Vegetable Upma

The other day I got a heat and eat package of masala upma from the Indian store and man...that was good. I was no big fan of Upma in my childhood. I would cry every time Upma was made for breakfast in my house. But then...I married a man whose favorite breakfast is Upma. I couldn't believe it. For quite a number of years of my marriage, I would make upma my the man but I would eat something else...enter the kids. The second of the kids who is more like me than the other liked upma...AGHAST I couldn't believe it :(

But year after year, Upma's taste grew on me and now atleast I will eat it 50 % of the time. But I finally found the recipe I would like..love may be...we will see. But the point is, this vegetable upma was super delicious. Everyone should try it

Vegetable Upma (Wheat semolina with vegetables)

Vegetable Upma

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup upma ravva (coarse semolina)
2. 1 tablespoon or more cashew
3.  1/4 cup each of finely sliced potatoes, cabbage, carrots, peas and green beans
4. 1 tablespoon oil
5. 1 teaspoon clarified butter
6. 1/2 teaspoon each of cumin, urad dal, chana dal (soaked in water for 10 minutes), mustard seeds, grated ginger, turmeric
7. 1 teaspoon salt 
8. 2 dried red chillies
9. 2 green chillies
10. few curry leaves
11. 1/2 cup juice from a small lime sized tamarind

In a pan dry roast the upma ravva and set aside.

In  a pan heat the oil and ghee and add the cumin, urad dal, chana dal, mustard seeds, dried red chillies and curry leaves and cashew and fry for a couple of minutes. Add the green chillies and ginger with all other vegetables and fry for 5 minutes covered. Add turmeric and stir to combine. Add the tamarind juice and 1.5 cup more water and salt and bring to a rolling boil. Reduce heat and add the semolina and stir well. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes . Garnish with cilantro and serve

Other Upma Recipes

• Semiyah Upma
• Puffed rice upma
• Kaaju Upma

Puffed rice upma

Puffered rice as you all know is murmure or Murmuralu or the things that make up rice krispies cereal but ofcourse that rice krispies are loaded with corn syrup and sugar
             This upma I made with the puffered rice brings back so many memories of me playing during those hot summer afernoons during the summer holidays. We would put some puffered rice in water and hear them crackle and imagine as if we were cooking rice and thats the sound of rice getting cooked
             This is a nice variation to you regualar upma. And it tastes great too

Murmure wala Upma (Puffed rice stir fried)

Murmurala upma

Ingredients:

1. 4 cups puffed rice
2. 3 cups water
3. 1/2 teaspoon each of salt, cumin, mustard seeds, finely chopped ginger
4. 1 tablespoon peanuts/ ground nuts, finely sliced onions
5. 1 green chilly chopped
6. 1 tablespoon oil
7. 1/4 teaspoon turmeric, urad dal

Soak the puffed rice in water for 5 minutes. meanwhile heat the oil in a pan and fry the peanuts for a couple of minutes. Add cumin, mustard seeds and urad dals for 3 minutes. Add onions and ginger and green chillies and fry for a couple of minutes. Add salt and turmeric and stir well. Drain the puffed rice and add it to the pan and stir to combine. Cover and simmer on medium heat for 5 minutes. Garnish with cilantro and serve

Semiyah Upma

You know...everybody agrees that breakfast is the most important meal of the day but I am pretty sure atleast half of America still skips it cause they are "too busy". So as with the rest of America even in my house special breakfast dishes are made only on the weekends. And my husband is a die-hard fan of UPMA. So one of the week-end days its usually Upma and some other breakfast on the other day. But on this Saturday I made Vermicelli  Upma. Again this has a humdred variations. Here is my take on it

Vermicelli Upma (Vermicelli with Indian flavor)

Ingredients:

1. 2  cups roasted vermicelli
2. 1 cup water
3. 1/2 teaspoon cumin, salt
4. 1/4 teaspoon mustard seeds, urad dal
5. 2 tablespoons oil
6. 1 tablespoon each of cashew, groundnuts (peanuts)
7. 2 dried red chillies, few curry leaves

In a pan heat the oil and fry the peanuts and cashews till they start changing color. Add cumin, mustard seeds, urad dal, dried chillies and curry leaves and fry till they start to splutter. Add water and add salt to it. Bring to a boil and add vermicelli. Reduce the heat and simmer till all the water dries up. Garnish with cilantro and serve hot

Pesarattu Upma Punukulu

This whole dinner items for today have to be planned a day ahead. On Sunday my cousin and his family were coming for brunch. So I made some very Andhra Special breakfast for them...Upma Pesarattu. I have the recipe for it here but I forgot to take a picture of the same. So no pic :(.
              With some of the leftover batter (made for pesarattu) I made punukulu and made them into Pulusu and I made Arvi Magazdaar.

Pesarattu (Indian crepes made with batter of split green grams)

Ingredients:

1. 2 cups split green gram soaked over night
2. 1/2 cup onions finely chopped
3. 1/2 teaspoon salt
4. finely chopped green chillies, cumin, finely chopped ginger, finely chopped cilantro, red chilly powder for garnish
5. oil for frying

Soak the green grams over night and by morning they would have dowbled in volume. Lightly crush them between your hands and the skin will come off. Move the vessel round and round and the skins will float. Remove the skins of the dal and grind it to a smooth paste with a little water. Add salt. Set up all the items for garnish. Heat a griddle. Take a laddle full of batter and spread it on the hot griddle like a crepe. Garnish with onions, chilli pieces, cumin, ginger pieces, red chilly powder. Add oil on the edges of the pesarattu and fry till the edges tun brown. Add some oil on top of the 'attu' and turn it. Fry it for 2-3 minutes. Remove from griddle and serve hot with Upma

Upma

Ingredients:

1. 2 cups upma ravva (sooji)
2. 2 tablepsoons oil
3. 1 teaspoon cashew pieces and peanuts each
4. 1/4 teaspoon cumin, mustard seeds, and chana dal (soaked in 1/4 cup water), toor dal each
5. 1/2 teaspoon salt
6. 2 red chillies and few curry leaves and fresh coriander for garnishing

Heat the oil in a pan and fry the peanuts for a couple of minutes. Now add the cumin, mustard seeds, toor dal and chana dal and for a couple of minutes more. Now add chopped red chillies and curry leaves and fry till the seeds stard to splutter. Now add 3 cups of water and the salt and let it come to a boil. Add the sooji and cover and simmer till all the water escapes. Garnish with Cilantro and serve with Pesarattu or as is.

You might also want to try a variation of Upma the Kaaju Upma

Punukulu (Split green gram fritters)

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup pesarattu batter (a little thicker than used for pesarattu)
2. 1/2 teaspoon salt,
3. 1 finely chopped green chilli
4. 1/4 teaspoon cumin, baking soda each
5. oil for deep frying

Mix all the ingredients together except oil and set aside for a 5 minutes. Heat the oil in a deep frying pan and drop batter with a teaspoon. Fry till golden brown and serve with Chutney

Punukula Pulusu (Punukulu in cooked tamarind juice)

Ingredients:

1. 12-15 cooked punukulu
2. 1 cup chopped onions
3. small lemon sized tamarind (juiced using 2 cups warm water)
4. 1/2 teaspoon salt, red chilly powder
5. 1 tablespoon oil

In a pressure cooker heat the oil and fry the onions till they become tender. Now add all the ingredients except the punukulu, close the cooker and cook for 2 whistles. Let all the steam escape, open the cooker, add the punukulu and simmer for 5 minutes. garnish with cilantro and serve with white rice