• About Me
  • Coaching
  • Work with me
  • In media

Saffron Trail

healthy vegetarian cooking

  • Home
  • Breakfast
  • Salads
  • Nutrition
  • Food & Travel
  • Home
  • Breakfast
  • Salads
  • Nutrition
  • Food & Travel
Breakfast, Diabetic friendly, easy, Glutenfree, Healthy, Millet Recipes, Vegan

Foxtail Millet Idlis / Thinai Idlis

July 15, 2013

37
Shares

Recipe for Thinai Idli – Foxtail Millet Idli

Idli and dosai are two dishes which can be easily experimented with, with a variety of whole grains. If you are a regular reader of my blog, then you’ll know that my whole-grain find of this year is Foxtail Millet- you’ll find a couple of recipes featuring them already. It’s thanks to our online grocery store that stocks a lot of these ancient grains and greens that you won’t find in supermarkets that they end up finding their way in many new dishes I experiment with. While I’ve been using the millet grain in salads, patties, upma etc, this time I bought the foxtail millet idli rava to try making idlis. It turned out reasonably soft, definitely denser than white rice idlis- but that’s the whole grain effect- the end products always turn out denser. The advantage of this being you can’t eat as many idlis as you can of the regular ones. Initially you could try substituting 50% of the rice / idli rava with this millet rava and then go to a 100%.

In India: Tinai, chamai, kavalai, kambankorai are some of the names for millet in Tamil. Nuvanam is millet flour. The gruel made from millet, the staple of Ancient Tamils, is called kali, moddak kali, kuul, and sangati. Korralu (Telugu), Navane (Kannada) [Source: Wikipedia]

An idli is a healthy dish as it is, being a combination of a rice and lentil (udad dal), makes a complete set of amino acids, resulting in a good quality protein. So you can alternate between regular idlis and those made using millets, to get more fiber and a variety of nutrients.

Foxtail Millet Idli

Makes roughly 32 or more idlis, depending on the size, you could use this batter over 3-4 days for a variety of dishes such as dosai, uthapam, kuzhi paniyaram etc.

Foxtail Millet Idli - Thinai Idli

Foxtail Millet Idlis are made using the rava of foxtail millet. A delicious whole grain idli with a lot of nutrition, perfect for a filling healthy breal
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 8 hours hrs
Cook Time 20 minutes mins
Total Time 16 hours hrs 20 minutes mins
Servings: 32 piece
Course: Breakfast
Cuisine: south indian
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 1 cup dal whole or split udad (without skin)
  • 1 tsp fenugreek seeds (optional)
  • 2 cups millet rava foxtail (or use 1 cup and 1 cup rice)
  • 2 tsps salt
  • veggies finely chopped to add to idlis
  • 1/2 tsp ginger mustard seeds chana dal chillies Grated , , , red tempered in oil to add to batter before steaming

Method
 

To prepare Foxtail Millet Idli Batter
  1. Soak the urad dal + fenugreek seeds in plenty of water.
  2. In another bowl, soak the rava in water that covers it completely. After 3 hours, drain water from urad dal and grind to a fine paste in the mixer or wet grinder. Remove in a big bowl.
  3. Squeeze all the water from the foxtail millet rava and grind this to a fine paste too.
  4. Add to the udad dal paste and mix well, adding salt. Add upto 1/2 cup water if batter is very thick.
  5. Place in a large container with a fitting lid. This will expand to nearly double volume over 8-10 hours, so keep accordingly in a sizable container.
  6. Once fermented, you can either use this immediately to make idlis / dosa or place in refrigerator immediately and use when required (within next 3-4days).
To prepare Foxtail Millet / Thinai Idlis
  1. Remove the required quantity of batter in a bowl.
  2. To make idlis, lightly grease the idli moulds with oil, pour batter into each mould (not more than half capacity), top with any chopped veggies if required, close the pressure cooker lid but remove the weight so that it acts as a steamer and doesn't pressure cook.
  3. If you have a special idli maker, then use that. Keep the flame on high and then reduce to medium once the steam is in full flow. Steam for around 12 minutes on medium flame. Open the cooker after 10 minutes or so, removing the idli stand. Sprinkle some cold water on top of each mould and with a sharp edged steel spatula or a knife, unmould each idli cleanly.
  4. Serve with any chutney or your choice, or molagapodi or ketchup for the kids.
breakfast healthy millets
by Nandita Iyer 
Leave a Comment

About Nandita Iyer

View all posts by Nandita Iyer

Related Posts

  • Foxtail Millet Salad – An old grain in a new avatar
  • Recipe for Awadhi Arbi Ka Korma
  • savoury wafflesSavoury Waffles with Cheese and Potatoes
  • Easy recipe for a homemade granola
previous post: Easy recipe for a simple, all-purpose chocolate cake
next post: {Coming up} A new series on Kitchen Gardening

Leave Your Comments Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating





Click for details

Buy my books

Amazon Storefront

Subscribe to my newsletter

Subscribe to My Channel

Archives

Categories

Featured Recipes

  • Salad Recipes
  • Tamil Vegetarian Recipes
  • Summer Recipes
  • Millet Recipes
  • Airfryer Recipes
  • Eggless Baking Recipes
  • Vegetable Recipes
  • Kerala Recipes

AS FEATURED IN

Copyright © 2025 · Saffron Trail by Nandita Iyer · Privacy & Disclosure Policy · Hosted & Managed by Host My Blog

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.OKPrivacy Policy