Saamai (Little Millet) Idli & Dosai (Without Rice)

Category: Breakfast / Millets
Soaking Time: 8 Hrs / Overnight  
Fermentation Time: 6- 8 Hrs    
Cooking Time: 10 mins /batch; 2 mins/dosa

Saamai Idli & Dosai

Millets are very nutrient rich grains. These super grains were forgotten for a while and now they are making a coming back. Saamai is known as little millet in English. For those who want to skip rice or need to try an alternative to the regular rice based Idli or dosai, Little millet is sure a healthy choice. This is also an excellent option to feed millets to the kids and toddlers.

Saamai (Little Millet) Idly

Before I try this Idli with Saamai and without any rice, I was bit skeptical about the texture of Idli. Because I never tried Idli without a portion of Idli rice, even with Ragi Idli or any other Idli varieties, I have used some Rice. But to my surprise, the Saamai Idli is super soft and tasty. Only the colour will be little dull but taste wise not much difference. Saamai Dosa is crispy and flavorful.

Saamai (Little Millet) Dosai

One thing to keep in mind is, the batter becomes sour faster than or regular Idli batter so I would suggest to use the the batter within 2 or 3 days.

Ingredients:

• Saamai/ Little Millet - 2 cups
• Whole white urad dhal - 1/2 cup
• Fenugreek seeds - 2 tsp
• Salt - To taste
• Sesame oil - for making dosa

Vegetable stuffed Idli

Category: Kids Recipes
Preparation Time: 10 mins 
Cooking Time: 15 mins
Servings: 2-3 servings 

Vegetable stuffed Mini Idlis

Idli is one of the popular and healthiest Indian dish. In South Indian homes, we usually stock up Idli and Dosa batter in our refrigerator. To make it more interesting for the kids, I usually stuff vegetables and make these Stuffed Idlies.

So soft and Yummy!

These are tasty, easy and more healthy with the added veggies. Kids too love these Idlis and it can be a great finger food for them.

If we are making mini stuffed idlis, we can even toss them up in idli podi and serve with skewers :)

Veg Stuffed Mini Idlis

Ingredients:

• Idli batter - 3 cups
• Big Onion - 1, finely chopped
• Tomato - 1 big, pureed
• Ginger-Garlic paste - 1/2 Tbsp
• Carrot - 1 big, finely chopped
• Green beans - 10, finely chopped
• Green peas (I used frozen peas) - 1/3 cup
• Sambar powder - 1/2 Tbsp (adjust to taste)
• Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
• Chilli powder - as required (Optional)

Podi Idly Fry (Oven Baked / Tawa fried/ Air fried )

Category: Baking / Kids Snacks
Preparation Time: 10 mins  
Cooking Time: 10 -15 mins   
Servings:  2-3 servings

Crispy Podi Idly Fry

 

Podi Idly Fry is a great snack for the kids and also a fantastic way to use up those left over idlies. For this, refrigerated idlies work best or we can cook idlies and allow them to cool down completely and use them. We can deep fry them too but I prefer Baking or toasting :)

 

Crispy & Yummy!!

Ingredients:

• Idlies - 6-7 normal sized Idlies / 20 mini Idlies
• Sesame Oil- 2-3 Tbsp ( + 1- 2 tsp for final mixing, if needed)
• Idly Podi- 3-4 Tbsp or as needed

Method:

• Cut the Idlies into equal sized wedges; sprinkle 2 Tbsp of sesame oil over it and coat them evenly 
  

Oven Baking:

• Pre heat oven to 400 F
• Arrange them on a baking tray and bake in the pre heated oven for around 10-12 mins
  

Barley Idly & Dosai

Category: Breakfast / Tiffin    
Soaking Time: 6 Hrs / Overnight  
Fermentation Time: 8-12 Hrs    
Cooking Time: 10 mins /batch; 2 mins/dosa

Barley idly & Dosa with Carrot Sambhar

Another healthy Idly / Dosa recipe to add on to my list:) I tried substituting 50% of Idly rice with Barley in our normal Idly / Dosa batter and the result was good:) Only the colour of the Idlies would be pale and not pure white but tastes good. Dosai came out perfect and yummy!

