Idli is a pillowy soft cake made by steaming fermented rice and lentil batter. Popular breakfast or Tiffin food in Southern India, gluten-free and vegan Idli is easy to make using just a few pantry ingredients. Love South Indian food? Make sure to try out recipes for crispy dosa, quinoa idli, and quinoa dosa. Enter your email & I’ll send it to your inbox. Plus, get great new recipes from me every week! By submitting this form, you consent to receive emails from Minstry of Curry The key to pillowy-soft & light Idli is the perfectly fermented batter. Although I grew up in Western India, my mom frequently cooked South Indian food at home. Her Idli, Dosa and Uttapam are to die for! So I am sharing with you my mom’s idli batter recipe! I have so many memories of helping my mom measure the lentils and rice, and the excitement of preparing my favorite childhood food!
Recipe
Step 1: Soaking rice and Dal
Put the Idli Rice and Urad Dal in two separate mixing bowls or pots. Rinse them both a couple of times, draining out the water each time. Add methi seeds and poha to the rice bowl. Soak in water for 6 to 8 hours or overnight (photos 1 - 4) Add the drained rice to the blender jar with 1.5 cups of cold water and blend making sure to stop while the batter is still a bit coarse but not grainy. It is important to blend the rice batter slightly coarse (photos 5 - 8) After the initial 8 hours, if needed you can then select the “Yogurt” mode again and let it ferment for additional 4 hours or so. Once fermented the batter will double up its volume and will be light and airy. Note: If you do not have an Instant Pot, simply put the pot of batter covered in a warm place or inside the oven with the oven lights on for 10 to 12 hours.
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