Rainbow Rava Appe or Suji Appe a colorful & delicious South Indian breakfast recipe prepared with semolina, yogurt, vegetables, and spices.
What are Rainbow Rava Appe
Appe are savory semolina cakes which are golden brown and crisp on the outside, soft and fluffy on the inside. These ones are extra special with a colorful twist with the addition of beets, carrots, and spinach. When served with delicious chutneys, you just can’t have enough of these tasty treats. This Rainbow Rava Appe recipe is something you can whip up in no time for a jhatpat South-Indian breakfast. It’s made in a special pan called appe mould, which is easily available online or at your local Indian grocer.
Variations
Appe can be made in many different ways using various ingredients. This simple Rainbow Rava Appe recipe has rava (suji), yogurt, puréed vegetables, and a tempering of onion and spices. If you want to omit the puréed vegetables add more grated veggies like carrots, cabbage in the batter for a little crunch and texture.
Steaming the vegetables
I chose to lightly steam all the vegetables. This provided for a silky purée that was easy to mix the batter with. You can use a good processor or blender to purée the vegetables, I used my Vitamix and blended until smooth. The below instructions will guide you how to make each purée which will yield approximately 3/4 cup of each purée.
- For the spinach purée: take a large bunch or 5 packed cups spinach and steam in large pot or microwave until wilted. In a blender purée spinach with 2-3 tablespoons water until smooth.
- For the beet purée: take a medium beet, wash and steam in stovetop pot or instant pot until fork tender. Peel and discard the skin. Quarter it and blend it with 1/4 cup water until smooth.
- For the carrot purée: take 4 medium size carrots, peel and steam in stovetop pot or instant pot until fork tender. Cut in half and blend with 1/4 teaspoon turmeric and 1/4 cup water, until smooth.
If you plan to make this rava appe batter ahead of time, don’t add any baking soda or eno and store the batter in an airtight container for up to 3-4 days.
Love colorful foods like these? Try these gorgeous and delicious Rainbow Rotis!
- 1 cup Rava (suji/semolina)
- ½ cup whole milk yogurt
- ½ cup onion; diced
- 6-7 kadi pata
- ½ teaspoon rai / mustard seeds
- ½ teaspoon jeera / cumin
- ¼ teaspoon hing / asafetida
- 1-2 green chilies; adjust to taste
- 3 tablespoon grated ginger
- 3 tablespoon fresh cilantro; chopped
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup carrot purée
- ¾ cup beet purée
- ¾ cup spinach purée
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda or eno; optional
- 3 tablespoon oil
- In a bowl mix the rava, yogurt, and salt. Set aside.
- In a pan add two tablespoons of oil, once hot add rai, jeera, kadi pata, and hing.
- When they start to splutter, add green chilies, onion and ginger.
- Sauté for 1-2 minutes and turn off heat. Mix in chopped cilantro and allow mixture to cool.
- Mix in the cooled tempering with the rava mixture. This will be quick thick like a dough. Allow the mixture to ferment naturally for 30 minutes — if you want to use it immediately add in the baking soda or eno.
- Divide the mixture into three equal portions and mix in the purées. The batter should resemble a dosa/idli consistency.
- Heat the appe pan and drizzle in a few drops of oil. Once hot, fill the appe cavities with one tablespoon of batter.
- Cover and cook them on medium low for 1-2 minutes, until getting a nice crust.
- Flip them with a spoon or wooden stick. Drizzle a little more oil and and cook the other side for an additional one minute.
- Take out the cooked appe and continue to make the remaining appe.
- Serve them with coconut chutney chutney or sweet and spicy sauce.
Enjoy,
Nisha: I ordered the Appe pan from Amazon. My question is that after putting the batter in the appe pan, do I put it on the stove top to cook and cover it with the lid.
And secondly, how high should the flame be. Thanks.
Nisha: I ordered the Appe pan from Amazon. My question is that after putting the batter in the appe pan, do I put it on the stove top to cook and cover it with the lid. And I don’t want to add any vegetable puree, I prefer to make it plain. So replace 3/4 cup puree with 1/2 cup water, am I right.
And secondly, how high should the flame be. Thanks.