I used to be terrified of the idea of fermenting foods. It seemed like a process that had to be done in a lab. But people around the world have been fermenting foods for millennia–perhaps even farther back than written language. So if their relatively primitive dwellings were sufficient, I’m sure even our most humble of home kitchens is perfectly suited for this.

Fermentation transforms foods that are tough on the body’s digestive system, like lentils, legumes and grains, into gut-friendly ingredients. The diverse microflora in fermented foods digest these foods into nutrients that our bodies can absorb more readily. The benefits don’t end there. The process of fermentation has several other side effects that support our overall immune system.

This post outlines the simple process of making traditional, baker’s yeast-free fermented idli batter. Idli is an old-world Indian, steam-cooked bread that has endless modern-day possibilities. All you need to make this batter are four ingredients (including water), a largish bowl, a blender and a warm place for the batter to ferment. Oh. And a plate or lid to cover the bowl during fermentation.

Once you master fermenting idli batter, feel free to check out other types of traditional, baker’s yeast-free fermented batter (like handvo) in later posts. They each have endless possibilities. 🙂

Let’s begin!

Urad gota, which are whole urad (matpe) lentils without the black skin, and long grain rice (brown or white) are the first 2 key ingredients for this recipe.

Note: Split urad can be substituted for urad gota, if needed. Whole quinoa or buckwheat groats can be substituted for the long grain rice.

Combine the urad and rice in a large bowl.

Rinse the mixture thoroughly, fill the bowl with water and stir. 

Note: Use about 3x the amount of water as your rice/urad mixture for the soaking step. 

Let the mixture soak for 6-8 hours. I typically do this step first thing in the morning or at night. 

Note: It’s tempting to try and bypass this step or accelerate it by soaking the ingredients in very hot water for a 1 to 2 hours. But doing so increases the fermentation time dramatically. In my experience, an 8 hour fermentation increases to about 24 hours. 

Remove 2 cups of water and discard the rest. Rinse and strain the mixture and add the flattened rice (thick or thin–either type of poha works in this recipe). 

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Stir in the 2 cups of water collected from the earlier step (substitute fresh water, if you missed that step) and add the contents to a blender.

Note: The amount of water you actually need will vary on the soak time, the age of your ingredients, etc. I usually end up using somewhere between 2 and 3 cups of water.

Blend until the mixture has a cake-batter consistency with a coarse/gritty texture.

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Note: In the Vitamix, the blending step takes about 10 seconds. Any more than that and you’ll have an undesirably fine texture. 

Transfer the contents to your large bowl and cover with a plate or lid to ferment. 

Note: If after blending you notice that more water is needed to achieve a cake-batter consistency (the picture to the right above is a good example of batter that could use some more water), stir it into the mixture with a spatula (as shown below). Doing so in the blender may cause your ingredients to achieve more a more ‘fine’ texture than is desirable.

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Since it’s cold and dry in Wisconsin this time of year, I do this step in the Instant Pot in the ‘Yogurt’ setting with the timer set for 8 hours.

If your batter takes more than 6-8 hours to ferment, stir it periodically to make sure it is aerating a bit.

Once fermented, your batter will have risen and will have a more pungent aroma. The color of the fermented mixture will be the same as the original batter.

At this point, you can package up the batter (filling your container only 2/3 of the way) and store it in the refrigerator for 3-4 weeks or the freezer for much longer. 

Add salt to taste before using it to make idli, or herbed sourdough waffles, herbed cheesy bites, tortilla espanola, etc.

This batter is so incredibly versatile, it’s indispensable in my kitchen. I’ll share more recipe ideas for this batter in future posts 🙂

Updated on 12/3/18 with additional recipe notes. Number of servings has been updated on 2/24/19 to reflect average values across the various ingredient options that can be used to create this batter.