Upma is to south India what bread and butter is to the rest of the world. Who can question the versatility of the upma, the one thing you can rustle up in a moment when guests suddenly arrive? After all, soft crumbly upma is the ultimate comfort food. Food that is ideal when you are ill. The one thing you can make in a rush. The first dish cooked in many bachelor kitchens. An easy way to remind yourself of home. Make it with rava, vermicilli or millets: The upma has always been open to interpretation, and there’s no reason why that should change.

Upma is India’s hot-favourite breakfast food. Just like idlis, it is also originally from South India, and comes with a list of benefits. Rava, which is used to make upma, is rich in protein, vitamin B and iron. Adding veggies to the upma not only makes it tastier but also healthier.

Health Benefits

• Upma is packed with healthy vegetables which means a lot of fibre and this helps you stay active all day. Having upma for breakfast keeps you energetic all day.
• Upma is prepared using semolina and it is full of iron. Iron is an essential mineral for our body and consuming upma is an easy way of fueling your body with the mineral.
• A bowl of upma has fiber, vitamins, and healthy fats. It is low in cholesterol and calories which makes it a healthy meal and helps you have a balanced diet.
• Upma digests slowly and it keeps you full for longer. This prevents you from overeating or indulging in unhealthy snacks. Upma should be your go-to breakfast meal if you wish to lose weight quickly.

Ingredients

• 1 cup rava (semolina)
• 3 green chilies, chopped
• 2 tablespoon ghee or clarified butter
• 1 lemon juice
• 1/4 cup chopped carrot (1 carrot)
• 1/4 cup chopped french beans (7-8 beans)
• 1/4 cup chopped onion (1 onion)
• 1/4 cup chopped tomato (1 tomato)
• 1/4 cup chopped capsicum (1 capsicum)
• 1 tablespoon chopped ginger
• 2 tablespoons cashews
• 1 sprig curry leaves
• 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1 teaspoon chana daal
• 1 teaspoon urad daal
• 3 cups of water
• Salt to taste

Instructions

1. Put a pan on low flame and add rava (semolina). Dry roast it for 5 minutes. It is required as dry roasted rava will absorb water more quickly to bring it to edible form. Keep it aside as we will need this at the end of process.

   

2. Put another pan on medium flame and add 1 tablespoon ghee. Add mustard seeds to it and wait for it to crackle.
3. Add chana and urad daal and wait for 2 minutes. Daal will change the color to brown.

   

4. Add green chilies, ginger and cashews and saute for 2 more minutes. By this time, your cashews will be roasted.

   

5. Add onions and curry leaves to it and sauté it till onions are not translucent.
6. Add all other vegetables (tomatoes, capsicum, carrot, beans) and sauté it for another 5 minutes. All veggies are chopped so it won’t take much time to cook.

   

7. Add 3 cups water to it and let it come to boil.
8. Add salt, lemon juice, sugar to it and wait for 2 minutes.
9. Add ghee to it and wait for it get mixed and this is very important step as ghee is going to change the entire profile of upma.

   

10. Start adding roasted rava little by little so that lumps are not formed and it is mixed properly.

    

11. Let it simmer for around 10-15 minutes as rava will start absorbing all the water. Once all water is absorbed and everything is mixed, just do a quick check of salt and add if required.

    

12. Rava Upma is ready. Garnish it with some fresh coriander and serve it hot with coconut chutney.

Additional Tips & Tricks

• You can add roasted peanuts to it for crunchy bites in between.
• Usually more ghee is added to the upma but adding 2 tablespoon as mentioned in recipe would be enough. Adding more will give you more smoothness while eating it.