Steamed Food Recipes for South Indian Breakfast

Steamed food is a valid choice for everyone as it is nutrient-dense and does not require deep-frying and therefore no oil. Steaming foods will help in retaining the nutrients in the food, has zero fat and is immensely healthy. Health conscious generation is now moving forward with steamed food.

In this blog, you can find recipes for steamed foods that come from South Indian cuisine.

South Indian Steamed Breakfast Recipes

1. Idli

Idli can be considered as a staple South Indian nutritional breakfast. The serving can help an individual to lavishly stay full up until lunch time. You might require to purchase a specific utensil to make hot and steaming Idlis. Let’s take a look at the recipe:

Ingredients

1 cup of parboiled rice, either idli rice or short grain rice.
1 cup basmati rice or any other rice
½ cup whole urad dal
¼ cup flattened rice or poha
½ tablespoon of fenugreek seeds
Salt to taste
Oil, for greasing

Steps

Rinse urad dal and fenugreek in water two to three times.
Soak urad dal, poha, and fenugreek for at least four to five hours together in one cup of water.
Rinse both parboiled rice and basmati rice in water 3-4 times. Soak them together in 2 cups of water or 4-5 hours.
Drain the excess water from urad dal and save it for the grinding process in the next step.
Transfer urad dal and fenugreek seeds to a mix grinder or a wet grinder.
Add 1 ½ reserved water in the previous step to grind the urad dal and fenugreek. The water rightly depends on the amount of urad dal taken. It will be to pour water in frequent intervals while grinding urad dal.
Once grinded, transfer into a large bowl.
The next step is to grind the soaked basmati rice and parboiled rice after draining the excess water. Grind until coarse texture.
Transfer this mixture to the urad dal mixture.
Add salt and mix it well. Keep the mixture at room temperature to ferment and keep for at least 8-10 hours. If you are living in places with cold temperatures, then leave them in the oven overnight with the oven light on.
Size and volume of the batter increase as it ferments.
Once fermented, you can take the batter in a clean ladle and pour it into the idli-making utensil and put it down for steaming.
Make sure you grease the utensil with little oil so that once done, idli comes off easily.
Cook the batter in medium flame for around 10 minutes.
Transfer the cooked idlis to the plate and serve chutney or sambar alongside and relish your healthy breakfast.

2. Ela Ada

Ela Ada, is a traditional recipe from God’s own country. There are similar recipes of the same in different names in other South Indian states as well.

Ingredients

1 cup Rice flour
1 ½ cups Water
½ cup Fresh coconut , grated
¼ cup Jaggery
1 teaspoon Cardamom Powder
2 tablespoons Ghee
5 Banana leaf , Pieces

Steps:

Keep a pan of water on the stove and bring it to boil. Set aside.
Take the rice flour into a bowl and gradually add the hot water and mix it with a wooden spoon or any other utensil. Once the mixture comes together, leave it to cool.
Once cooled, knead the mixture into a small soft dough and keep aside.
The next step is to mix grated coconut, jaggery and cardamom with hands and keep aside.
Take a banana leaf piece and start patting out a lemon sized dough ball with your hands.
Once it is evenly flattened, place a little bit of the jaggery mixture on one side of the flattened dough and fold from the other side and press lightly.
Place the ada on a steam cooker or idli cooker and steam it at a high flame on the stove for 10 minutes.
Once warm, serve it under room temperature.

3. Puttu

Puttu and Kadala curry is a warm yet stupendous combination of lip-smacking breakfast. Puttu is one of the most popular breakfast dishes in Kerala. It can be easily cooked and has very limited ingredients.

Ingredients:

1 cup rice powder
¼ cup Coconut grated
Salt for taste
Water

Steps:

Take in the rice powder or puttu powder in one bowl and add salt to taste.
Mix them up.
Once it is evenly mixed, add water little by little to reach the desired consistency which should be watery and not dry as well.
The utensil required to make puttu is called puttu kudam. It comes with a cylindrical part and another small bowl where the water is kept to bring that steam to cook puttu.
Take some water in that bowl and place it on the stove.
Take the puttu kudam and drop little by little of the mixture and place it on the stove for around 5- 10 minute in high flame.
Push it out of the cylinder part and have it alongside potato curry, black chickpea curry or even with papad.

