Recipe- Homemade Soft and Fluffy Rice Idli Sambhar/ How to make Idli batter at home
Soft and fluffy Idli is a popular South Indian food, made from a fermented batter of rice and black gram, served with sambhar and kind of chutneys.
Servings
4People
Cook Time
20Minutes
Servings
4People
Cook Time
20Minutes
Ingredients
Idli
Sambhar
Instructions
How to make Idli
  1. First of all keep the ingredient ready in separate bowls.
  2. Now wash rice nicely and soak in water for 6-7 hours.
  3. Also wash nicely urad daal, chana daal, poha and methi dana all together and soak in water for 6-7 hours.
  4. Now after 6-7 hours grind soaked daal mix using just sufficient water to smooth paste.
  5. Also grind soaked rice using just sufficient water to smooth paste.
  6. Now transfer both paste in a big box, add salt, mix them nicely and beat for few minutes. Then cover the box and keep aside for another 8-9 hours (in summers) or overnight (in winters) in a warm place. And let them ferment.
  7. Now check when the batter is fermented well (net must be visible after fermentation) Its ready to use. If you are using right away use it, otherwise keep it in refrigerator and take it out when you want to cook.
  8. Now when you want to cook idlis, prepare your steamer and grease idli plates and pour sufficient batter into idli plates and steam at low flame for 20 minutes. (After 20 minutes check idli with knife or toothpick, they must be clean otherwise steam for another 5 minutes.)
  9. Now wait for the idli plates cool down to handle. And unmold them only when they are cooled enough, Otherwise they might break and texture will not be clean.
  10. Remove all idlis from idli plates and check the softness. Cover the box tightly.
  11. Serve hot with Sambhar and Chutney.
  12. Enjoy!
How to make Sambhar
  1. In a pressure cooker take washed daal and all chopped vegetables.
  2. Add sambhar masala, salt and some tamarind (imli) pc.
  3. Now add sufficient water (it should be over 1 inch above vegetables).
  4. Pressure cook for 1 whistle on high and 2-3 whistle on low flame.
  5. Now as i used roughly chopped vegetables, i blend them little using a hand blender (because my family does not like big chunks of vegetables). You may also add finely chopped vegetables and avoid blending.
  6. I did not blend to make a paste, i just coarse the vegetables. And Cook it on medium flame for 7-8 minutes. Adjust water as per your taste and liking the consistency of sambhar.
  7. Now lets prepare tempering, for that take oil in a small pan, cracker mustard seeds, add curry leaves and sabut lal mirch. Fry.
  8. Add this tempering to sambhar.
  9. Sambhar is ready to serve with crispy dosa, idli or rice. Enjoy!
Recipe Notes
  • Soak rice separately, do not mix them with daals.
  • Use just sufficient water to grind both rice and daal mix.
  • Make sure while grinding rice paste must be very smooth, it should not be grainy.
  • Do not add water to idli batter.
  • You may also make uttpam using same idli batter.
  • You may refrigerate the batter in airtight container for 3 days. 
  • Do not add salt to whole batter if you are not using all at a time.
  • Adding salt in whole batter will make it more sour if you refrigerate for next day.
  • While making islis, first keep the steamer ready and also keep the idli plates greased.
  • Reduce the flame to low once you close the lid of steamer and let them steam at low flame only, otherwise idlis might become soggy.
  • Let idli plates cooled enough to handle before demolding idlis. Otherwise idlis will loose their nice texture and might break.
  • You may also make Vegetable Fry Idli using leftover idlis.
  • Click here for Masala Dosa Recipe.
  • Click here to check the Recipe of Chutney- Daal Chutney /  Coconut Chutney (White Chutney) / Tomato Sesame Chutney (Red Chutney) / Mint Chutney (Green Chutney) / Peanut Chutney (Orange Chutney)

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