Easy White Poha idli is a perfect filling breakfast made with flattened rice as the main ingredient and served with mixed vegetable gravy. Since poha idlis are high in carbohydrates, i have tweaked this recipe to make it healthy and consume less carbohydrates.
In my current blog, I would like to share the recipe of white poha idli and the idli batter with a good twist to suit the elders as well. Yes, i have stuffed the white poha idlis with beetroot to make it nutritious. This way you can have equal portions of veggies and idlis at the same time.
You may try the same recipe by stuffing the poha idlis with carrot, beans , broccoli or vegetables of your preference. If you wish to have it plain you could skip the stuffing part. You can relish the white poha idlis either way as a family by having a perfect breakfast.
What is the Recipe of Easy White Poha Idli
Poha or flattened rice is the main ingredient for the poha idli. Poha idlis can be made using rava (sooji) or idli rava or idli rice. I have used the idli rice and the urad dal to make the white poha idli batter. On fermentation of this batter, you can make yummy and delicious poha idlis. To make it more healthy and nutritious , i have also stuffed the idli with grated beetroot.
Utensils and Time needed to make Easy White Poha Idli
All the utensils are typically available in any Indian Kitchen. You need very basic utensils commonly used for the regular Indian cooking. However I would suggest you to know what are they and how much time needed to plan your cooking efficiently.
| UTENSILS NEEDED
Mixer Grinder Idli Cooker 1 Bowl to mix the idli batter Vegetable grater Vegetable Peeler Small Pan for preparing the tempering Spatula for frying the ingredients |
| BATTER RESTING TIME
Over night – Rice Urad (Black lentil) , Fenugreek Seeds and Flattened rice |
| TOTAL PREPARATION TIME
15 Minutes |
| COOKING TIME FOR BEETROOT MIXTURE
5 minutes |
| IDLI COOKING TIME IN IDLI COOKER
10 minutes in a Idli cooker |
Ingredients to make Easy White Poha Idli
Poha idli recipe needs very few ingredients to make and they must be already available in your kitchens. However it is always good to have the ingredients with the quantity needed ready before you start the cooking. This way you can avoid running around for the ingredients.
| EXACT QUANTITY OF INGREDIENTS EXPLAINED FOR IDLI BATTER
Idli rice – 1 Cups Urad dal (Black lentils) – 1/4 cup Water – 2 Cups Flattened Rice – 1/2 cup Fenugreek seeds – 1/2 teaspoon Salt – According to taste |
| QUANTITY OF INGREDIENTS for BEETROOT STUFFING
1 Pinch of Turmeric Green Chillis 1 tablespoon – Coriander leaves ½ cup grated beetroot 5-6 Curry Leaves Vegetable Oil – 1 Tablespoon Mustard Seeds n Urad dal – ½ teaspoon |
Complete Procedure to make Easy White Poha Idli
Important part of making the white poha idli is to understand how to make the poha idli batter. Its very important to get the batter right so that the idlis will be soft and fluffy. To make the idlis more nutritious you will also learn the beetroot stuffing to the poha idli. Now Let us get started with complete recipe of the batter and also the poha idli with beetroot stuffing.
Soak the rice in a small bowl over night
In a large bowl , add 1 cup of rice and add enough the quantity of water. Rinse the rice twice in the water and clean the rice. You should then soak the rice in a bowl. Make sure you soak the rice in enough quantity of water and rest it overnight.
Soak the Urad dal (Black lentil) , Flattened rice and Fenugreek seeds in a separate bowls for two hours
Though we call it Black lenthil, the outer black cover is removed and sold in the market. So the lentil looks white inside.
In a bowl ,rinse the 1/4 cup of urad dal ( Black lentil) twice or thrice and soak it in the water. You should make sure you use thrice the quantity of water to soak or two hours. Reason being, the lentils swell up double the size.
Add required water in a another bowl and rinse 1/2 cup of flattened twice. Soak it for two hours with enough water as this will also swell up double. This is another important ingredient to make the idli soft.
In a small cup , add 1/2 teaspoon of fenugreek seeds and soak in water
Grind the Soaked Ingredients into a Batter
Add the each soaked ingredients to the mixer grinder. Grind each soaked ingredient speerately . Transfer the ground paste to separate bowls
You make sure to grind the urad dal or black lentil with fenugreek seeds together . Grind Flattened rice and idli rice seperately.
Nice and smooth idli batter will be ready
Add the ground flattened rice paste to the rice paste and mix well
Take the idli rice paste ta bowl and add the ground flattened rice paste and mix well
Add the ground urad dal paste to the rice paste and mix well
Now you must add the ground urad dal paste to the poha rice paste and mix well.
Add the salt to taste and mix well
Make sure there are no lumps in the batter. You must add salt and mix it well so all the lumps are cleared.
Transfer the batter to the large bowl and leave it for Fermentation
Now transfer the batter to a large bowl. You should make sure the batter is only filled half of the bowl. Because after the fermentation, the batter rises to the top. If filled more than half, the batter might spill over.
