric |
| Fat | What the dosa is cooked in | Oil, ghee or butter (benne) |
| Coconut chutney | The cool side | Fresh coconut, roasted gram, green chilli, ginger, a mustard-seed tempering |
| Sambar | The hot side | Toor dal, tamarind, vegetables, sambar powder |
The batter rests overnight before it is used. During that time wild yeasts and lactic acid bacteria in the ingredients sour the batter and fill it with small bubbles. That fermentation gives dosa its slightly tangy taste and helps the thin layer on the tava brown evenly. The masala dosa recipe gives fermentation times for different room temperatures.
Where does masala dosa come from?
The dosa itself is centuries older than the masala dosa. Food historian K. T. Achaya wrote in Indian Food: A Historical Companion that references in Tamil Sangam literature suggest dosa was eaten in the Tamil country around the first century CE. A dosa recipe also appears in the Manasollasa, a 12th-century Sanskrit text compiled under the Chalukya king Someshvara III in present-day Karnataka. Historian P. Thankappan Nair traced dosa to the temple town of Udupi.
The potato filling came much later, because potatoes are a New World crop that reached India with the Portuguese in the 16th and 17th centuries. Popular accounts credit K. Krishna Rao, who ran Sri Krishna Vilas and later the New Woodlands Hotel in Madras (now Chennai), with popularising masala dosa in the 1930s. That story is widely repeated but hard to verify. What is clear is that Udupi-run restaurants carried the dish from Karnataka to Mumbai, Delhi and the rest of India through the 20th century.
Sources: K. T. Achaya, Indian Food: A Historical Companion (Oxford University Press, 1994); Dosa and Masala dosa on Wikipedia, which cite the Manasollasa and P. Thankappan Nair.
Types of masala dosa
Most masala dosa varieties change one of three things: what is spread inside the dosa, what fat it is cooked in, or how thin the batter is spread. A Mysore masala dosa adds a red garlic-chilli chutney. A benne masala dosa is cooked in butter. A paper masala dosa is spread so thin and wide that it can hang off the plate.
- Masala dosaCrisp rice-and-urad crepe folded over spiced potato~280
- Mysore masala dosaRed garlic-chilli chutney spread inside~357
- Benne masala dosaCooked in butter; Davanagere and Bengaluru style~348
- Podi masala dosaDusted with lentil-chilli gunpowder~315
- Ghee podi masala dosaGunpowder plus ghee, common in Tamil Nadu~353
- Paper masala dosaSpread very thin and very wide~362
- Open butter masala dosaServed flat, masala spread on top~384
- Rava masala dosaSemolina batter, lacy, no fermentation—
- Paneer masala dosaPaneer added to the potato filling—
Each variety has its own guide: Mysore masala dosa, benne masala dosa and the full list of types of masala dosa.
How many calories are in a masala dosa?
One regular masala dosa has about 280 kcal. That figure assumes a 25 cm dosa cooked with 1 teaspoon of oil and filled with 100 g of potato masala, and it comes from MasalaDosa.in’s ingredient-level model built on USDA nutrition data. Add a katori of coconut chutney and a bowl of sambar and the plate reaches about 473 kcal.
| Dosa | kcal (estimate) |
|---|---|
| Plain dosa, 1 tsp oil | 180 |
| Masala dosa, 1 tsp oil, 100 g masala | 280 |
| Benne masala dosa, 15 g butter | 348 |
| Mysore masala dosa, 2 tsp oil, red chutney | 357 |
| Masala dosa with coconut chutney and sambar | 473 |
The fat decides most of the difference between varieties. Each teaspoon of oil or ghee adds about 40 kcal, and 10 g of butter adds about 72 kcal. The masala dosa calorie calculator lets you change size, fat, filling and sides and see protein, carbs and fat as well.
