Another successful experiment using lobia (chawalie/black eyed bean/ black eye pea/goat pea). Not using any baking soda or fruit salt.
You may have seen my previous post dahi lobia pakoda which was big hit in my family. I haven’t see chawali idli recipe (maybe there is). These Idlis came out spongy with lots of bubbles. They were moist. I served it with tomato rasam and chana urad dal chuteny. I have always used my simple spongy idli recipe but now I am going to experiment with different ingredients.
This recipe makes very soft and spongy idlis. It only needs 4 ingredients and few drops of oil. It can be serves as breakfast or as a main dish. It serves 3-4 people.
Please note that you can see printable version at the end. You need to use chrome browser to print or save the copy of the recipe.
Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:
2 cup rice
1 cup whole lobia (chawalie/chola)
1/4 cup urad dal
1 tsp fenugreek seeds
2 tbsp cup cooked rice
Salt to taste
Little oil
Procedure
1. Wash and soak rice in one pot and lobia, urad dal with fenugreek seeds in another pot for 4-5 hours.
2. Remove water from rice and beans/dal. In a blender, first grind soaked lobia and urad dal with little water to a smooth paste and remove in a big container. Then grind soaked rice with 2 tbsp cooked rice and some water. Add this mixture with urad dal paste in the container. Also add enough salt to this mixture. This batter should not be too runny or it won’t ferment properly. Mix (whisk) everything using clean hand for almost 10 minutes (1st picture below). Leave this container in a warm place until batter is fermented and double in size. Mine took around 18 hours as I live in Canada. It can be faster in warm places.
3. When ready, heat a big pot (steamer) which can fit idli stand. Add 2 glass of water and bring it to boil. Grease idli mold with little oil. Do not stir the batter at all . We have already salted the batter so no need to mix. You want to keep that foam as it is. Just take a little batter from the top with a spoon and fill each mold.
4. Put the idli stand in the steamer and steam it for at least 15 minutes. You can also use pressure cooker if it fits idli stand. Just remove the whistle and let idli steam for 15 minute.
5. After 15 minutes, turn off the heat. Let steamer cool down a bit. Then carefully remove idli stand and keep on side for sometime until you can handle. Unmold each idli using spoon (yes that is the easiest way to remove idli from the mold).
6. Idli taste the best when they are hot. These are healthy as very little oil is used. Beans add the protein. You can eat these with sambhar or toor daal rasam or tomato rasam and with chana-urad dal chutney, tomato chutney and coconut chutney,. If there are left over idlies, you can make fried idli, chili idli, etc. Or just steam it for 4-5 minutes and it will taste as fresh.
I would love to know if you tried making this dish at home and do share your experience with me 🙂
Please leave a comment or let me know if you have any questions.
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Lobia (Black Eyed Bean) Idli
Ingredients:
2 cup rice
1 cup whole lobia (chawalie/chola)
1/4 cup urad dal
1 tsp fenugreek seeds
2 tbsp cup cooked rice
Salt to taste
Little oil
Procedure
1. Wash and soak rice in one pot and lobia, urad dal with fenugreek seeds in another pot for 4-5 hours.
2. Remove water from rice and beans/dal. In a blender, first grind soaked lobia and urad dal with little water to a smooth paste and remove in a big container. Then grind soaked rice with 2 tbsp cooked rice and some water. Add this mixture with urad dal paste in the container. Also add enough salt to this mixture. This batter should not be too runny or it won’t ferment properly. Mix (whisk) everything using clean hand for almost 10 minutes (1st picture below). Leave this container in a warm place until batter is fermented and double in size. Mine took around 18 hours as I live in Canada. It can be faster in warm places.
3. When ready, heat a big pot (steamer) which can fit idli stand. Add 2 glass of water and bring it to boil. Grease idli mold with little oil. Do not stir the batter at all . We have already salted the batter so no need to mix. You want to keep that foam as it is. Just take a little batter from the top with a spoon and fill each mold
4. Put the idli stand in the steamer and steam it for at least 15 minutes. You can also use pressure cooker if it fits idli stand. Just remove the whistle and let idli steam for 15 minute.
5. After 15 minutes, turn off the heat. Let steamer cool down a bit. Then carefully remove idli stand and keep on side for sometime until you can handle. Unmold each idli using spoon (yes that is the easiest way to remove idli from the mold).
6. Idli taste the best when they are hot. These are healthy as very little oil is used. Beans add the protein. You can eat these with sambhar or toor daal rasam or tomato rasam and with chana-urad dal chutney, tomato chutney and coconut chutney,. If there are left over idlies, you can make fried idli, chili idli, etc. Or just steam it for 4-5 minutes and it will taste as fresh.
Enjoy!
Bhavna's Food Journey 
Hi Bhavana, I have used lobia in making the south Indian Adai dosa along with various other beans like rajma, brown chickpeas, whole greengram, rice and urad dal. The lobia in idli is something new. Must give it a go. Thanks for posting the recipe. You are an innovative chef!
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Wonderful idea of making adai using lobia. I recently started using lobia and became a big fan. You can check out my dahi pakoda recipe using lobia.
Appreciate your feed back!!
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Hi Bhavana, I tried this recipe. It came out so nice. Instead of idli I made dosa as kids wanted it. Thanks for the recipe.
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Hi Rashmi, glad to hear that. I haven’t tried dosa using this recipe yet. Did it come out crispy?
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Hi Rashmi, one of my follower tried making dosa using this batter and she said they really liked it.
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