Chana Dal Idli Recipe (2024)

Dec 6, 2016 Modified: Dec 9, 2022 by Rekha Kakkar This post may contain affiliate links ·

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Chana dal idli is another variation of South Indian Breakfast Idli. Chana dal idli, as the name suggests is made with chana dal and rice in the almost similar way as rice idli is made, and it tastes so good on its own. I usually serve chana dal Idli with plain sambhar and gunpowder or coconut chutney for the breakfast. For evening South Indian style tiffin, I prefer to serve it as mini idli with an easy tempering along with filter coffee or a cup of masala tea.

If you follow me on Instagram you already know my love of Idli. How I love to experiment and try different types of traditional Idli recipes. But traditional is not only I restrict myself to, as I like to take a slightly different path sometimes and try variations. ( 5 Types of Idli Recipes )

This chana dal idli and another one a multigrain idli ( I will post soon) are slight variations from traditional idli recipes like Ragi Idli or Rice Idli.

Why Chana dal Idli? The idea of making chana dal idli started with my attempt to eat food that has a low GI. Although this idli recipe can not exactly be described as low GI, it still contains rice, but chana dal is lower in GI value than urad dal, so it's animprovement. Youknow, my attempt is always to make food as much as healthy as possible without compromising taste, So, till I come up more ideas to make idlihealthier or lower in GI value, I will stick to this recipe of making chana dal idli.

Although this is not exactly a chai nashta recipe per say but I still consider it one because South Indian tiffin is a similar concept to North Indian chai nashta, so this goes under South Indian Chai Nashta :). That reminds me Are you following my Chai Nashta series from My Breakfast Table yet?

If you are idli lover like me you may like to trySoft Rice Idli with tips for making soft rice idli and Coconut chutney that is served with it.Ragi IdliorFried Idli and Podi Idli, Kanchipuram Idliare another variations of Idli recipes. If you like to know about different varieties of Idlis and history about origin of idli, you may want to read this article on Idli Varieties and History of Origin of Idli

Other MTCChaiNashta Series Recipes

#MTCChaiNashta from My Breakfast Table
Indian Style Bread Omelette Sandwich
Healthy Methi and Ragi Pakoda
Special Paneer Pakoda
Misal Pav
Farra

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📖 Recipe

Chana Dal Idli Recipe | My Breakfast Table #MTCNashta

Chana dal idli recipe to make soft healthy idli.

4 from 2 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Breakfast, tiffin

Cuisine: indian cuisine

Keyword: chana dal, idli

Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes minutes

Soaking and Fermenting Time: 16 hours hours

Servings: 4

Calories: 236kcal

Ingredients

150 g Chana dal Bengal gram dal
100 g rice
2 green chilli
1 tablespoon grated ginger
2 Dried Red chilli
½ teaspoon turmeric powder
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
2 sprigs Curry leaves
Salt to taste
1 pinch baking soda big pinch

Instructions

Wash chana dal and soak it in water for 3-4 hours.
Similarly wash and soak rice in separate bowl for 3-4 hours.
Grind them after that and mix to form a smooth batter. Cover the bowl with a lid and keep it for fermenting for 7-8 hrs in summers plus 4 during winters.
Season it with salt, turmeric powder, green chilli and ginger paste. And add baking soda. Mix it nicely.
Grease the idli pan and with the help of ladle pour idli batter in idli pan, stack all the plates like this
Place it in a pressure cooker or idli cooker with little water take care that water should not touch idli pans plate otherwise idlies on lower plate may become soggy.
If you are using pressure cooker do not forget to remove the weight.
Steam them for 10-12minutes and allow to cool for 5 minutes before demolding and serve hot with Sambhar and coconut chutney or make mini fried idlies like I do with tempering.
For tempering heat up ghee and add curry patta, mustard seeds and red chilli when it starts to splutter take it off heat and pour this tempering over idlies and serve it.

Nutrition

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Reader Interactions

Comments

Leave me your feedback here please

Megha
February 28, 2017 at 7:43 pm
I am always looking for new breakfast ideas. I will try this one surely. Looks so yummy.
Reply
Dhara Shambh
April 03, 2017 at 9:31 pm
Can I use normal rice or should I use idli rice?
Reply
- Rekha Kakkar
  April 04, 2017 at 1:41 pm
  See Also
  42 DIY Beard Oil Recipes That Are Easy to Make * The Homesteading Hippy
  you can use regular rice as well.
  Reply
Shree
August 05, 2017 at 6:23 pm
Can you tell me how many cups of each?
Reply
Bhuvana
September 02, 2017 at 11:44 pm
Hi.. I tried this idli recipe. It tasted really good. Only problem was that the idli were a bit hard. What could be the reason?
Reply
SP
November 03, 2017 at 8:29 pm
Is there no oil or yogurt required in the batter?
Reply
Atul Srivastava
November 26, 2017 at 1:52 pm
I tried this recipe.
Idlis came out hard. Where did I went wrong in making them pluffy and soft.
Reply
- Rekha Kakkar
  November 26, 2017 at 4:32 pm
  I think fermentation. Was batter fermented well? If batter is well fermented Idli will be soft.
  Reply
- RR
  August 25, 2023 at 4:48 pm
  If u keep idly too long to steam it hardens. Check that as well
  Reply
Suresh
December 28, 2017 at 1:24 pm
Please update videos
Reply
Deepika Patel
June 01, 2018 at 7:10 pm
Can the idlis be made without fermentation?
Reply
- Rekha Kakkar
  June 03, 2018 at 8:21 am
  You can make without fermentation by adding fruit salt/eno
  Reply
Bhavika Bhanushali
June 14, 2018 at 4:01 pm

Can u tell me measurements in cups??
Reply
Carol
March 24, 2019 at 6:25 pm
How many idlis will the above batter yield?
Reply
Anitha sadanand
March 26, 2020 at 2:47 pm
As many have asked could you tell measurements in cup which is easier .
Reply
Raj
April 29, 2020 at 7:55 am

Even if fermented, the idlis are hard. One reason may be because both carb and protein are made into a smooth paste (the normal idli has rice as a coarse paste, or rice rawa, suspended in a smooth paste of urad dal). Another reason could be the proportion is 3 cups of Chana Dal to 2 cups of rice (the normal idli proportion is 2 cups carb to 1 cup protein).
Reply