Masala dosa vs plain dosa vs rava dosa
| Feature | Plain dosa | Masala dosa | Rava dosa |
|---|---|---|---|
| Batter | Rice and urad dal | Rice and urad dal | Semolina, rice flour, often maida |
| Fermented | Yes, 8–14 hours | Yes, 8–14 hours | No, rests 20–30 minutes |
| Filling | None | Potato masala | Optional potato masala |
| Texture | Crisp and thin | Crisp shell, soft centre | Lacy and brittle |
| kcal (estimate) | About 180 | About 280 | Not yet calculated |
A plain dosa and a masala dosa use exactly the same batter. The only difference is the potato filling, which adds about 100 kcal and most of the flavour. Rava dosa is a separate dish: its thin semolina batter needs no fermentation, so it can be made the same day, and it cooks into a net of holes instead of a smooth sheet.
How masala dosa is served and eaten
A masala dosa reaches the table folded into a half-moon, a cone or a long roll, usually on a steel plate or a piece of banana leaf. Coconut chutney and sambar come in small steel bowls on the side. Many restaurants also serve a red or green chutney, and some serve the potato masala separately instead of inside the dosa.
Masala dosa is eaten by hand. You tear a piece from the crisp edge, use it to pick up some potato and dip it in chutney or sambar. A dosa starts to soften within a few minutes as steam from the filling reaches the shell, which is why it is best eaten the moment it arrives.
Start here
- Masala dosa recipe: batter ratio, fermentation times, potato masala, chutney and fixes for a dosa that won’t crisp.
- Masala dosa calories: a calculator and a table for every common variety.
- Mysore masala dosa: the red chutney version and how to make it.
- Benne masala dosa: the butter dosa from Davanagere and Bengaluru.
Frequently asked questions
What is masala dosa made of?
Masala dosa is made of a fermented batter of rice and urad dal (black gram), usually in a 3:1 or 4:1 ratio with a little fenugreek, and a filling of boiled potato cooked with onion, green chilli, ginger, mustard seeds, curry leaves and turmeric. It is cooked in oil, ghee or butter and served with coconut chutney and sambar.
What is the difference between dosa and masala dosa?
A plain dosa and a masala dosa use the same fermented rice and urad dal batter. A masala dosa is filled with spiced potato masala before it is folded, which adds about 100 kcal and most of the flavour. A plain dosa is served empty with chutney and sambar.
Why is it called masala dosa?
In South Indian cooking the spiced potato filling is called masala or potato palya. A dosa filled with it became a masala dosa. The word does not refer to a spice powder in the batter.
Which state is masala dosa from?
Dosa has roots in both Tamil Nadu and Karnataka: Tamil Sangam literature mentions it, and a 12th-century Karnataka text, the Manasollasa, gives a recipe. The potato-filled masala dosa is a 20th-century dish, spread across India mainly by Udupi-style restaurants from Karnataka and popularised in Madras in the 1930s.
How many calories are in one masala dosa?
One regular 25 cm masala dosa cooked with 1 teaspoon of oil and filled with 100 g of potato masala has about 280 kcal. Butter or ghee versions such as benne masala dosa come to 350–385 kcal. With coconut chutney and sambar, a full plate is about 473 kcal.
Is masala dosa healthy?
A masala dosa is mostly carbohydrate from rice and potato, with about 7 g of protein and 8 g of fat in a regular home-style dosa. Fermentation makes the batter easier to digest for many people, and sambar adds protein and vegetables. The amount of oil, ghee or butter decides whether it is a light or a heavy meal.
Is masala dosa gluten-free?
A traditional masala dosa batter of rice and urad dal contains no wheat, so the dish is naturally gluten-free. Two things can change that: some restaurants add semolina or maida to the batter, and asafoetida (hing) powder is often blended with wheat flour. Ask, or check the hing label if you cook at home.
Is masala dosa vegan?
The batter, potato masala, coconut chutney and sambar are all plant-based, so a masala dosa cooked in oil is vegan. Versions cooked in ghee or butter, such as benne masala dosa and ghee roast, are not.