Cracked Wheat And Spinach Idli

          I was telling my daughter the other day, that when I was in school, most of the days my breakfast used to be idlis and some days I had taken that for lunch too, and how I used to be bored with them. My daughter replied, saying that I was very lucky, that I had idlis every day, she's one big idli fan, she even went one step further, saying that she would go on an idli marathon for a week. This being the case, I make idlis very often, but try to make some variation in them, one such is this cracked wheat idli. I added some spinach and chana dal to make it more interesting and more nutritious..

Need To Have

• Cracked Wheat - 1 + 1/2 cups
• Curd - 1 + 1/2 cups
• Water - 1/2 cup
• Spinach - 1 + 1/2 cups, packed
• Ginger - 1 tablespoon, grated 
• Chana Dal - 3 tablespoons
• Mustard Seed - 1/2 teaspoon
• Cumin Seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
• Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
• Curry Leaves - 1 sprig

Method

          Soak the chana dal in water for an hour. Roast the cracked wheat in a little oil and soak it in the curd and a cup of water for 45 mins to an hour.

          Heat oil, add the mustard and the cumin seeds, once they stop sputtering, add the asafoetida and the curry leaves. Now add the drained chana dal, stir for a minute or two and add the spinach, salt and grated ginger, mix well for a couple of mins.

          Remove and add this to the soaked cracked wheat, mix everything well, the batter should be thick like rava idli batter. Pour this into idli moulds and steam them for 20 mins. Enjoy them warm with the chutney of your choice, we had ours with Peanut Mint Chutney.

Sending them off to Vardhini of Zesty Palette to take part in the New "U" event.

Also sending it to Krithi's Kitchen for the Wholesome Wholegrain Cooking event she is guest hosting for Sanjeeta.

Note
Use the very fine variety of cracked wheat to make these idlis.
Wait for a couple of mins before removing the cooked idlis from the idli mould.
I used frozen spinach, you can use fresh or for people in India you can try with other keerais too.