Soft Rice Idli (Steamed Rice Cake) is one of the healthiest and preferred breakfast dishes of south India. This steamed Idly (Rice Cake) is now equally popular all over India and is a must have breakfast item on the menu of all the restaurants across the country.
Making Idli is not a rocket science but a perfect Idli should be soft, light, fluffy and white. To get a perfect Idli a good quality of urad dal, and rice is important. Besides this, the art of grinding and fermentation should be taken care of. I learned the art of making perfect Idly from Jayanthi, a very dear friend of mine. Not only had she taught me how to make great Idlis but also gifted me the best Idli maker which she got all the way from her home town some 20 years back. I still use this Idly maker and cannot thank her enough for this.
Idlis are best served with steaming hot sambar, chutney of your choice and gun powder. You may like to try our other breakfast recipes like Rava Idli (Semolina Steamed Cake), Oats Idly with Tomato Chutney and Onion Uthappam (Thick Rice Pan Cake).
Yield: 15 pieces
Prep time: 10 minutes + soaking 4 hours + fermenting 10 hours
Total time: 30 minutes
Ingredients for Soft Rice Idli
1/2 cup whole urad dal
1 teaspoon methi seeds (fenugreek)
2 cups idli rice
1 teaspoon salt or to taste
Sambar to serve (recipe link)
Chutney to serve (recipe link)
Directions for Soft Rice Idli
- In a deep bowl wash rice till the water is clean. Add enough water, cover and let it soak for 4 to 6 hours.
- In another bowl combine the urad dal and fenugreek seeds and wash 2 to 3 times. Add enough water to the dal, cover and leave it to soak for 4 to 6 hours.
- Now drain the dal, keep the water separately. Grind the dal to a very smooth paste by adding water slowly as required. The dal batter will be of nice white colour and fluffy. This batter should feel like cream between your thumb and index finger. Transfer into a large container.
- Drain the rice and add to the grinder and grind by adding water as required. The rice paste should be a little coarse and not as smooth as the dal paste. Take care not to add too much water. Transfer in the same container as the dal.
- Add salt and stir well. Cover and keep in a warm place for 10 to 12 hours for the batter to rise and ferment. Please ensure that the container is big enough as the Batter will rise and double.
- I have used an idli maker that uses cloth and has just 1 plate for 7 idli’s.
- Place the idli maker on the stove with 3 glasses of water. Cover and bring to a boil.
- In the meantime soak the cloth, place it on the plate or mould and keep it in the idly maker and wait for it to get some steam.
- Now pour a ladle full of batter in each mould, cover the lid and steam the idlis for 4 to 5 minutes. This steamer takes less time as compared to other idli makers with multiple plates. You follow the timing as per the requirement. To check insert a tooth pick in the center, if it comes out clean then the idlis are cooked.
- Take the plate out and invert onto a clean plate, remove the idli plate, sprinkle some water on the cloth and slowly start to remove or peel the cloth from one end all the way.
- Keep covered in a warm container. Similarly make the rest.
- Serve with chutney and sambar.
