IndianbreakfastVegetarianPescatarianVeganGluten-freeDairy-freeNo added sugar

Idli (Steamed Rice and Black Gram Bread)

Name: Idli (Steamed Rice and Black Gram Bread)
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 851 min
Total time: 861 min
Yield: 7 servings
Cuisine: Indian
Ingredients: 4 cups parboiled short-grain rice; 1 cup skinless white urad dal; 2 teaspoons non-iodised salt; 1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds (methi); 2 cups chlorine-free water for fermenting (see note); Fermentation starter (optional; see note)

Idli is a round, fluffy bread roughly eight centimetres in diameter. It is made from ground rice or rice flour mixed with ground urad dal, salt, methi (fenugreek seeds) and water. The mixture is allowed to ferment prior to being steamed in an idli steamer. They are traditional to Southern India and are most often eaten with sambar.

From Wikibooks CookbookNo reviews yet· 0 commentsPrep 10 min · Cook 14 h 11 minEasy0 made it

Ingredients

Makes

4 cups parboiled short-grain rice
1 cup skinless white urad dal
2 teaspoons non-iodised salt
1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds (methi)
2 cups chlorine-free water for fermenting (see note)
Fermentation starter (optional; see note)

Ingredients for 7 servings (1.4 kg) · the original recipe

Method

1
Batter: Wash rice and urad dal thoroughly.
2
Soak the rice and urad dal in separate bowls for no more than 2 hours. Soak methi seeds along with the urad dal. You will need about twice as much water in the bowl as urad dal, as it expands as it soaks up water.
3
Drain the rice and urad dal. Do not discard the dal soaking water, but do discard the rice soaking water.
4
Grind the urad dal to a fine paste in a blender. If needed, add some of the reserved soaking water.
Blender
5
Grind the rice to a paste with about 1 cup of chlorine-free water (less if you can). Grind coarsely if the batter will only be used for idli, but grind finely if it will later be used for dosa.
6
Mix the rice and urad dal pastes together well, and season with salt.
7
If desired, stir in the fermentation starter and mix well (see note).
8
Set aside somewhere warm like to ferment for 8 hours (see note).
9
Cooking: Grease one or more idli pans well with ghee or vegetable oil.
10
Gently spoon the batter into the round indentations of the idli pans. Do not stir or otherwise break the batter. The trapped bubbles should not escape as they are necessary for a fluffy texture.
11
Steam for 12 minutes in a steamer (16 minutes if using brown rice).
12
Remove idli from pans with a sharp knife or thin spatula.

Recipe from Wikibooks Cookbook, written by Wikibooks contributors. Used under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence; the ingredient list and method on this page are taken from that page and edited (its notes, tips and variations are not reproduced), and are available under the same licence. The macros, equipment tags and scaling are Ma Kitchen’s own and are not the source’s figures. Ma Kitchen is not affiliated with or endorsed by Wikibooks Cookbook. Copied on 2026-11-12.