Soft, spongy, melt-in-your-mouth Rava Idli is a real favorite with my kids. Rava Idli, which is made with semolina flour called Rava, is a variation of the popular south-Indian breakfast recipe called 'Idli' (steamed rice & lentil cakes).
Super easy to make, this easy breakfast recipe or snack recipe needs no grinding or fermenting, and comes together in 30 minutes, with only 5-7 minutes of active cooking time. I made this rava idli recipe in my electric pressure cooker, Instant Pot
, using my newest kitchen toy, Silicone Molds
. These molds work great for a variety of recipes including, eggs-bites, mini lava cakes and more. I love it when a kitchen accessory can be used for multiple recipes!
Kids Love it:
I mix in some frozen corn, frozen peas, chopped carrots, and chopped cashews into the idli mix, to give the idlis a bite and bump up their nutritional content. This combination and small size of each idli makes it a great snack or school lunch option for kids.
Serving suggestion for Rava Idli:
Serving suggestion for Rava Idli:Rava Idli can be enjoyed for breakfast, brunch or snack. In my house, we each have a different 'favorite' condiment to enjoy it with. We have it with ginger chutney, coconut chutney, cilantro-mint chutney, and ketchup... yes, ketchup:-)
How to put together this easy Rava Idli Recipe
 Mix idli ingredients, keep aside for 15 mins |
 Turn on SAUTE and add water |
 Grease idli mold |
 Prepare tempering |
 Turn off heat |
 Add to idli batter |
 Mix well |
 Add ENO fruit salt and mix gently |
 Place tray on trivet and lower in pot |
 Stack the second tray on top, steam for 12 mins |
 Cool for 2-3 mins |
 Enjoy Rava Idli with your favorite chutney! |
Poha: Another Indian Breakfast Recipe
Another easy Indian breakfast recipe with my kids is "poha". Poha, which is made with flattened dry rice and is popular in many places in North India. Check out my vegetarian instant pot poha recipe, in which I substituted flattened rice (poha) with Quinoa. Quinoa adds protein and fiber to this already nutritious dish, and is gluten-free.
Instant Pot Quinoa Poha Recipe
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📖 Recipe
Rava Idli Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
Idli mix (Mix the following ingredients and keep aside for 15 mins)
- 1 cup Rava (Sooji / Semolina)
- ¼ cup plain yogurt
- 1 cup water
- ¾-1 teaspoon salt adjust to taste- I add ¾
You can customize the following ingredients to your liking
- 2 tablespoons chopped cashews or peanuts
- 2 tablespoons frozen corn
- 2 tablespoons frozen peas
- 2 tablespoons chopped carrots chop them about the size of peas
- 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
- ½ teaspoon finely grated ginger OR, ½ teaspoon dry ginger powder
- 1 teaspoon lime juice
To be added just before cooking
- ¾ teaspoon Eno Fruit Salt
Tempering
- 1 teaspoon ghee or oil
- ½ teaspoon Mustard Seeds
- 1 teaspoon Urad Dal Split Black Lentils
- 4-5 curry leaves chopped
- 1 green chili finely chopped (optional)
Instructions
- Prep: In a large bowl, add all ingredients listed under 'Idli Mix', and mix well. Keep aside for 15 minutes while you prep the instant pot and molds. Add 2 cups of water in the inner pot and turn on SAUTE (high), so that the water comes up to a boil. Grease the silicone molds or Idli steamer lightly, using PAM cooking spray or ghee. Keep aside.
- Prepare tempering: Heat a fry-pan on medium-high heat. Add all ingredients listed under 'Tempering'. Wait for the mustard seeds to pop, and urad dal to turn golden in color. Remove from heat and mix in the idli batter.
