carrot, spinach & beet idlis

Given  a choice, the husband and I prefer getting together with friends at home rather than in a restaurant.  For me especially, it feels more meaningful with much laughter, often loud and plenty of catching up.  Sometimes it is so informal,  we just pool our leftovers and make a feast of it.  Once in a while though, I am inspired to do something special and go the whole nine yards complete with a variety of appetizers.  Samosas are always a favorite and I like to serve a steamed appetizer along with it…..rationalizing that it cancels the guilt of eating fried food:) And dhoklas is the dish of choice.  But last week, when friends we hadn’t seen in a few years were visiting from overseas, I wanted to make something a bit different.  And these fluffy, soft and colorful mini idlis came to be.

My love of these savory, steamed cakes is no secret.  Airy and light, fresh idlis, right out of the steamer are truly irresistible.  Add a touch of ghee…..swoon:) Made of black lentils (urad dal) and rice that is soaked and ground to a batter, it is the fermentation that makes magic.  The fluffy batter is then put in special plates or molds with perforated compartments and then steamed.  Mild on their own, they are considered to be quite nutritious and easy to digest since the fermentation breaks down the complex carbohydrates.

There are slight variations in the way they are made in the south.  Many use soaked rice, often parboiled or a special rice called idli rice.  And the proportions of rice to urad dal seem to vary from home to home.  In Andhra, it is common to use rice rava (with a texture similar to cream of rice) instead of the soaked rice.  It gives a slighter coarser texture to the idli but that what we prefer at home…maybe because that is what we grew up with.  The rava is easy to find in the Indian grocery stores as is the urad dal.

The addition of vegetables although not traditional, does make it even healthier.  And pretty to look at too.  I steamed the vegetables in the microwave and then pureed them in the blender.  You could also use roasted vegetables that are then pureed.  They colored the batter in very vibrant shades….especially the beetroot which upon steaming, took on a gorgeous dusty hue with a very understated flavor.

I also wanted to toss them in a traditional seasoning of cumin and mustard seeds along with dried red chillies and curry leaves but was afraid they would lose their lovely shape.  So instead, I drizzled the seasoning over the steamed idlis and that worked like a charm.  And of course the skewers 🙂 Who can say no to food on skewers?  They made for an attractive way to serve not to mention less messy.

While idlis are normally served with a variety of chutneys and sambar, I chose to keep it simple with just a cilantro-coconut chutney that gave the dish just the right amount of heat.  And they were quite the success….giving me another go-to recipe for the archives!

Carrot, Spinach and Beet Idlis

Print Recipe

Batter: (Makes approx 5 1/2 cups – I used 3 cups of the batter)
1 cup urad dal (black lentils)
2 cups idli rava
1 thai green chili
1 tbsp fresh ginger, roughly chopped
salt

Vegetables:
2 medium carrots
2 cups fresh spinach, tightly packed
1/4 medium beetroot

Seasoning: (use some of this for the chutney too)
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp urad dal
3/4 tsp cumin seeds
1 dried red chili, broken in two
8-10 curry leaves
3 tablespoons canola, peanut or vegetable oil

Coconut-Cilantro chutney

1 cup grated fresh coconut (I use the frozen one)
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, loosely packed
1 thai green chili
2 tbsp plain yogurt
salt

For the batter:

Rinse and soak the urad dal and rava for about 6-8 hrs. Drain and grind the urad dal with some water to give a thick, cake-like batter.

Transfer it to a large mixing bowl.   Pick up the soaked rava by the handful and squeeze gently to remove some of the water.  Add to the urad dal in the mixing bowl.  Repeat until all the rava is used up.  Add some more water to the mixture to get a batter that is cake-like.  Add salt to taste, cover and keep in a warm place to ferment until doubled in size.  This usually takes about 8 hours.

Grind the ginger and green chili to a paste and add to the batter.

For the Vegetables:

Chop the vegetables coarsely and steam them separately in a microwave safe bowl along with a couple of tbsp of water until soft.

Cool and puree in blender.  You might need to add a few more tablespoons of water to make a smooth paste.  Also, considering the small volume, use the smallest jar of the blender.

For the idlis:

Add 1 cup of the fermented batter each into 3 bowls and add the different pureed vegetables to each.  Stir well.

Add about 2 inches of water to a pot that is large enough to hold the idli stand and bring to boil. Make sure it is tall enough to be able to cover with a lid.

Grease the idli plates really well with oil or ghee and fill with batter until the top.  Arrange the plates on the stand and put the stand in the pot for steaming the idlis.

Cover and steam for 12 minutes.  Turn off stove and let the idlis rest for five minutes.  Unmold them with the help of knife or a small spatula.

Drizzle with the seasoning, keeping aside a couple of teaspoons for the chutney.

You can serve a few of these in a plate or thread them onto a skewer.

For the seasoning:

Heat the oil in a small saucepan.  Add the urad dal and mustard seeds.  When the mustard seeds start to pop, add the cumin seeds, dried red chili and curry leaves.  Cook for a minute and turn off the stove.  Watch it carefully so it doesn’t burn.

For the chutney:

Grind everything to a fine paste and mix a couple of teaspoons of the seasoning from above.

*  Just a quick note about the amount of  batter – I always make a little extra and save the rest in the fridge for a week or so and it comes in handy when I need to whip up a quick idli or utappam. You may want to cut the amounts in half and the number of idlis will also depend on whether you are making regular or mini idlis.

Yum