Instant Oats-Rava Idlis – fluffy, savory and spongy steamed Indian cakes using tempered and spiced oats and semolina yogurt batter. It is the perfect healthy treat to begin your day with as a plate of sumptuous breakfast or even a brunch, lunch or dinner option! Served with a side of fresh coconut chutney, it makes for a filling, delicious and easy to make meal! This instant oats rava idli recipe (with step-wise pictures) will be so good, it will surely be added to your recipe repertoire to make often as is done in my house!
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INSTANT OATS-RAVA IDLIS:
Growing up in the southern part of India, my breakfast platter consisted mainly of crispy dosas (fermented rice-lentil savory crepes), idlis (fermented savory rice-lentil steamed cakes) or a bowl of upma (savory semolina porridge) with my morning cuppa coffee. Bread and eggs were a rarity although I did enjoy it once in a while, especially when my mother made it using chopped green chilies in the scrambled eggs! Making fermented idlis or dosas need at least a few hours of fermenting time; traditionally done overnight to wake up to a delicious and nutritious breakfast. But, when you run out of these batters or may not have planned ahead, these instant idlis come to the rescue. You can check out this basic semolina or rava idli which is the most popular instant idli which I normally make. Semolina is roasted with some spices/lentils and made into a batter with yogurt and baking soda for that instant rise. With everyone on the bandwagon to make daily meals healthier and healthier, adding a nutrient rich grain flour like oats to my rava idli batter made lot of sense. Just add some ground or powdered rolled oats to the rava idli mixture and that is it!
INGREDIENTS NEEDED TO MAKE INSTANT OATS-RAVA IDLIS:
These are most probably all in your pantry especially if you are into Indian food.
HOW TO MAKE INSTANT OATS-RAVA IDLIS WITH STEP-WISE INSTRUCTIONS:
In a blender jar, make an almost fine powder of 1 ½ cups of rolled oats and set aside. Keep ¾ cup semolina/suji ready.
TO PREPARE THE TEMPERING FOR IDLIS:
Heat 3 tbsp oil and add 1 tsp mustard seeds, 1 tsp urad dal/split black gram dal, 1 tbsp chana dal/split Bengal gram dal, few chopped curry leaves, ¼ tsp hing/asafetida powder, 1 tbsp grated ginger and 1 tbsp chopped green chilies.
Saute a few seconds and add semolina and oats powder.
Roast until hot and slightly roasted on medium heat, stirring often. This will take about 4 to 6 minutes. The mixture should feel hot to the touch but do not let it burn or change color! Remove from heat, add 1 tsp salt to taste. Mix well and set aside to cool.
Once cooled add 1 tsp baking soda and stir to incorporate the baking soda evenly. At this stage, you can bottle it up in a dry jar and use to make idlis for later.
TO MAKE THE OATS-RAVA IDLI:
In a mixing bowl, add ½ cup yogurt and ½ cup water. Mix well using a whisk. Stir in the cooled oats-rava mixture and stir to make a smooth batter. Add more water if needed to form a flowy but slightly thick batter. Set aside until the idli steamer is ready.
Pour water into the idli steamer (or inner pot if using Instant Pot or a stove top pressure cooker) and let it come to a boil. Grease idli pans with oil. Meanwhile, again, just before steaming, adjust the consistency of the batter and to make for a flowing but thick batter as it would have thickened slightly by now due to semolina absorbing some moisture; add more water if needed. Too much water and the idlis will be mushy; too little it will be hard and dense, so add accordingly little by little. When the water starts steaming in the steamer/instant pot, pour small ladlefuls of batter in each idli stan;, do not overfill; they tend to expand on steaming.
Place the idli stand in the simmering steamer/cooker/IP and steam cook for 12 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the idli comes out clean. Remove the stand from the pan and let cool slightly.
Demold delicious Oats and Rava idlis and serve hot with coconut chutney. We enjoyed ours with some Walnut- coconut chutney and homemade, homemade Spicy Tomato Thokku/Relish/Chutney. All recipes are on blog but leaving link in post too. Enjoy these fluffy, soft, healthy and delicious Oat and Rava Idli folks for breakfast, lunch or dinner! The key tip to remember is once you have mixed the roasted, spiced flours with yogurt, it is best to steam them immediately. Leftover batter does not make for good idlis! So mix only as much as you need with yogurt mixture.
SERVING SUGGESTIONS:
Serve oats rava idlis hot or warm with a side of coconut chutney. There are a variety of chutneys you an enjoy them with but this time, we enjoyed with our favorite Walnut Coconut Chutney and my homemade Spicy Tomato Thokku/Chutney! Store leftover idlis in the fridge and use within a couple of days.
Enjoy Foodies and Happy Cooking!
OTHER CHUTNEYS YOU MAY LIKE TO DIP YOUR OATS RAVA IDLIS IN:
Onion Coconut Chutney Molaga Podi/Dry Chutney Powder Curry Leaves Coconut Chutney Hing Coconut Chutney Lip Smacking Onion Chutney Raw Mango Chutney
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