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Breakfast – the most important meal of the day is also my favourite part of day. I fancy good breakfasts and I guess if my day has started off early I don’t mind slaving over dishing out a good hearty breakfast. South Indian breakfasts always score above the rest in my house, but then they are also tedious to make from scratch. Long hours of soaking, grinding, fermenting, frying/steaming are part of almost every kind of breakfast item that gets devoured in minutes. So yes, sometimes it is pretty discouraging to even dive into this process.
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During such times the rava dumplings come to my rescue. Ready made rice rava (not wheat rava/sooji) is available in most stores and you can make these dumplings in a jiffy. Trust me, this is one of the easiest and healthiest breakfasts I can think of. Steamed foods are any day better than their fried/deep fried counterparts and this mildly sweet & savoury version goes well with a savoury accompaniments like chutneys or sambhar but also with honey or ghee & sugar (a combo that is pretty famous in Mangalore).
The best part about these dumplings are that they can be refrigerated for a couple of days and just steamed once again before serving – this instantly freshens and softens them up making them look & taste brand new! So yes, you can make a batch and serve them for a couple of days if you are lazy like me 🙂 But don’t be too lazy and microwave them as they will harden and you will ruin the texture (hard to swallow types)
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Rava Mutli
Prep time: 10 mins | Steaming time: 15-18 mins | Yield: 12-14 lime sized mutli
Ingredients:
- 1 cup fine rice rava (cream of rice)
- 1/2 cup grated coconut
- 2-1/8 cups water (or a little over 2 cups)
- 1 tbsp sugar (adjust to taste)
- 1-1/2 level tsp salt (adjust to taste)
Method:
1. Prepare the steamer: place sufficient water in a idli/dhokla steamer and bring the water to a boil. Keep it ready
2. In a heavy based (or non stick) saucepan bring 2-1/4 cups of water to a boil. Add the salt & sugar to taste, stir to mix and then gently add the rice rava and stir the mixture continuously with a long ladle (or wooden spoon *see notes) to avoid lumps from forming. Reduce the heat to a medium. Add in the grated coconut and continue to mix well.
3. The mixture will appear to be too smooth and paste like but don’t worry, it will thicken as the rava & coconut cook and also after steaming. When the mixture begins to leave the sides of the pan, remove it from the heat and transfer onto a plate. Allow to cool for half a minute.
4. Dabbing your fingers in a bowl of water at room temperature quickly pinch out lime sized portions of the rava coconut mixture and roll them into balls. With your thumb, form an impression in the centre of each dumpling making it look like a dimple.
4. Line a steel plate (that fits comfortably inside the idli steamer) with muslin cloth and place the dumplings on it. Cover them with a portion of the cloth and place the plate inside the steamer. Cover & steam for 15-18 mins. To check doneness, poke a knife through a dumpling, if it comes out clean (or with crumbs) it is done. If it is sticky and paste like, continue to steam for another 5-6 mins.
5. When done, remove carefully so that the steam within the idli steamer doesn’t make the dumplings soggy. Serve hot with chutney, sambhar, ghee & sugar or honey.Notes:
Use a long-ish spoon to stir the mixture as the heat from the steam may burn your hands. Wooden spoons are best as a steel one will get heated up quickly.
2. In a heavy based (or non stick) saucepan bring 2-1/4 cups of water to a boil. Add the salt & sugar to taste, stir to mix and then gently add the rice rava and stir the mixture continuously with a long ladle (or wooden spoon *see notes) to avoid lumps from forming. Reduce the heat to a medium. Add in the grated coconut and continue to mix well.
3. The mixture will appear to be too smooth and paste like but don’t worry, it will thicken as the rava & coconut cook and also after steaming. When the mixture begins to leave the sides of the pan, remove it from the heat and transfer onto a plate. Allow to cool for half a minute.
4. Dabbing your fingers in a bowl of water at room temperature quickly pinch out lime sized portions of the rava coconut mixture and roll them into balls. With your thumb, form an impression in the centre of each dumpling making it look like a dimple.
4. Line a steel plate (that fits comfortably inside the idli steamer) with muslin cloth and place the dumplings on it. Cover them with a portion of the cloth and place the plate inside the steamer. Cover & steam for 15-18 mins. To check doneness, poke a knife through a dumpling, if it comes out clean (or with crumbs) it is done. If it is sticky and paste like, continue to steam for another 5-6 mins.
5. When done, remove carefully so that the steam within the idli steamer doesn’t make the dumplings soggy. Serve hot with chutney, sambhar, ghee & sugar or honey.Notes:
Use a long-ish spoon to stir the mixture as the heat from the steam may burn your hands. Wooden spoons are best as a steel one will get heated up quickly.
Love the mutlis!. I dont know how long it has been since I had or made Mutlis. Your clicks are very tempting & will try mutlis soon.
Yumm another version of making mutlin.
This will taste great with a dip in Nutella.
Beautiful. I have asked my mother to make it. I am almost drooling over it.
what an inviting platter 🙂 makes me hungry
New one..nice and tempting …lovely pics
Dear Shireen, thanks for the recipe… made them .. turned out yumm…. Just right for breakfast. Was wondering if there is a way of doing mutlis with sooji rava????
Thanks so much for your compliments!
Shallet: You could try it with sooji rava too 🙂
Hi Shireen – what is rice rava? Is it the same as rice powder?
@ JBD: Rice rava is broken rice. Semolina is broken wheat. Rice powder is very fine and is also called as rice flour. Ask the grocery store for idli rava and in the ingredients if you see 'rice' written then you know you've found the right thing!
Tried this recipe and the mutlis turned out really good. The steps were also very easy to follow so no chance of making any mistakes. . Thanks for sharing Shireen.
Hi,
Would like to ask if idli rava and rice rava are same?
Hi Neeta,
Yes, they are the same 🙂
Hi
I want to make mutli to have with chicken gravy for dinner. So still we have add the coconut? I think there’s no need to add sugar
Hi Gracy,
This recipe is for breakfast and hence the sugar. However if you want to make these mutlis then you can skip the sugar.
You can follow another recipe to make the mutli for chicken curry. Here is the recipe
https://www.ruchikrandhap.com/sunday-special-kube-mutli-cockles-in/