Barley Idly

Barley Dosa

Ingredients:

• Barley -2 cups (I used Pearl Barley)
• Idly rice - 2 cups
• Whole white urad dhal - 1 cup
• Fenugreek seeds - 1 1/2 tsp
• Salt - To taste

Method:

1. Soak Idly rice & fenugreek seeds together and barley (separately) for 5-6 hrs / overnight and urad dhal for 45 mins-2 hrs
   
   
2.  In a wet grinder, first add the urad dal, grind till it becomes soft and fluffy. Once urad dhal is done, remove it in a big container and keep aside. While grinding for Idly, make sure you just sprinkle required water at regular intervals rather than pouring it at once. This will make the batter very fluffy and airy which results in soft idlies
3.  Add barley to the grinder and grind it till it becomes smooth, then add the rice and fenugreek seeds to it and grind to a smooth batter, but with a slight coarse texture. Once done, remove it into the container with urad dhal
4.  Add required salt and mix well with hands

   

   Before Fermentation

5.  Allow to ferment for about 8-12hrs and it depends on your room temperature; After fermentation, the volume of the batter would be almost doubled. (Make sure to place the batter in a big bowl to avoid spills after it gets fermented)

   

   After Fermentation

6. Once fermented, make idlies as usual
   
   
   
   
7. Serve with your favourite side dish
8. Next day, just add little water to the batter and make it slightly thinner than the idly batter
9. Heat Tawa and grease it. Pour a ladle of dosa batter and spread it to a thin circle. Pour a teaspoon of oil around the corners and cook covered for few seconds 
   
10. Flip it over and cook other side
    
11.  Serve hot with sambhar / chutney!
    
    

Horse gram (Kollu) Idly & Dosai

Category: Breakfast / Tiffin      
Soaking Time: 6 Hrs / Overnight  
Fermentation Time: 6-8 Hrs      
Cooking Time: 10 mins /batch

Horse gram (Kollu) can help with a number of health problems as it is a grain which contains a good and rich amount of vitamins, proteins, and iron. In addition to weight loss, it helps in reduction of extra fat from the body. Horse gram is rich in B-complex vitamin and proteins. It helps in purifying menstruation and cures and prevents arthritis. The presence of a good amount of dietary fiber in the gram helps balance sugar glucose and blood pressure levels.

In our normal Idly - Dosa batter, I just tried replacing Urad dhal with Horse gram and  the result was too good:)
 

Kollu Idly

Kollu Dosai

Ingredients:

• Idly rice - 4 cups
• Horse Gram (Kollu) - 1 cup
• Fenugreek seeds - 1 tsp
• Salt - To taste
• Sesame Oil - for preparing Dosa

Method:

1. Soak Idly rice and fenugreek seeds together and Horse gram (separately) for 5-6 hrs / overnight

   

   Soaked Horsegram

2. In a wet grinder, first add the horse gram and grind till it becomes soft and fluffy (similar to the normal Urad dhal batter). Once it is done, remove it in a big container and keep aside. While grinding for Idly, make sure you just sprinkle required water at regular intervals rather than pouring it at once. This will make the batter very fluffy and airy which results in soft idlies

   

   Fluffy Horse gram batter while grinding

3.  Add rice to the grinder and grind it till it becomes smooth, but with a slight coarse texture. Once done, remove it into the container with horse gram
4.  Add required salt and mix well with hands

   

   Before Fermentation

5.  Allow to ferment for about 6-8 hrs and it depends on your room temperature; After fermentation, the volume of the batter would be raised. (Make sure to place the batter in a big bowl to avoid spills after it gets fermented) 

   

   After Fermentation

6. Once fermented, make idlies as usual and serve with your favourite side dish

   

   Idlies - Before steaming

   

   Idlies - After steaming

7. Next day, just add little water to the batter and make it slightly thinner than the idly batter. 
8. Heat Tawa and grease it. Pour a ladle of dosa batter and spread it to a thin circle. 

   

   Dosa - Before Cooking

9. Pour few drops of oil around the corners and cook covered till its done.

   

   Dosa - After Cooking

10. If not covering with lid, Flip it over and cook other side
11. Serve Hot with favourite side dish
    

Idly Upma

Category: Breakfast / Tiffin
Preparation Time: 5 mins 
Cooking Time: 5 to 8 mins
Servings: 2 to 3 servings

Idly Upma with Veggies

Idly Upma is the simple dish which most of us used to do with left over Idly. This is not only simple but also tasty. This is the basic version and we can add finely chopped veggies for more healthier version. We can serve this as a snack or a quick fix breakfast:)

Ingredients:

• Idly - 6 nos
• Onion, finely chopped - 1 no
• Oil - 1 tsp
• Mustard Seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Channa Dhal - 2 tsp
• Urad Dhal (Split) - 2 tsp
• Curry leaves - few
• Green chillies - 2 nos
• Red Chillies - 1-2 nos
• Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp (Optional)
• Peanuts - 1 tbsp (Optional)
• Salt - a pinch (to taste)
• Chopped veggies (Optional)
• Finely chopped ginger (Optional)

Method:

1. Crumble the Idlies (Left over Idlis will be good than the fresh ones) and keep aside
   
2. Heat oil in a pan, once it hot add Mustard seeds, followed by Channa & Urad Dhals, Peanuts, curry leaves and red chillies
   
3. Add the onions and green chillies, saute till it becomes transparent. If using ginger, we can add now
   
4. Add a pinch of salt and turmeric powder and fry for a min. If using veggies, we can add now and saute for few mins
5. Finally add the crumbled Idlies and stir well to get it mixed
   
6. Switch off and serve hot

   

   Simple & Tasty Idly Upma!