Leave the idli batter covered overnight and fermented batter is ready. You will clearly see how much the batter has risen in the bowl.
Batter has swelled up and risen in the bowl and fermented
Once the batter is fermented , it swells and rises up in the bowl. You can add little water and adjust the consistency of the batter to make sure its not too thick or too runny. Now the batter is ready to be used.
Add oil to the frying pan
Take a medium sized frying pan. Place it on the stove and turn on the gas. Keep it in medium flame always. Add 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil. I always use virgin coconut oil or ground nut oil. You may use any vegetable oil.
Add mustard seeds and urad dal to the oil
Once the oil is heated, add 1/2 teaspoon of mustard seeds and 1/2 teaspoon of urad dal. Let them splutter in the oil and make sure the flame it not too high as it may burn the tempering ingredients
Add curry leaves and green chillies
Now its time to add the curry leaves , cut green chillies and saute well. Curry leaves will enhance the flavor of any dish so well
Add the grated beetroot,turmeric powder and salt and saute well
Add the grated beetroot, 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric powder and salt to the tempering and saute it well . So that tempering gets mixed well with the grated beet root
Close the lid and cook for five mins
You must close the lid on low flame and leave it to cook for 5 mins. Then you must add the chopped 1 tablespoon coriander leaves. Saute for half a minute until they are all mixed well
Keep the idli cooker on the stove
Take the idli cooker and place it on the stove and keep it in the medium heat. Always maintain the flame in the medium heat not avoid over cooking.
Add one cup of water to the idli cooker
You must now add one cup of water to the idli cooker
Grease the idli moulds
You can now grease the idli moulds with oil and this is very important for the idli to not stick to the moulds while removing.
Fill the poha idli batter half the moulds
You must now fill only half the mould as you will be placing another layer of poha idli matter on top of the beetroot stuffing.
Fill the grated beetroot in the center of the poha idli batter
You must now place the grated beetroot in the center of each mould on top of the poha idli batter
Cover the grated beetroot with another layer of white poha idli batter
Now you can cover the grated beetroot with another layer of white poha idli batter and now this becomes like a stuffed idli.
Close the lid and cook for ten mins in the medium flame
You can close the lid and cook the poha idlis for ten mins in the medium flame
Check if the idlis are cooked well
After ten minutes, you can use a knife or fork to poke into the idlis to check if they are cooked well.With a well cooked idli, the knife or the fork will come out clean.
Remove the idli stand and let it cool on its own
When you are sure that the idlis are cooked well. Allow it to cool for sometime otherwise you will burn your hands while removing the idlis. When the idlis are cool, remove them and take it in a bowl
Serve the white poha idlis with Hot Kurma
The soft and spongy white poha idlis are ready to be served with hot vegetable kurma. You can also serve it with hot delicious sambar as well.
Tips for Making Easy White Poha Idli
Best white poha idlis are light, soft , fluffy and porous in texture. You must follow these simple tips to have soft idli while warm and also at room temperature.
1. Keep all the ingredients ready
Before you start cooking, keep all the ingredients in one place. This makes cooking more efficient and you won’t forget.
2. Soak the ingredients for longer time
You must take the right quantity of rice Soak it overnight with double the quantity of water
3. Use Flattened Rice
Flattened rice is very important ingredient to help you make soft idlis. It is not required to be soaked overnight, 2 to 4 hours would help.
4. Remove all lumps from batter
If your batter has turned out to be lumpy, make sure you remove all the lumps using a whisk. If you do not have a whisk, use a spoon or fork to remove the lumps.
5. Keep idli moulds greased before adding batter
Always grease up idli moulds before adding batter.
6. Refrigerate soaked Urad Dal
To get softer and fluffier idlis, make sure that, you soak the urad dal in water and refrigerate them. Just like flattened rice, urad dal can be soaked for 4 hours. Not required to soak them overnight
7. Do not overfill the idli moulds
Make sure that you do not fill the idli mould to the brim. After steaming, the idlis will rise, so, make sure you leave a little space for them to rise. Ideally, you should fill a little over three fourth of the idli mould.
8. Beetroot should be finely grated
Grate the beetroot very fine. Make sure there are no chunks of beetroot. This way you can ensure that you dont bite chunks of beetroot while eating soft and fluffy beetroot
9. Remove the idlis carefully
Once the poha idli is cooked, don’t remove it from the mould instantly. If you try that, the poha idlis may break. Leave it for a minute or two before removing them from the moulds. If you have difficulty removing the idlis, use a sharp object to loosen it from the edges of the idli mould.
10. Use Idli Rice for batter
its very important to use the idli rice instead of the Regular rice. If you want the idli to remain soft even in room temperature, idli rice is a must
11. Squeezing out the water from the flattened rice
Please ensure to squeeze out the water from the soaked flattened rice. Because this will help to avoid excess water in the batter.
12. Add Fenugreek seeds for better fermentation
Fenugreek seeds helps to ferment well. Since the same batter can also be used for dosa, it helps in crispiness
I am sure you must have had wonderful experience learning the poha idli batter and idli recipe. Please share your comments in the below section and I will be happy to respond