Idli is a popular South Indian breakfast recipe made from fermented rice and urad dal (black gram) batter. It's soft, fluffy steam cooked food and usually served with sambar (a lentil-based vegetable stew) and coconut chutney.

As steam cooked fermented food, it is a good source of probiotic. With a sambar, a thick dal – veg stew, idli is surely a wholesome breakfast.Â

Because of its high carb, we end up reducing the numbers in our weekly meals. But those who are fans of steam cooked idlis, it becomes very tough to avoid or reduce.Â

So, we always try healthier versions of idlis to help diet conscious and health-conscious persons.  Instead of rice, we replace with millets like finger millets, Sorghum, foxtail millets etc. This is how we find various millet idlis.Â

Millet Idli Recipe

This millet idli is an alternate to our usual idli made with white rice. No need to compromise its softness or sponginess.Â

This millet idli is made from soaked millet (any) and urad dal. There are a lots of millet idli recipes through the net. But this one is not like any other recipes. Because there is no rice added to make this batter.

Ingredients and Substitutions

Millet – I used Foxtail millet to make this idli batter. But we may replace it with any other millets like bajra, sorghum, browntop, little, kodo or with barnyard.

Urad Dal – I use urad dal to give softness and to help ferment.Â

Fenugreek – Fenugreek improves the softness of the idlis and gives a good texture to the batter. It helps in getting crispy dosas.

Salt – Salt is added for seasoning.

How to make Millet idli Batter?

Soak millet for at least 6 hours after washing 6 to 7 times (till you get a clear water).

Soak urad dal and fenugreek seeds for 2 hours after washing thoroughly. Keep this in refrigerator while soaking. This helps to get fluffy urad dal batter.

After the millet gets soaked, grind in a wet grinder or mixer jar. If you are grinding a huge quantity then use a wet grinder. Else grind in our mixer/ blender. Grind to a thick batter. Transfer to a mixing bowl. Take 1 teaspoon (for 1 cup millet) of this batter in a small pan and keep this aside.

After the urad dal and fenugreek seed gets soaked, grind it to a nice smooth butter like batter by sprinkle water little by little. Add this to the millet batter.

Take 1 teaspoon of millet batter (plain millet batter not mixed with dal batter) in a small sauce pan and add quarter cup of water into it. Mix well without any lumps. Put this on stove. Cook till a sticky thick paste in low flame.

Once the millet paste cooled down, mix it with the remaining millet and urad dal-fenugreek batter. Add salt to taste. Add water if required to get right consistency (thick idli batter) and mix well. Leave it for 8 hours or overnight to ferment.

In the morning, heat an idli pot and make idlis as usual. Close it with a lid and let it cook in slow flame for 10 minutes. Our soft sponge millet idlis are ready now.

Enjoy this healthy millet idlis  with coconut chutney and sambar combo. Or with coconut chutney and tomato chutney combo. Or with anyone. Or simply with idli podi.