This Valentine’s Day, bring alive the love and romance, while keeping an eye on the health and calories with delicious Red Velvet Iddly.

Iddly Faktory is the brainchild of Karthik Krishnamurthy (Karthik), an investment banker turned chef and food entrepreneur. It is a brand built around his personal brand of trust, quality of service and authenticity. After long successful stints at ABN AMRO bank, Barclays Bank and SMC, Karthik took to his calling – Food! His wife, Anuradha Swaminathan, joined his passion and manages the branding and communication, outlet operations, etc. Iddly Faktory lives by the concepts of Authenticity, Freshness, Health and Single Minded Commitment to Service.

Manned by traditional chefs from the Kumbakonam region of Tamil Nadu and bring a special flavor to the food. The focus on freshness, healthy cooking, authenticity of traditional flavors and quality of ingredients is always high on their agenda. One can find fresh Iddlis, specialty approved vadas, accompanied with authentic sambar and exotic chutneys, and many other dishes of South Indian cuisine at their FSSAI Approved Kitchen in Gurugram. They even grow their own fresh, 100% organic vegetables to use in their cooking. They offer dining options at almost all hours of the day, deliver food to your home, and also offer corporate packages and get-together packages.

Karthik conceptualized and created this special Red Velvet Iddly recipe for Valentine’s Day. I tried it myself, it is super delicious and awesome. Sharing Karthik’s recipe with you below –

Ingredients

Whole White Urad Dal – 1 Cup

Iddly Rice – 4 Cups

Fenugreek Seeds/Methi Seeds – 1 Tablespoon

Salt – 1 Tablespoon

Beetroot – 1 Small

Instructions

Wash & Soak urad dal and iddly rice 3 to 4 times, and soak them separately for a minimum of 3-4 hours. While soaking urad dal, add fenugreek seeds to it. 

Clean the wet grinder before every use. After 4 hours drain out all the water from urad dal and add it to the wet grinder. Once you start grinding add half a cup of water. While grinding urad dal, add the water slowly at regular intervals for two to three times. The urad dal will not fluff up, if you add all the water at once. The dal should fluff up and fill the grinder. It should have increased about 8-10 times of its original volume. It should come out as butter. Grind for at least 30 minutes. Once done, transfer the mixture into a bowl and set aside. 

Now grind the soaked and drained rice until smooth. Add just enough water while grinding. The consistency should be medium. Once ground, transfer the batter to the dal mixture bowl & mix well. 

Add salt to the batter before fermenting in summers & add it after fermenting in winters. Usually, the batter needs to ferment for 5-6 hours depending upon the weather. 

Once the batter is nicely fermented, take a ladle & mix it well. Your batter is now ready. 

Red Velvet Iddly Mixture

Grate half a beetroot & squeeze it well. 

Add the squeezed juice to four scoops of iddly batter. Mix it well. Your mixture is ready. 

For Making Soft Red Velvet Iddly

Pour some water in an iddly vessel & put it on medium flame. Oil the iddly plate & gently fill the rounds with red velvet batter. Put it aside in the iddly vessel & let it steam for 10 minutes. Do not allow it to overcook as it might become hard & dry. Just keep an eye and remove the iddlies after 10 minutes. Do not remove the iddlies immediately as it might stick. Allow it to rest for another 4-5 minutes & then spoon it out. Once removed use heart-shaped sandwich cutter/cookie cutter to get heart shaped iddlies. Serve hot with your favorite chutney or sambar. 

Notes

Drain the water completely from the ingredients after soaking.

While grinding always adjust the consistency of the batter later if it is too thick. You cannot do anything if the batter goes runny.