Read To Know : Must Try Puttu Varities in Kerala

4. Idiyappam

Idiyappam or string hoppers are one of the favourite breakfasts of malayalees. The consistency of the dough of idiyappam can make or break the entire dish.
Ingredients

2 cup rice flour / idiyappam flour
½ tsp salt
3 cup water (as required)
1 tsp oil

Steps:

In a large bowl, take two cups of roasted rice flour or idiyappam flour. Add ½ tsp of salt.
Get a saucepan with three cups of water and bring to a boil.
Add the water little by little to the rice flour and slowly add in the mixture to bring it together.
After it turns moist, slowly knead it into a dough.
The dough should be soft and non-sticky.
Grease the idiyappam mould with oil and add a small amount into the mould.
Squeeze the idiyappam into a spiral shape on a greased plate.
Place the same in a steam cooker and steam it for 7-10 minutes.
Enjoy the same with a vegetable or chicken stew.

5. Ammini Kozhukattai

Ammini kozhukattai is nothing but rice flour dumplings which are thrown later into a tempering to add that crunch. You can make it spicy or sweet as per your taste.

Ingredients

½ cup Rice flour
1 cup Water
Salt
2 tablespoons Oil

For Tempering

1 teaspoon Mustard seeds
1 teaspoon White Urad Dal (Split)
1 sprig Curry leaves
1 Dry Red Chilli , for garnish
1/4 teaspoon Asafoetida
2 teaspoon Fresh coconut , grated for garnish

Steps

Mix two teaspoons of rice flour into water and bring it to a rolling boil. Add ¼ tsp of salt and oil and let the rice flour boil until it thickens.
Add in the rest of the rice flour into it and wait for a minute or two. Now , insert a wooden ladle or spoon in the middle of the kadai and mix vigorously and make sure there are no lumps.
Cover and cook the same in low to medium flame for 3-4 minutes and mixing it up on an intermittent intervals. The dough should come into one big lump.
Switch off the flame and let the dough come back to normal room temperature.
Once it is at room temperature, slowly knead the dough and roll into small balls.
Steam these little dumplings 8-9 minutes until they are glossy.
In another pan, take some oil and add in every ingredient for tempering from mustard seeds to scraped coconut.
Mix them together with the rice balls and serve hot.

6. Kozhukattai

It is a very popular south indian dish and a healthy one. It is made from rice flour and with a mixture of Jaggery and coconut.

Ingredients:

Rice dough

1 ½ cups water
¼ teaspoon ghee or oil
¼ teaspoon salt or add as required
1 cup Rice Flour

The mix

1 ½ cups grated fresh coconut
1 cup jaggery or 150 grams
½ teaspoon cardamom powder
½ teaspoon ghee or oil

Steps:

Take a deep pan and place it on the stove in low flame. Add in the coconut and jaggery and mix them up.
Add a tsp of oil or ghee
Stir the mixture thoroughly and after sometime the jaggery starts to melt.
Now, add in the cardamom powder and mixture.
Cook until the moisture is removed from the jaggery. Switch off the flame. Stirring it further can cause the jaggery to harden.
Keep the filling aside to cool.
In another saucepan, bring the required water to a boil. Add in the salt and bring the water to a rolling boil.
Add in the rice flour in small quantities and start mixing it with water on a medium flame.
Once it forms a mixture, Switch off the flame.
Once the mixture comes back to room temperature, start kneading it into a dough.
After you get a soft dough, make equal balls out of it.
Take a ball and flatten them using your fingers and place the coconut jaggery mix in the centre and round it up.
Round it up into a ball and place them on the steam cooker.
Cook and steam for around 8-10 minutes.
Serve hot.