Cuisine: Tamil Nadu
Category: Breakfast
Prep: 20 min
Cook: 15 min
Serves: 4
Difficulty: Medium
🌿 Vegetarian
Tamil Nadu idli variant — quinoa idli — soft steamed rice cake.
Ingredients
- - 2 cups idli batter
- - Salt to taste
- - Oil for greasing moulds
- - Sambar to serve
- - Coconut chutney to serve
Method
- Prepare quinoa: Wash 1 cup quinoa thoroughly to remove its natural bitter coating. Soak in water for 2 hours. Drain.
- Soak urad dal: Soak half cup urad dal separately for 4 hours.
- Grind urad dal: Grind soaked urad dal to a smooth fluffy batter with cold water.
- Grind quinoa: Grind soaked quinoa with water to a smooth batter.
- Combine and ferment: Mix both batters together. Add salt and a pinch of baking soda. Mix well and ferment 6-8 hours.
- Check batter: Should be thick and slightly bubbly. Quinoa batter is lighter in colour than rice batter.
- Grease moulds and fill: Grease idli moulds. Fill three-quarters full with quinoa idli batter.
- Steam: Bring steamer to a rolling boil. Steam covered for 12-15 minutes.
- Check doneness: Toothpick comes out clean. Quinoa idli is slightly speckled and lighter in colour.
- Serve: Quinoa idli is high in protein and makes an excellent healthy breakfast. Serve with coconut chutney and sambar.