- Cook idli: Add Eno fruit salt in the batter and mix it in gently. Don't over-mix the batter. Fill up the silicone molds about ¾th of the way. Place the silicone tray on a trivet and lower it in the instant pot. At this point the water will be boiling, so be careful while doing that. Carefully stack the second mold on top of the first one, placing it such that the cavities DON'T overlap. If using Idli stand, fill up the idli molds ¾ of the way and follow the same process. Close the lid. Set vent at VENTING position. Press STEAM for 12 minutes. The Instant Pot doesn't count down the timer in STEAM mode, so set an external timer (oven, microwave, siri, alexa).
- Idli is done: When the timer is done, let the pin drop before opening the lid, takes about 30 seconds or so. Carefully open lid and remove the silicone molds or idli stand. Let the idlis cool for 2-3 minutes before popping them out of the mold. If using the silicone molds, they slip right out when you invert the mold and push gently. Serve idli warm, with your favorite side of chutney. We love ours with homemade cilantro-mint chutney and ginger chutney.
Notes
- Eno Fruit Salt: If you cannot find this in-store or online, substitute it with ½ teaspoon baking soda + ½ teaspoon citric acid.
- Rava: Look for coarse rava (suji) for best results. If you like to save time, buy roasted rava.
- Yogurt: Use regular plain yogurt for this recipe. 2% or full-fat, both work great. I don't recommend using Greek yogurt in this recipe.
- Make it nut-free: Skip the cashews to make this recipe 100% nut-free.
Jo says
Could you elaborate on the consistency of the idli batter ? I followed the instructions for the measurements for the semolina, yogurt and water, but my batter looked rather soupy and thin ! Also, my idlis came out less spongy, and the tops looked as if they had been splashed with water (a little wet). I did not have ENO so I followed your advice of baking soda+citric acid.
Aneesha says
Hi Jo, did you let the batter rest as per the instructions? When you mix it initially it appears soupy, but the semolina soaks the water as it sits. That's probably what caused the dense texture. Hope they turn out perfect next time!
Savitri says
I made this today with a few modifications:
Vegan coconut yogurt instead of plain yogurt, coconut oil instead of ghee, I replaced the corn with 1 extra tablespoon of green peas and the pepper I used was a poblano chili.
Everything else according to recipe.
Served with birambi chutney.
And it worked out very well!
Very delicious😍😋😍👍😋!
I bought 2 silicon idli baking molds from Amazon (https://www.amazon.nl/gp/product/B081YRP461 this one fits exactly in the IP60 DUO . I first bought others in the same green color as yours, but they were really small, there was more than 1 inch of space between the IP inner pot and the baking molds, so I found this one bigger and it fits exactly like it was for the IP60 made!) especially for this recipe, but I could only make 10 idlis with the quantities of this recipe instead of 14.
Maybe the contents of my idli baking molds are a bit bigger than your green idli baking molds (by my baking molds there goes 78 grams of water in 1 idli mold)?
Thank you Aneesha!
Greetings from us 👩👧👧 from The Netherlands 😘
Aneesha says
Hi Savitri, glad you enjoyed these idlis, they're a go-to in my home. And the difference in number could have been due to the size difference.
Poo says
Idlis came out perfect! Thank you for the recipe.
aneeshasg says
Hi Pooja, that's awesome! I'm glad you enjoyed this recipe. Thanks for sharing! If you haven't already, could you please rate this recipe by clicking on the stars. Thanks much!
Chitown_girl says
Do you dry roast the semolina flour?
aneeshasg says
Editing my reply, my apologies. I misunderstood and thought the question was for sooji sheera. For this recipe, I don't dry roast the sooji.
aneeshasg says
I updated my reply.
Rekha says
It came out really bad.. uncooked in center and most of them just crumpled when we popped out and transferred it to plate, followed the recipe pin to pin and used the same silicon mold...
aneeshasg says
Hi Rekha, I am sorry to hear that. I have made this recipe many times, using the same time and so have many readers. Given that this is a commonly used time for making idlis, I'm wondering if your instant pot sealed correctly and came to full pressure. Please check your sealing ring. I'll make this recipe once again sometime next week to see if I can think of something that went wrong with yours.