Chilli Idli makes an awesome lunch box recipe for kids. Chilli idli fry is an Indo Chinese style of cooking up the left over idlis if you have at home. Sometimes I make idlis fresh and make this for my kids lunch box. It’s a dry preparation and does not involve any deep frying, so it will not become greasy and mushy when you pack for the kids. The idlis will hold their shape very well despite cooking in the sauces. You can also have this for your Breakfast or Dinner as it will not be very heavy on your stomach or prepare this for the evening tiffin.
My kids do not prefer eating idlis as it is when I pack them with a chutney. So apart from making Idli Upma, I make this for them. I do recommend that you check out the idli upma recipe as well as it also stays soft and fluffy till lunch time when packed in the box.
Chilli Idli Recipe
Prep time: 10 mins | Cook time: 15 mins | Serves: 2
Recipe Cuisine: Indo Chinese | Recipe Category: Breakfast
Recipe Cuisine: Indo Chinese | Recipe Category: Breakfast
Ingredients:
- Idlis – 15
- Onion – 1
- Capsicum (Bell Pepper) – 1
- Turmeric powder – 1/2 tsp
- Tomato sauce – 2 tbsp
- Red chili powder – 1 tsp
- Green chili sauce – 2 tsp
- Soy sauce – 1 tsp
- Green chilies – 2
- Corn flour (Corn starch) – 2 tsp
- Curry leaves – 1 sprig
- Coriander leaves – 1 tbsp
- Salt – to taste
- Oil – 4 tbsp
Instructions:
- Chop the idlis into big chunks. Chop the onions and capsicum into big chunks and keep it ready.
- Place a griddle/tawa and keep the fire on medium. Arrange the idli chunks only till the griddle holds leaving space between each piece. Drizzle oil around the idli pieces and let it cook till it changes color to a light brown.
- Finish with all the idli pieces and transfer to a plate. Heat a pan with 2 tbsp oil. Add onions, sliced green chilies, curry leaves and sauté till the onions turn translucent. Add chopped capsicum and cook for another 2 mins till it wilts.
- Add soy sauce, Green chili sauce, turmeric powder, red chili powder, tomato sauce, salt and mix well. Add 2 tbsp water and let it cook for 2-3 mins till the oil starts to leave the sides. Add the shallow fried idli pieces and mix well.
- In a small bowl, mix together corn flour and 4 tbsp water till there are no lumps. Pour it over the idli mixture in a sprinkling way. Increase the flame to full and let the mixture cook for 3-4 minutes. Keep mixing well so that the corn flour mixture coats all the pieces well and also get cooked at the same time.
- Finally sprinkle the coriander leaves. Give it a final mix and take off stove. Chili idli is ready to be served or packed off in a lunch box.
Notes:
- Use salt wisely. Both the idlis and the sauces already have salt in them.
- Adjust the spice level according to your taste buds. We use green chilies, green chili sauce and red chili powder here. So omit anything if you do not want the dish to be very hot.
- Instead of shallow frying the idli pieces on a tawa, you can also grill them in an over. But you have to keep turning them every 1 or 2 minute for all the sides to get grilled uniformly.
- You can either make idlis fresh or use the left overs from the day before.
- I find that the left over idlis that were kept in the fridge gets shallow fried or grilled easily as its able to hold its shape well.
