Cuisine: Tamil Nadu
Category: Breakfast
Prep: 20 min
Cook: 15 min
Serves: 4
Difficulty: Medium
🌿 Vegetarian
Tamil Nadu idli variant — vegetable 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
- Make idli batter: Soak 2 cups rice and half cup urad dal separately for 6 hours. Grind smooth, combine with salt and ferment overnight.
- Prepare vegetables: Finely dice 1 carrot, 5 beans and a handful of peas into very small pieces.
- Blanch vegetables: Add diced vegetables to boiling salted water for 2 minutes. Drain and cool to pre-cook them.
- Mix into batter: Fold blanched vegetables gently into the fermented batter. The batter should remain thick.
- Prepare steamer: Fill steamer with water and bring to a rolling boil.
- Grease idli moulds: Grease each idli cavity with a drop of oil.
- Fill moulds: Ladle batter into each mould — fill three-quarters full.
- Steam: Place in steamer. Cover tightly and steam for 10-12 minutes.
- Check doneness: Insert a toothpick — it should come out clean and the idli should feel firm but springy.
- Serve: Unmould and serve hot. Vegetable idli is colourful and nutritious. Serve with coconut chutney and sambar.