Idli
A South Indian breakfast in which the lightness comes neither from yeast nor baking powder but from fermenting two soaked ingredients. Rice provides starch and structure; urad dal provides the viscosity that lets the batter trap the gases produced overnight as it ferments. Here we use the most common ratio: four parts rice to one part dal (many households use 3:1).
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Soaking 300 min
- Grinding 25 min
- Fermenting 720 min
- Steaming 30 min
- Chutney 15 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneSoak the rice and dal separately
Soak the rice in one bowl and the urad dal with the fenugreek in another, each in plenty of water, for 5 hours. Separately, because they grind to different textures: the dal to an airy foam, the rice to a fine, slightly gritty meal.
Ingredients: 400 g rice · 100 g urad dal · 1 tsp fenugreek · 2 tsp salt · 400 ml water
Two bowls apart — different textures after grinding.Grind the dal to a fluffy paste
Grind the drained dal with 150 ml of cold water into a white, aerated, light paste — 5 minutes in a blender, in bursts. The cold water matters: the blender warms the paste, and warm dal holds air less well.
Ingredients: 400 g rice · 100 g urad dal · 1 tsp fenugreek · 2 tsp salt · 400 ml water
Grind the rice to a fine meal
Grind the rice with the remaining water to a fine but not entirely smooth batter — about 10 minutes, in bursts. It should feel slightly gritty between your fingers, like semolina. Ground too smooth, the rice gives rubbery idli instead of fluffy ones.
Ingredients: 400 g rice · 100 g urad dal · 1 tsp fenugreek · 2 tsp salt · 400 ml water
Combine and mix by hand
Combine both batters with the salt and mix with your hand for two minutes, in a circular motion. Many Indian households do it this way: a hand aerates a thick batter best, and its warmth helps the fermentation get going.
Ingredients: 400 g rice · 100 g urad dal · 1 tsp fenugreek · 2 tsp salt · 400 ml water
Ferment overnight somewhere warm
Cover and leave somewhere warm for 12 hours, in a container twice the volume of the batter. It should visibly rise and turn bubbly. In a cold house, use an oven with the light on — below 20 °C fermentation practically stalls.
Ingredients: 400 g rice · 100 g urad dal · 1 tsp fenugreek · 2 tsp salt · 400 ml water
Risen and bubbling — only now is it ready to steam.Fill the moulds and steam
Grease the moulds and fill them three-quarters full. Steam 12 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean. If you do not have enough moulds for all the batter, steam in batches. Do not beat the batter before filling — at most fold it gently from the bottom with a spoon, so as not to release the air that built up all night.
Ingredients: 400 g rice · 100 g urad dal · 1 tsp fenugreek · 2 tsp salt · 400 ml water
Three-quarters full, and never stir the batter.Blend the chutney and temper the spices
Blend the coconut with the chilli, ginger, yogurt and salt into a thick chutney. Heat the oil, add the mustard seeds and wait until they pop, add the dried chilli and pour it all over the chutney. Popping seeds are the sign they have given up their aroma.
Ingredients: 100 g grated coconut · 2 pcs green chillies · 15 g ginger · 3 tbsp natural yogurt · ½ tsp salt
Unmould after a moment and serve
Wait 2 minutes before unmoulding — piping hot idli stick to the moulds, while slightly cooled they release on their own. Serve warm with coconut chutney and, if you have it, sambar.
Ingredients: 1 tbsp oil · 1 tsp mustard seeds · 1 pcs dried chilli
Before you start
Parboiled rice matters
Idli rice — short-grain parboiled rice — gives the fluffiest result, because its starch is partly gelatinised. Ordinary long-grain rice works, but the idli come out denser and firm up faster.
The batter keeps a week
Fermented batter keeps up to seven days in the fridge, growing more sour by the day, which many people actively prefer. The same batter also makes dosa: simply thin it with water to a crepe consistency.
When fermentation does not start
The usual causes are cold, or too much salt. Put the bowl in an oven with the light on and give it another six hours. Batter that has not risen gives idli as flat and hard as erasers.