   We can add our favourite veggies to make it more healthy:)

   

   Idly Upma loaded with Veggies!

Brown Rice Idly & Dosa

Category: Breakfast / Tiffin    
Soaking Time: 6 Hrs     
Fermentation Time: 6 - 8 Hrs    
Cooking Time: 10 mins /batch

Brown Rice Idly / Dosa Batter - I tried substituting 50% of white rice with brown rice in our normal Idly / Dosa batter and the result was good:) One thing I noticed in this method was fermentation takes bit less time than our normal batter and also it gets sour quickly. So its better to use up the batter within 2-3 days (Under refrigeration) and keeping it in fridge for more than 3-4 days will make it very sour.

Brown Rice Idly

Brown Rice Dosai

Ingredients:

• Brown Rice -2 cups
• Idly rice - 2 cups
• Whole white urad dhal - 1 cup
• Fenugreek seeds - 1 1/2 tsp
• Salt - To taste

Method:

1. Soak brown rice & Idly rice together and fenugreek seeds (separately) for 5-6 hrs and urad dhal for 1-2 hrs
2.  In a wet grinder, first add the fenugreek seeds and then urad dal, grind till it becomes soft and fluffy. Once urad dhal is done, remove it in a big container and keep aside. While grinding for Idly, make sure you just sprinkle required water at regular intervals rather than pouring it at once. This will make the batter very fluffy and airy which results in soft idlies
3.  Add rice to the grinder and grind it till it becomes smooth, but with a slight coarse texture. Once done, remove it into the container with urad dhal
4.  Add required salt and mix well with hands
5.  Allow to ferment overnight / for about 6-8 hrs and it depends on your room temperature; After fermentation, the volume of the batter would be almost doubled. (Make sure to place the batter in a big bowl to avoid spills after it gets fermented)
   
6. Once fermented, make idlies as usual and serve with your favourite side dish  
   
7. Next day, just add little water to the batter and make it slightly thinner than the idly batter. 
8. Heat Tawa and grease it. Pour a ladle of dosa batter and spread it to a thin circle. Pour a teaspoon of oil around the corners and cook covered for few seconds. 
   
9. Flip it over and cook other side
   
10. Serve hot 

Quinoa Idly & Dosai

Category: Breakfast / Tiffin    
Soaking Time: 6 Hrs / Overnight  
Fermentation Time: 4 - 7 Hrs    
Cooking Time: 10 mins /batch

I tried substituting 50% of Idly rice with Quinoa in our normal Idly / Dosa batter and the result was good:) Only the colour would be pale and not pure white but will be soft.
One thing I noticed in this method was fermentation takes lesser time than our normal batter, so we need to check after 4-5 hrs to avoid overflowing

Quinoa Idly

Ingredients:

• Quinoa -2 cups
• Idly rice - 2 cups
• Whole white urad dhal - 1 cup
• Fenugreek seeds - 1 1/2 tsp
• Salt - To taste

Method:

1. Soak quinoa & Idly rice together and fenugreek seeds (separately) for 5-6 hrs / overnight and urad dhal for 1-2 hrs
2.  In a wet grinder, first add the fenugreek seeds and then urad dal, grind till it becomes soft and fluffy. Once urad dhal is done, remove it in a big container and keep aside. While grinding for Idly, make sure you just sprinkle required water at regular intervals rather than pouring it at once. This will make the batter very fluffy and airy which results in soft idlies
3.  Add rice & quinoa to the grinder and grind it till it becomes smooth, but with a slight coarse texture. Once done, remove it into the container with urad dhal
4.  Add required salt and mix well with hands
5.  Allow to ferment for about 4-7 hrs and it depends on your room temperature; After fermentation, the volume of the batter would be almost doubled. (Make sure to place the batter in a big bowl to avoid spills after it gets fermented)
   
6. Once fermented, make idlies as usual and serve with your favourite side dish 
   
7. Next day, just add little water to the batter and make it slightly thinner than the idly batter. 
8. Heat Tawa and grease it. Pour a ladle of dosa batter and spread it to a thin circle. Pour a teaspoon of oil around the corners and cook covered for few seconds.
   
    
9. Flip it over and cook other side
   
10. Serve hot