Sometimes when my kids ask for pizza I buy an uttapam. Why not? Visually it resembles pizza, but in fact it’s a way healthier, tastier an cheaper option. Uttapam is a dish of the South Indian cuisine – a thick  pancake with different toppings mixed into the batter. The batter is made of ground and fermented black gram (urad dal) and rice, and the toppings can be anything from onion, tomato, bell peppers to more exotic varieties of vegetables or even coconut. An average cost of an uttapam in the restaurants of Mumbai is around 50 Rs, which is less than $ 1 🙂 It’s also a popular street food.

Our favorite variety – tomato and onion uttapam.

And this is an onion uttapam – a waiter made a mistake and brought it instead of tomato and onion variety. But we still enjoyed it.

It’s usually served with sambar (a sort of spicy stew) and coconut chutney (sauce).

Sometimes I make an uttapam at home – I just buy a ready made mix in the nearest supermarket, chop some vegetable and fry it all. This might be a nice idea for the expats who live in India and search for ways to diversify their kids’ diet 🙂

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