Its very difficult to make children eat vegetables especially when the vegetables are beetroot or spinach.My daughter eats normal when at home & the food is freshly cooked & warm. But she usually brings back her lunch box without finishing her lunch.
She spends most of the time from morning 8 to 5 in the evening at school Because of this I am always worried about her nutrition. In an attempt to make sure that however little she eats & whatever she eats it should be full of nutritious elements I came up with this idea.
Idli being one of the healthiest food (I read somewhere that eating idli in the morning keeps one energized through out the day) & my daughter's favourite too I tried to make idli more attractive & nutritious at the same time. The results were very good. Now Its one of my favourite party appetizer too. It looks so attractive that I am sure it will disappear in no time.
I am sure almost all Indian ladies know how to make idlis especially my south Indian friends. So I will not go in the details of making the Idli. Use the normal idli batter, only make sure that you use little less water while grinding it.
For Idli batter:
2 cups rice
1 cup urad dal
handful poha, rice flakes
1 1/2 tsp salt
Soak Rice & dal separately for 3 hrs in warm water. Drain & grind separately. Make sure that the dal is ground to a smooth batter & rice should be a little grainy like semolina. Mix together both the batters. wash & grind poha & mix it to the batter. Leave the batter to ferment for 24 hrs in cold regions or for atleast 12 hrs in warm countries. Add salt & mix lightly.
How to proceed:
1 cup beetroot puree (from 1 beetroot)
1 cup spinach puree (1/2 bundle spinach)
for tempering:
2 onions finely chopped
few curry leaves
2 to 3 green chillies finely chopped
1 tsp mustard seeds
2 tsp oil
Puree the spinach & beetroot separately using very little water.
Divide the idli batter into 3 portions. To one portion add beetroot puree, spinach to another & leave the other white.
Make a tempering :
Heat oil & add mustard seeds, allow to crackle. Add curry leaves, green chilli & onions. Saute until the onions are lightly browned.
Add this tempering to all the three portions , add a little extra to the beetroot portion to remove the bland taste of beetroot. Pour the batters into greased moulds of individual idli plates & steam in an Idli cooker for 8 min (for mini idlis) or 10 min for medium sized idlis. Serve hot with coconut chutney.
