Soak split black gram lentils and fenugreek seeds together in enough water for about 3 hours. Similarly soak the millet separately with water till immersing level for 3 hours.

Rinse and drain water from soaked lentils and take them in a mixer/wet grinder. Adding water little by little incrementally grind it to fine batter. The batter should be light and airy but not runny. Use water as per the requirment of lentils.

Next, rinse and drain water from millets and add in to the mixer/wet grinder. Add little water and grind it in to bit coarse batter. Do not add much water. Mix this with lentil batter and keep it covered in warm place for about 8 to 10 hours or overnight. The batter should get fermented well.

Next day, in the morning the batter would have raised up in volume, add salt and mix it well. Grease the idli plates with oil and pour the batter in each depression and steam cook it for 20 minutes.

You can either use steamer or pressure cooker for steaming idli. If you are using cooker, then do not put whistle. Once done, keep the idli stand out for few minutes and then carefully remove it using a spoon.

Serve this healthy barnyard millet idli along with coconut chutney and tiffin sambar.

I recommend the use of wet grinder for making idli batter because it gives perfect airy batter with good volume.

I ended up using around 1.5 cups of water which varies based on the quality of lentils.

Do not use too much water to grind the millets. And grind it coarsely.

Rest the batter for good 8 to 10 hours for fermentation. Well fermented batter gives soft idli.