Palak Idli

also called Spinach Idli · Moong Dal Palak Idli

A green, fibre-rich idli from a Maharashtrian-leaning kitchen - built on moong dal and spinach with no fermentation.

Maharashtrian-leaning

Image: Cooking From Heart · Blog photo

A bright green, fibre-rich idli that combines fresh spinach with a moong-dal-and-yogurt batter - no fermentation needed. This is the Maharashtrian-leaning preparation; the simpler Tamil-style variant just folds blanched spinach purée into a regular fermented urad-rice batter.

The lift comes from baking soda or Eno added at the moment of steaming, plus a teaspoon of lemon juice. The result has a soft texture, a faint earthy bitterness from the spinach, and a green that doesn't wash out in the steam.

The Recipe

Yield · 4 servings (~12 small idlis)

Effort profile

Soak8 hours (moong dal, overnight)

Ferment8–10 hours

Steam10–12 minutes (or 4 minutes microwave)

Steps5

Each axis is scaled against the longest example in the archive.

Ingredients

Batter

2 cups split yellow moong dal (soaked overnight, drained)
¾ cup rice flour
1 cup plain yogurt
¾ cup blanched, chopped spinach (palak)
1 small green chilli, chopped
½ tsp turmeric
½ tsp baking soda or Eno
1 tsp lemon juice
Salt to taste
Oil for greasing

Method

1.
Grind soaked drained moong dal to a smooth batter.
2.
Combine with rice flour, yogurt, spinach, green chilli, turmeric and salt; add water if needed for an idli-batter consistency.
3.
Cover and rest 30 minutes.
4.
Just before steaming, stir in baking soda / Eno and lemon juice; the batter should froth.
5.
Grease idli moulds; spoon in batter and steam 10–12 minutes (or microwave 4 minutes per batch in microwave-safe moulds).

Serve with

coriander-coconut chutneysambar

Notes

A standard urad-rice fermented batter folded with ¾ cup spinach purée and ½ tsp red chilli powder is the simpler Tamil-style variant. The moong-dal-and-yogurt version above is the no-ferment Maharashtrian-leaning preparation.

Adapted from mygingergarlickitchen.com.