Healthy Idly podi

An alternative to the regular idly podi / chutney podi.

Idly - Indian breakfast made of rice. Idly podi - a powdery side dish for idly and dosai.

Ingredients:

Bengal gram - 1/2 cup
(channa dal / kadalai paruppu)
Horse gram (kollu) - 1/4 cup
flax seed - 2 tbsp
Dry red chilly - approximately 15 numbers
(Reduce chillies if you need a lesser spicy version)
Curry leaf - 2 sprig
Tamarind - 2 inch (optional)
salt - to taste (untreated sea salt is best here)
Asafoetida (hing / Perunkaayam) - 1/4 tsp

Method:

Heat a wok and dry roast the curry leaves till they turn crispy. Keep aside.

Again heat the wok. Dry roast the channa dhal till it turns mild red. Take it out immediately.
Roast the horsegram till it smells nice. Keep aside.
Roast the flax seeds for few seconds and wait till it pops. Take it out.

Now put the salt, red chillies. Dry roast till the chillies loose all the moisture and becomes crispy. Add the hing and switch off immediately.
(Adding the salt with red chillies reduces the hot flavors. Otherwise we may start sneezing:) So roast the chillies at the end along with salt).

Put the roasted chillies along with the others above and let them cool completely.

After they get cooled, grind them to a medium fine powder using a coffee grinder / mixer. Store in air tight container (even at room temperature). Holds good for more than a month or two.

Idly podi is ready!

Serving suggestions / tips:

Take a tbsp of podi, mix well with enough sesame oil / ghee and serve as side dish with Idly or dosai.
The fresh podi tastes more always. So prepare them in small batches according to need.
Idly coated with this 'podi-ennai' (podi+oil) tastes great and makes a good packed lunch. It won't get spoiled for a day.
The podi can also be mixed with cooked rice and a drop of ghee as main course meal.
We can use this podi in making side dishes like poriyal also.