Instant Oats Idli Recipe with Rava, Step by Step

Easy oats idli recipe with rava, yogurt, eno salt, and spices. This instant Indian breakfast recipe, much like the popular rava idli recipe, is fast gaining popularity as we try to use oats more in our daily diets. Learn how to make rava oats idli at home - they come out super spongy and delicious.

Indian breakfast recipes with oats (Quaker oats in particular) have been gaining a lot of popularity over the last couple of years. I have been constantly getting requests to post ideas but honestly, I hadn't gotten into the bandwagon during its early days. Until, I tried making this oats idli. Then I just turned around and kicked myself for not trying to do this earlier. Oats is a healthy gluten-free cereal that used to be associated with a gloopy porridge until a few years ago (in my mind anyway). Then it started seeing its way into baked goods like cookies and breads, and now, very aptly into Indian food recipes.

We love rava idli and I make two versions of them very regularly - rava idli with eno and an instant rava idli version without eno. Both turn out really good (I prefer the eno version though) and is always a quick dinner option when I am feeling too tired after a long day at work. With a good bowl of sambar or a tomato chutney, rava idlis are quite a treat.

But these oats idlis are something else. It uses roasted and powdered oats along with rava (semolina) and the other usual suspects of rava idli and boy, do they play well together! I made them for breakfast on a Sunday morning and really wished I'd made a larger batch.

I played around a bit with the proportions (I made 4 batches in total) and finally figured out what worked best for me. Accompanied by spicy green coconut chutney, radish sambar, and cardamom tea, this was quite a meal to start the day.

More breakfast recipes you may enjoy:
Sago dosa recipe
Jowar dosa recipe
Idli with idli rava
Kanchipuram idli recipe
No-grind dosa batter recipe

INSTANT OATS IDLI RECIPE

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Makes 10 idlis

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup of uncooked oats
1/2 cup of rava or semolina
1 cup of thick, plain yogurt
1/2 cup of water (adjust as needed)
1 tsp of oil
1/4 tsp of black mustard seeds
1/2 tsp of chana dal
2 tbsp of fresh coriander leaves, chopped
3/4 tsp of plain eno salt (or baking soda)
2 tbsp of roasted cashew nuts (optional)
Salt to taste

INSTRUCTIONS:

Roast the oats in a dry skillet until the colour begins to change and the ends of the oat flakes begin to curl. Make sure not to burn them, do this on a low flame.

Cool and grind to a fine powder. Set aside.

Heat the oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds and chana dal. When the dal turns golden brown, add the rava and roast for 2-3 mins or until lightly browned.

Add the powdered oats, cashew nuts, some salt, and chopped coriander leaves to this. Mix well and turn off the heat.

Transfer this mixture to a bowl and cool. Then add the yogurt+water and mix wel. The batter should be fairly thick.

Now add the eno salt. You will see bubbles appearing on the batter. Immediately pour into greased idli moulds and steam for 10-12 minutes.

Don't let the batter sit for too long after adding eno. If you can't steam all in one go, add the eno salt just before steaming.

It's also a good idea to bring the water in the steamer to a boil in advance (maybe when you are setting the roasted mixture to cool before adding yogurt) so that you can immediately start steaming after the eno salt is added.

Serve oats idli warm with accompaniments and chutneys of choice. The idlis can be stored in the refrigerator for a day. Gently re-steam before steaming. I generally don't re-heat idlis in the microwave since they start to dry out if you do. However, if you plan to serve immediately after heating in the microwave, it should be fine.

For oats idli recipe in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, etc, please use the Google translate button in the sidebar.