Upma is a traditional breakfast served in restaurants throughout South India and all over the country. It is a very common morning and evening breakfast prepared in South Indian homes. Upma brings back all the childhood memories attached with it. It was our family favorite snack in my house while growing up.
Upma is commonly prepared in Rava/Sooji or semolina as it is called in English. It is the coarse, purified wheat middlings of durum wheat.
Although Upma is prepared using other grains like broken rice, broken wheat etc., not to forget our very own Oats Upma which is gaining much popularity lately, it is hard to replace classic Rava Upma.
As spices and masalas are not fit for this dish, all the flavor and aroma comes from the tadka of fried vegetables and lentils that is added. Addition of few curry leaves and just a pinch of aesafoetida makes this dish inviting and fragrant.
Being versatile this dish can be made in numerous ways as per the likings of people who are going to eat it. Some prepare with or without onions, mixed vegetable upma is loved by many, some like to add chopped tomatoes to give that tangy taste. People also like to squeeze a few drops of lemon juice while serving.
Lentils like split dehusked black lentil (udad dal), chick pea (chana dal) is fried with green or dry red chilli to give a nutty taste in every bite. But adding lentils can be totally skipped if you are serving this to an elderly person or making upma for a toddler.
When you have unexpected guests at home, it is very easy to quickly put together an easy rava upma and serve it with pickle or sauces.
Rava is roasted till it becomes light brown colour, then lentils, chilli, curry leaves, asafoetida are fried. Then rava is cooked in hot water and in just a few mixing minutes, your fancy breakfast is sorted.
In this Upma recipe I have ditched all tadka of lentils and hard to chew vegetables, as for some emergency reason at my friends home, she was unavailable and I had to serve her mom, some soft to eat, breakfast. Her mom has also undergone cataract surgery recently. That's is why I grated carrot before adding in this Upma.
The result was a delicious breakfast made in few minutes. It remained soft till late afternoon as well. Do try your version of upma and share in comments, cause I would to hear from you. Carrot Upma Recipe
Serves: 2-3
Prep time: 5 minutes
cook time: 10-15 minutes
Tools needed: Kadai/Wok, 250ml measuring cups.
INGREDIENTS
Fine Semolina Rava/Sooji 1 cup
Carrot 1 medium size
Onion 1 medium size
Potato 1 medium size
Green chillies 3-4
Curry leaves 5-6
Oil 1 tbsp
Ghee 1/2 tbsp
Mustard seeds 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste
METHOD
1. Roast semolina to get light golden colour. Stir continuously while doing this so. Remove in a bowl and set aside.
2. Wash all vegetables, grate carrot, finely chop onion and potato. Slit green chillies into halves.
3. Add oil to the pan in which you roasted semolina, when oil is hot add mustard seeds and wait till it splutters.
4. To oil, add chillies and curry leaves, then put potatoes and fry for few seconds.
5. After that put onion and grated carrot and fry for 2 minutes.
6. When potatoes look 75% cooked add salt andix well.
7. Pour 4 cups water and let it come to a boil. At this point also check that your potatoes are soft when poked with knife, if not let it cook for few more minutes.
8. Once made sure that vegetables are cooked well, add roasted semolina to it.
9. Start to mix immediately so no lumps are formed. Cover and let cook on low flame for 1 minute.
10. Switch off flame after 1 minute, open the lid add ghee and mix.
11. Sprinkle chopped coriander and serve hot with pickles, curd or chutney.
Very nice recipe
ReplyDelete