Spring has been lurking around the corner in Sydney recently. This of course jolts me out of my hibernation to cook more food instead of curling up in a corner with a mug of soup! My biggest issue with winter are the short days and not enough daylight hours with rather bad lighting when I try to take photos of my recipes. Of course, I’m not the best photographer to begin off with, and tend to use my iPad to take most of the pictures on my bench top 😳
Now for today’s recipe,
I have previously posted a traditional Idli recipe, as it is one of the most popular South Indian rice dumpling here – How to make your Idli batter & steamed Idli dumplings the traditional way.
This instant rice flour Idli recipe is an old recipe from my mother’s cooking diary. Ready under 1 hour from start to finish, this easy recipe tastes great with Coconut Chutney, “Gunpowder” (interesting name isn’t it, 🙂 I’ll dig my recipe out soon) or Quick “Sambar” Lentil Stew to dunk the Idli in.
Instant "Idli" Rice Flour Dumplings
Vegan, Gluten free, no Oil recipe.
- 2 cups White Rice Flour, coarsely ground
- 2/3 cup Skinned Split Black Lentil Flour, fine
- Salt, to taste
- 3 – 3.5 cups Warm Water
- 3/4 – 1 teaspoon Eno Regular Salt
- 1 teaspoon Rice Bran Oil, to grease the Idli Mould
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Dry whisk the flours and salt together until well mixed.
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Mix in the warm water until a thick but smooth batter forms. Add in warm water by the spoonful to get a smooth batter. The amount of water needed depends on the coarseness of the rice flour. Set aside in a warm corner.
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Get a large steamer/ pot that the Idli moulds fit into and fill with water. Bring the water to a boil on high heat mad then turn the heat down to the lowest setting. (I tend to fill more water as it evaporates while cooking. Important part is to not let the boiling water near the batter while cooking.)
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Grease the Idli moulds/ steaming cups with rice bran oil.
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Stir in the Eno salt into the resting batter and mix well quickly.
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Drop tablespoonfuls of batter into the greased and prepared steaming moulds and set into the steamer pot. Cover the pot and steam at the highest setting for 12 – 15 minutes.
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Remove the moulds filled with cooked dumplings from the steamer immediately and cool for 5 – 10 minutes before gently sliding out of the moulds with a soft spatula.
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Enjoy hot, with Coconut Chutney or dunked into Lentil Stew.
There are different kinds of steamers that everyone uses from makeshift large pots filled with boiling water to special Idli steamers. All kinds are good as long as they hold enough water and have a separate section where the rice flour batter can cook without the water boiling into it. If the batter touches the boiling water, there will be no perfectly steamed dumplings, just a big floury, sticky mess unfortunately! I learnt this the hard way, so hope this helps 🙂
Happy Cooking 😊 If you like this recipe, please check out my other Idli recipes here – Quinoa Idli and
