Idli facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Idli

Course	Breakfast, dinner
Region or state	South India
Serving temperature	Hot with a condiment such as sambar or chutney in South India, ghugni and aloo dum in East India
Main ingredients	Black lentils (de-husked), rice
Variations	Button idli, tate idli, sanna, sambar idli, rava idli, masala idli, shell idli

Idli (plural: idlis) is a tasty rice cake from South India and Sri Lanka. Many people enjoy it for breakfast. These soft, fluffy cakes are made by steaming a special batter. This batter is created from fermented black lentils and rice. The fermentation process is like magic! It breaks down the starches, making the idli easier for your body to digest.

There are many kinds of idli. One popular type is rava idli, which uses a grain called semolina. You can also find regional versions, like sanna from the Konkan area.

The Ancient Story of Idli

Idli has a very long history! People have been making a version of this dish for over a thousand years. Ancient Indian writings mention a food similar to idli. For example, a Kannada language book from 920 CE talks about "iddalige." This early version was made only from a batter of black gram lentils.

How Idli Recipes Changed Over Time

Later, around 1025 CE, another book described making this food. It involved soaking black gram in buttermilk, grinding it, and mixing it with spices. A king named Someshwara III, who lived around 1130 CE, even included an idli recipe in his encyclopedia! He called it iḍḍarikā. These early recipes didn't always include rice. They also didn't mention the long fermentation or steaming that makes modern idli so fluffy.

The idli we know today, with rice, long fermentation, and steaming, started appearing in recipes after 1250 CE. Some food historians think the modern idli recipe might have come from Indonesia. This country has a long history of fermented foods. Cooks working for Indian kings might have created steamed idli there. Then, they brought the recipe back to India between 800 and 1200 CE. However, other historians believe that the idea of fermenting food and steaming was discovered in India on its own. Steaming food was already a known technique in South India thousands of years ago.

By the 16th century, a Gujarati book mentioned idli as idari. The earliest Tamil book to talk about idli (calling it itali) appeared in the 17th century.

Making Delicious Idli

Making idli is a fun process! It involves a few simple steps.

What You Need

To start, you need uncooked rice (special idli rice or parboiled rice) and whole white lentils (black gram). The usual ratio is four parts rice to one part lentils. You can also add a few fenugreek seeds for extra flavor.

Step-by-Step Cooking

First, soak the rice and lentils separately for at least four to six hours, or even overnight. Soaking makes them soft. Next, grind the soaked lentils into a smooth paste. Then, grind the rice separately, but keep it a bit coarser. Mix the ground rice and lentils together. This mixture is called batter. Now, let the batter sit overnight to ferment. During this time, it will grow and become much larger! This is where the magic happens. After fermentation, you can save a little bit of this batter. It can be used to help the next batch of idli ferment faster. Finally, pour the finished idli batter into special greased trays with holes. These holes help the idlis cook evenly. Stack the trays in a pot above boiling water. Cover the pot and let the idlis steam for about 10 to 25 minutes. The time depends on their size. Sometimes, people use leaves instead of molds for a more traditional way of cooking.

• Making idlis
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  Key ingredients used are rice and black gram.

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  Idli batter

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  Idli mold

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  Batter poured into the mold

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  Several molds stacked over another

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  Idli steaming in cooker

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  Cooked idli

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  Molds removed from cooker

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  Idlis ready to eat

Enjoying Your Idli

Plain idlis have a mild taste. That's why they are almost always served with other delicious foods!

Serving Suggestions

Idlis are often enjoyed with different chutneys (like coconut chutney) and sambar. Sambar is a flavorful lentil stew. You might also find them served with medu vada, which are savory fried donuts. The way idlis are served can change a lot depending on the region and what people like. In some places, they are served with spicy onion chutney or even spicy fish curries. For travelers, a dry spice mix called podi is a convenient choice.

Idli served with coconut chutney, sambar and medu vada on banana leaf.

Different Kinds of Idli

There are many exciting variations of idli! People in South India and Sri Lanka have created countless local versions. As people from these regions have moved around the world, new idli recipes have also appeared. Sometimes, ingredients are hard to find, or cooking styles are different. This leads to new ways of making idli.

For example, using parboiled rice can make the soaking time much shorter. You can also use store-bought ground rice or cream of rice. For rava idli (wheat idli), people use semolina or cream of wheat. If a batter isn't fermented, yogurt can be added to give it a sour taste. There are even pre-packaged mixes that let you make idlis almost instantly!

Besides fenugreek, other spices can be added. These include mustard seeds, chili peppers, cumin, coriander, and ginger. You can even add sugar to make sweet idlis instead of savory ones. Some idlis are stuffed with fillings like potato, beans, carrots, and masala. If you have leftover idlis, you can cut them up and stir-fry them to make a dish called idli upma.

Modern kitchens often use electric grinders or blenders for batter. Microwaves or electric steamers can also be used instead of traditional stovetop steamers. Many restaurants now create "fusion" idli dishes. These include idli manchurian, idli fry, chilly idli, and stuffed idli.

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  Idlis cooked traditionally in coconut shells, Karnataka

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  Idli served with rasam

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  Moode idli steamed in fragrant screwpine leaves, Mangalore, Karnataka.

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  Sambar idli as served in Tamil Nadu

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  Kotte kadubu or Pottikkalu idlis steamed in jackfruit leaves, in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh

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  Rave idli (sooji idli) is a specialty of Karnataka

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  Sanna(s), a Goan variant of idli, also known as hittli in Konkani is made with Toddy for fermentation.

The Science of Fluffy Idli

The fermentation of idli batter is a cool science experiment! It makes the batter rise and become a bit sour. This happens because of tiny living things called lactic acid bacteria. These special bacteria are mostly found in the black gram lentils.

As the grains soak, these bacteria start to multiply. They keep growing even after the batter is ground. Some of these bacteria create both lactic acid and carbon dioxide gas. The carbon dioxide gas is what makes the idli batter light and fluffy, like tiny bubbles! The lactic acid makes the batter a little sour and also helps stop other unwanted germs from growing.

Celebrate Idli Day!

Did you know there's a special day for idli? March 30th is celebrated as World Idli Day! This fun tradition started in 2015 in Chennai, India.

See Also

In Spanish: Idli para niños