
Kadapa karam dosa is made by spreading a spicy red chutney (kara chutney) and besan chutney (Bombay chutney / kadlaimavu chutney) over thin crispy dosa.
I have linked the detailed recipe for dosa and besan chutney, so please refer the individual posts for the recipes. Otherwise I thought I should post this idea when my BIL forwarded this recipe from a friend. (who had shared arbi chips earlier, Thank you Smitha). I was way too tempted by the name itself and the thing that I had dosa batter in hand. This is so easy to make too, though the post may look long.

I am sure many of you will be pushed to try this one soon. Since writing all the recipes in one post will be too long and also I already have these recipes, I am linking to those posts.
Besan chutney video:
Also many people including me are tempted towards the spicy karam chutney that is spread over masala dosas like mysore masala dosa. And here in this karam chutney shared by her, ingredients are simple and can be prepared in a jiffy. I would say this kadapa karam dosa itself is a simpler version of mysore masala dosa. You will be amazed by it’s taste. This is also called erra karam dosa I guess. I am not sure though. And the kadapa in this context is different from Kumbakonam Kadappa. Kadapa is a region name here.
I got a comment saying the karam chutney is made just with onion and spice, no tomato is used. So the authentic recipe may vary from this.
Kadapa karam dosa
Ingredients
- Dosa batter as needed
Besan chutney ingredients
- Besan/ Kadalamavu – 3 tbsp
- Onion – 2
- Tomato – 1
- Green chilli – 4
- Ginger – 1 tsp very finely chopped
- Water – 2 & 1/4 cups
- Salt – As needed
- Ghee – 1 tsp
- Coriander leaves – 2 tbsp chopped
To temper
- Oil – 1 tbsp
- Mustard – 3/4 tsp
- Urad dal – 2 tsp
- Chana dal- 1 tbsp
- Curry leaves – 1 sprig
Ingredients for karam chutney
- Onion – 2
- Tomato –1
- Red chilli powder – 1 & 1/2 tsp
- Salt – As needed
Instructions
Prepare besan chutney
- Slice onion, chop tomato, slit green chilli.
- In a mixing bowl, dissolve besan by adding little water first to make a paste, then add the remaining water and keep aside.
- Heat a pan with oil/ ghee, temper with the items given under to temper table. (Shown below is with fennel seeds but recommend the ones in ingredients box)
- Add onion, ginger and fry till transparent. Add the chopped tomatoes, required salt.
- Fry until tomatoes turn soft. Add the dissolved besan slowly as you keep stirring. Bring to boil. If gets too thick, add little more water.
- Simmer for 4-5 minutes or until the raw smell goes away and the consistency is thick like poori masala. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves, ghee.
Karam chutney :
- Chop onion and tomato roughly and grind it with red chilli powder and salt without adding any water.
To make kadapa karam dosa:
- heat a dosa pan and spread a thin dosa. Drizzle over little oil and spread one or two tbsp of the prepared spicy chutney.
- Spread a ladle of besan chutney over it, once done, fold it two sides to form a triangle as shown below.
- Fold at the bottom and serve immediately.
Video
Notes
- You can also temper with fennel seeds, a small piece of cinnamon and clove. I updated the recipe with the tempering items as I found that more tastier than fennel.
- Adjust water consistency as needed. 2 & 1/4 cup was perfect for me.
- Don’t skip ghee, just 1 tsp at the end also enough.
- For chutney: Adjust red chilli powder as per your spice level.
- Do not make dosa too thin, it should hold the chutneys.
- Spread the dosa first and then drizzle oil over it, otherwise you will not be able to spread the dosa evenly.
- Make the besan chutney thick so that it is easy to spread as well as the dosa does not get soggy..
- Main tip for crisp results and easy handling of dosa, cook the dosa until crisp and put the flame to low. Lastly before taking off, spread the chutneys. Immediately take out and serve. Otherwise if you spread they chutneys early, it gets stuck to the pan and texture also gets affected.
Besan chutney method:
- Slice onion, chop tomato, slit green chilli. In a mixing bowl, dissolve besan by adding little water first to make a paste, then add the remaining water and keep aside. Heat a pan with oil/ ghee, temper with the items given under to temper table. (Shown below is with fennel seeds)

- Add onion, ginger and fry till transparent. Add the chopped tomatoes, required salt.

- Fry until tomatoes turn soft. Add the dissolved besan slowly as you keep stirring. Bring to boil. If gets too thick, add little more water.

- Simmer for 4-5 minutes or until the raw smell goes away and the consistency is thick like poori masala. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves, ghee.

Karam chutney method:
- Chop onion and tomato roughly and grind it with red chilli powder and salt without adding any water.

- To make kadapa karam dosa: heat a dosa pan and spread a thin dosa. Drizzle over little oil and spread one or two tbsp of the prepared spicy chutney.

- Spread a ladle of besan chutney over it, once done, fold it two sides to form a triangle as shown below.

- Fold at the bottom and serve immediately.

You can have it as such, but if you want, you can make it with coconut chutney or peanut chutney.

WHAT IS THE INGREDIENT FOR kadapa karam dosa AS WELL AS besan chutney
Very impressive Raji
Very impressive Raji
Please check the links provided above ingredients list. I have updated the post with besan chutney (I have already posted those recipes)
Crispy outside… creamy inside
Can you please share recipe to make actual dosa?
looks fabulous
can i know where you got the dosa pan? very interesting recipe.
A relative got it from Karaikudi 🙂
made me hungry:)
Looks absolutely delicious Raji!!The details in the recipe clearly show how much efforts you put forth for every post…hats off..i have already tried your mysore masala dosa and loved it a lot…will definitely try this as well soon..and now i have a list of recipes from your recent posts to try:)
Good idea to make the otherwise boring dosai interesting.Thanks.i m making it tonite.
Only one small suggestion..roast the dosa on both the sides and then apply Bombay chatni along with onion chatni..(make that Bombay chatni thinner so that u can apply both of them same time)..I belong to Kadapa and so can tell u…thats how its done..cheers
Our version of Karam daram is a bit different. After spreading the karam on dasa, we spread little ghee on the dosa and then sprinkle the coarsely grounded roasted dal powder.
My mom used to make this Bombay chutney if she is in a hurry (besan chutney ) she makes potato curry for puri just like this using Bombay chutney.
Spread in such a way that the chutney is here and there, not everywhere 🙂
Thank you for your suggestion.. Will try it soon and update u… 🙂
Hi Raji .i tried this recipe last week. We loved the totally new flavours of the besan chutney. Only issue I had was – the dosa was getting teared off as I tried removing from the tawa. So i just skipped spreading on the dosa and had it as side dish instead. Where could I have gone wrong? I used my regular idli batter to make it.But we totally loved the dish and I am sure to do it regularl.
This is not Kadapa karam dosa, for Kadapa karam dosa ppl dont use besan chutney and tomoto chutney, for red chutney they grind onions , red dry chilles and salt , they spread that chutney on the dosa and pour ghee over dosa, I am native of Kadapa