Ragi Idli Recipe (Finger Millet Idli)
Ragi Idli Recipe - Healthy, Nutritious Finger millet idli or nachni idli made with fermented batter of whole ragi, urad dal and rice. Delicious South Indian breakfast recipe served with coconut chutney and sambar.
Servings 22 Idli
Equipment
- Steamer
- Mixer Grinder
Ingredients
- 2 cups Ragi or Finger Millet / Nachni whole ragi used
- 1 cup Idli Rice or use short grain sona masuri, kolam etc
- 1 cup Urad Dal
- ¼ tsp Methi Seeds or Fenugreek Seeds
- Water as required for soaking and grinding
- 1-2 tsp Oil to Grease the Idli plates for steaming I have used sesame oil
- Salt to taste Check notes below
Instructions
- In a bowl, add 2 cups of whole ragi and 1 cup of rice (Idli Rice). In another bowl, measure and add 1 cup of urad dal and 1/4 teaspoon of methi seeds (fenugreek).
- Rinse and soak all the ingredients for 6-8 hours. Overnight works best.
- Next morning, drain the water used for soaking. Rinse and keep aside.
- First grind Urad dal with methi seeds using water (in a wet grinder or mixer grinder) until smooth and creamy. Place this aside in a bowl.
- Next grind rice and ragi with water. Add this to the urad dal and methi batter. Mix well using hands.
- Cover and keep this aside to ferment for 6-8 hours.
- After the batter ferments, add salt, mix and prepare the steamer for making Idli.
- Boil water in the steamer, grease the idli plates with few drops of oil and add a ladle of ragi idli batter. Place the Idli stand in the steamer and steam the idli for 10 - 12 mins.
- Once idli is steamed, remove and set it aside to cool slightly before demolding. Serve hot with sambar and chutney.
- If not making Idli immediately, cover and store the batter in the refrigerator.
Notes
Tips
- When placing the idli batter for fermentation, keep a plate below the container. It prevents wastage in case the batter overflows due to fermentation. (see step by step pics for more clarity)
- Use fresh ingredients. Stale or old urad dal will affect quality of batter and texture of idli.
- Mixing the batter using hands aids fermentation process. Do not skip this step.
- I add salt to the batter after fermentation.
- If using a mixer grinder, use ice cubes to grind urad dal batter. It prevents the mixer grinder jar from overheating.
- The batter is multipurpose. You can adjust consistency of the batter and make dosa, uttapam and paniyaram.
- Yields 22 - 24 idli depending on the size of Idli Plate.
Don't have access to whole ragi / ragi seeds - Make the batter with 1 cup Rice, 3/4th cup Urad Dal, 1/2 cup poha and 1 cup Ragi Flour. Add the Ragi flour to the batter of rice, urad dal and poha. Rice, Urad Dal and Poha needs to be soaked and ground like regular idli batter and the ragi flour needs to be mixed well and set aside for fermentation. Ensure you mix the flour completely into the batter. In this case, chances are the batter would be slightly dense. You may have to add some cooking soda (even after fermentation) to improve lightness.
Accidently added too much water while grinding the batter - add 1/2 cup of soaked and ground poha, aval or flattened rice to the batter. Alternatively, you can add 1/2 cup of cooked rice (mix it in the grinder in to a lumpy paste). Do not add water while grinding these ingredients. Add this to the batter, mix well and keep aside for fermentation.
Instant Pot Yogurt Mode is the best way to ensure fermentation in cold climate. Add the ground idli batter in the steel insert. Press Yogurt Mode - Normal Mode and set the timer to 8 hours. Cover the Instant Pot with a glass lid. Do not use the Instant Pot pressure cook lid.
Storage - Store Ragi Idli batter in the refrigerator for a week. In summer, batter tends to taste sour after 2-3 days. You can make Uttapam or paniyaram using the sour batter.