Recipe- South Indian Style Chana Dal Idli

Chana dal idli is another variation of South Indian Breakfast Idli. Chana dal idli, as the name suggests is made with chana dal and rice in the almost similar way as rice idli is made, and it tastes so good on its own. I usually serve chana dal Idli with plain sambhar and gunpowder or coconut chutney for the breakfast. For evening South Indian style tiffin, I prefer to serve it as mini idli with an easy tempering along with filter coffee or a cup of masala tea.

Ingredients

150 g Chana dal Bengal gram dal
100 g rice
2 green chilli
1 tablespoon grated ginger
2 Dried Red chilli
½ teaspoon turmeric powder
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
2 sprigs Curry leaves
Salt to taste
1 pinch baking soda big pinch

Method

- Wash chana dal and soak it in water for 3-4 hours.

- Similarly wash and soak rice in separate bowl for 3-4 hours.

- Grind them after that and mix to form a smooth batter.
Cover the bowl with a lid and keep it for fermenting for 7-8 hrs in summers plus 4 during winters.

- Season it with salt, turmeric powder, green chilli and ginger paste. And add baking soda. Mix it nicely.

- Grease the idli pan and with the help of ladle pour idli batter in idli pan, stack all the plates like this

- Place it in a pressure cooker or idli cooker with little water take care that water should not touch idli pans plate otherwise idlies on lower plate may become soggy.

- If you are using pressure cooker do not forget to remove the weight.

- Steam them for 10-12minutes and allow to cool for 5 minutes before demolding and serve hot with Sambhar and coconut chutney or make mini fried idlies like I do with tempering.

- For tempering heat up ghee and add curry patta, mustard seeds and red chilli when it starts to splutter take it off heat and pour this tempering over idlies and serve it.