Vegetable Idli

As my daughter grows older, she gets picky about her food. She will be two years old next month, but we feel that the terrible twos have started a long back for us. She only wants to eat roti, paratha, thepla, dosa, pasta etc-no rice, no daal, no subzi (vegetables). She wants to eat her roti and paratha with ketchup. I have been trying hard to get her to eat something new, and I sure do try to "hide" vegetables in whatever food I make.
Today I made idly by adding chopped carrots and spinach in the batter. She didn't want to eat it at first, because she wanted a paratha, but I somehow managed to put one bite in her mouth:) while she was playing, and then she asked for more!!

Here is the recipe. Since I was trying this for the first time for her, I made batter for only 10-12 idlis.

Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Rice,
1/4 Cup Urad Daal,
1/8 Cup Semolina (Suji, Rava)
1 Teaspoon Methi (Fenugreek Seeds),
1/2 Teaspoon Chili-Ginger Paste
Salt to Taste,
1 Carrot, Chopped into Small Pieces,
6-7 Spinach Leaves, Washed and Finley Chopped

Tempering:
1 Tablespoon Oil,
1 Teaspoon Mustard Seeds
1 Teaspoon Cumin Seeds,
A Pinch Asafoetida,

Method:
Wash and soak rice and daal separately. Add fenugreek seeds to the daal. Soak rice and daal separately overnight or 6 hours minimum. The next morning drain the daal and rice and save the water. First, grind the daal with little water to a very smooth paste. Now add the rice and grind again. Add a little water at a time if needed. The resulting batter should be smooth and it should have the consistency of pancake batter. Now add the rava to the batter. Cover and set aside for 8-10 hours for fermentation.

After fermenting, add the chili ginger paste, salt, carrots and spinach to the batter. Mix and stir well. Heat a little oil in a pan for tempering. Once hot, add the mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds stop spluttering, add the cumin seeds and cook for 10-15 seconds. Add the asafoetida and switch off the stove. Add the tempering to the batter.

Heat water in an idli cooker. Grease the idli molds, and pour the batter in them. Cover and cook on high flame for 15-20 minutes, or until the center portion of the idly doesn't stick to a knife.

Switch off the stove. Take out the idli stand/molds and let them cool. Gently remove the idlis from the molds using a knife. Serve with your choice of chutney.

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