The Secret to India's Healthiest Breakfast - Idli Sambar

These fluffy cakes are idli, one of India's healthiest breakfast. When I posted this short, I had no idea it would reach 18 million people and hit more than 900,000 likes. So in this video, I'm gonna share the secrets to one of India's most famous and healthiest breakfasts, idli sambar. I'll show you how to nail that fermentation to make the fluffiest idli, how to make your own sambar from scratch and how to whip up an epic coconut chutney. Plus, if you watch till the end, I'm gonna share some tips on how to speed things up and how to substitute some of the ingredients if you can't get them. Let's go! First up, let's prep our idli. They are made from a fermented rice and lentil batter that can sometimes be a little bit difficult to get right. But follow these steps and you will have the fluffiest idli every time. We'll start with 300 grams of idli rice, which is rice that has previously been parboiled. Wash the rice a few times in water, then leave it to soak for three to four hours. Next up is urad dal, which are black lentils with their black husk removed. Add 100 grams to a bowl along with 30 grams of thin poha. This is a parboiled and flattened rice, which will help to make the idli fluffy. I'm also adding one teaspoon of fenugreek seeds, which will help with the fermentation. The lentils contain natural yeasts that are also crucial for the idli to ferment properly, so we're only gonna wash them once. Then add fresh water and leave it to soak alongside the rice. After soaking, the rice and lentils are easier to process, so go ahead and drain the rice but keep the soaking liquid. Then add the rice to a blender along with 130 milliliters of the soaking liquid and blend it into a grainy paste like this. The texture should be similar to coarse cornmeal and when you pour it into a bowl, it should flow in thick ribbons. Now drain the other bowl and keep the liquid. Then add everything to a blender along with 80 milliliters of the soaking liquid. Think of the soaking liquid as activated yeasts from your lentils, so this is basically a kickstarter for your fermentation. This time blend it until thickened and completely smooth. An easy way to check the consistency is to add a teaspoon to a bowl of water. It should float like this. Then pour it onto the rice paste along with one teaspoon of salt and mix it well with your hands. It's actually important that you mix it by hand. It might sound off-putting but there are good bacteria living on your hand and good yeasts that will promote the fermentation. Plus some say that you shouldn't add salt to this batter, but a small amount of salt is actually beneficial to the growth of positive bacteria, so that's why you also add it to fermented breads like sourdough. Once mixed, cover the bowl with a plate to allow some airflow and leave it to ferment in a warm place. I usually pop it in the oven with the light setting switched on which will heat it up to around 24 degrees celsius. Then leave it to ferment anywhere between 8 to 24 hours until it smells tangy, has risen in volume and looks fluffy and aerated like this. Give it a gentle stir and our idli batter is ready. To cook them you ideally need an idli stand like this which I linked in the description. If you don't have one I have a substitute tip for you later on. Coat the moulds with a bit of oil then add a generous tablespoon of your idli batter making sure not to overfill it. Continue with the rest then add just enough water to a large pot to cover the bottom without touching the idli stand and bring it to a boil. Add your idli and cover the pan with a lid that's slightly ajar to let the steam escape. After 10 minutes just turn off the heat and leave it to steam for another 2 minutes. Then remove the stand from the pan and let the idli rest for a moment. At this point a skewer should come out clean, a sign that you can remove the idli. I usually do this by hand but if they are sticky just wait a little longer or use a wet knife to loosen them. And that's how you make fluffy idli. And if you don't have an idli stand you can also fry the idli in a bit of oil in a pan which is actually similar to how dosa are made. And our idli are done. But this is only one part of the feast because traditionally these are served with a sambar and a coconut chutney and we're gonna make both of those next. We'll make the coconut chutney first. Traditionally you would use a raw coconut for this. Take a screwdriver, pierce a hole and drain the coconut water. You can drink this. Then use the of a sturdy knife to hammer around the equator until the sound changes like this and it cracks open. Use a butter knife to loosen the flesh and pop it out and finally peel off the brown skin. Now just grate the coconut flesh and add it to a blender along with 1 trimmed chilli, 20g of ginger, 1 tbsp of chana dal that I slowly toasted in a pan until it's charred all over, half a tsp of cumin seeds, 1 tsp of salt and 150ml of water. Then just blend it into a thick chutney and set it aside. There's one crucial step left. Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a small frying pan and add half a tsp of mustard seeds until they sizzle like this. Now add 1 tsp of urad dal and once it turns golden, 2 dried chillies, a small handful of curry leaves and an eighth tsp of asafoetida. Use this to temper your coconut chutney. And our coconut chutney is done as well. Time to make the last part of this dish, the sambar. Start with 160g of toor dal which are split pigeon peas. Add them to a bowl and wash them a few times until the liquid almost runs clear. Then cover the peas with 600ml of water, bring them to a boil and simmer them for 40 minutes until they are completely soft like this. Then just mash them into a smooth puree. In the meantime, add 60g of tamarind to a bowl and cover it with 150ml of boiling water. After 15 minutes you can loosen the tamarind from the fibres and filter the juices. Now it's time to make our own sambar powder. Start by deseeding around 10 kashmiri chillies and toast them. Then toast 1 tbsp of coriander seeds, half a tsp of cumin seeds, half a tsp of black pepper and half a tsp of fenugreek seeds. Add a small handful of curry leaves and continue toasting until they look crisp. Finally, toast 1 tbsp of chana dal and half a tbsp of urad dal until golden. Once everything cooled off, add it to a spice grinder along with 1 tsp of turmeric and a quarter tsp of asafoetida and grind until fine for your own sambar powder. Now prep your veg. Peel and halve 8 shallots, trim and halve 2 chillies, then dice 1 tomato, 5 okra, 1 potato and 1 small aubergine. Heat up some oil, then sauté the shallots first, followed by the tomatoes and chillies and finally the chopped veg to which I also added a carrot. Pour over 500ml of water, add half a tsp of turmeric, one and a half tsp of salt and simmer it for just 10 minutes until the veg begins to soften. Now add 2 tbsp of your sambar powder, the tamarind juice and the dal. Return everything to a boil, then turn off the heat. The sambar also needs a temper, so heat up 3 tbsp of veg oil and bring half a tsp of mustard seeds and a quarter tsp of fenugreek seeds to a sizzle. Add 3 dried chillies along with a small handful of curry leaves and an eighth tsp of asafoetida and pour this over the sambar followed by around 20g of chopped coriander. Cover to infuse and your sambar is ready. Now it's finally showtime. Add your steaming sambar, the coconut chutney and finally the idli for an incredible Indian breakfast. And there we go, idli sambar with homemade coconut chutney. Let's try the idli by itself first. Get that tanginess from the fermentation. That is soft and fluffy. They are so much fun to eat. Next up, with the sambar together. So I'm gonna get a scoop of the sambar onto the idli. You know when you have a really good curry and you just want to pair it with rice? The idli takes that to the next level. That is such a good combo. And then that homemade spice blend, that sambar powder that we made. Boom! What a flavor explosion. It's so fragrant. It's so powerful. And then last one, the coconut chutney together with the idli. Completely different. The coconut is almost cooling and refreshing. And then you've got these little toasted urad dal pieces in there. These toasted lentils and they're really nutty. That is a little crunchy little flavor explosion in itself. So that was quite full on. There are a lot of steps and you're probably wondering why would anybody go through all the trouble to make this for breakfast out of all things. But it is traditionally eaten for breakfast. I actually love eating this for dinner. It's a really complex dish and actually also really healthy. Because the fermentation transforms the simple carbohydrates of the rice and the lentils into something that is more bioavailable and easier to digest. Plus the combination of rice and lentils means that we have a complete protein with all nine amino acids. Add to that the veg sambar and the fresh coconut chutney and you have a really balanced feast. To save some time, you can also make the batter ahead and just keep it in the fridge for around five days. So whatever you want to make idli, you just have to steam them up. Plus there are some ways you can speed things up. If you're not too fussed about the fermentation, you can also use a ready-made idli mix. That is a mix of rice and lentil flour. And all you need to do is add some water and baking powder for some fluffy instant idli. For the coconut chutney, you also don't have to use raw coconut. That is of course the traditional way. But instead you can use desiccated coconut. Just use the same way. You might have to add 150 milliliters more water to the blender. And for the sambar, you can just use ready-made sambar powder to cut some time. And you could also use a tablespoon of tamarind paste instead of making the juice yourself. But if you do want to make it from scratch, and of course I would recommend doing it. The taste is insane. It's so flavorsome. Check out the links in the description where I link some of the ingredients that I use. But you can actually find most of them in Asian grocery stores. So that's how you make idli sambar with coconut chutney. The links to all three recipes are in the description below. And this video was part of my series Vegan Cultures, where I show how versatile natural and cultural plant-based food can be. If you want to support that mission, then please hit thumbs up and subscribe. And watch the other videos in my playlist. Thank you so much for tuning in. And as always, bun da ba!