Rava upma is an easy to make breakfast which is a staple food in almost all South Indian house. In South India there are many variation in rava upma such as Vegetable Rava upma, Kichadi, Masala upma..etc. Upma also has many varieties like Rice rava upma, Wheat rava upma, Millets upma, Vermicelli Upma..etc.

This is  the basic upma recipe which is easy to make in few minutes. With simple banana or sugar it tastes so yum. In restaurants they add more ghee to make it as a melt in mouth texture. But we can make it healthy by adding less amount or totally avoid to make it in a healthy way. Many people hate upma, if you prepare upma at right taste and consistency i guess there will not be any upma haters.

Upma Recipe

Preparation Time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Cuisine: South Indian
Serves:4

INGREDIENTS:
Rava/ Sooji/ Semolina- 1 cup
Ghee- 1 teaspoon
Oil- 3 teaspoon
Mustard seeds- 1/2 teaspoon
Urad dhal/ Ulunthau-  teaspoon
Chana dhal- 1 teaspoon
Curry leaves- 2 stands
Onion, chopped- 1 medium
Green chillies, chopped- 2-3
Ginger, finely chopped- 1/2 inch
Water- 2 cups
Salt- to taste
Upma

PROCEDURE:
  • Heat a pan and add the ghee and add cashew nuts if you like to make it little rich. Roast the nuts till golden and remove from pan and add the semolina and roast it on the remaining ghee till it roasted as like a sand texture. The colour should not darken but the raw smell has to go from semolina.(I have not added cashews so i have added ghee straight away with semolina and roasted)
  • Heat a deep pan and add oil, once it heated up add the mustard seeds, urad dhal and channa dal. Fry them till the mustard seeds splutter and the colour of the dhal turns golden.
  • Now add onion, green chillies, ginger and curry leaves together and fry in that oil. Once the colour of the onion turns translucent and once you start to get the flavour of the ginger add  2 cups of water and some salt.
  • In crease the flame to high and allow make the water to rolling hot. Now reduce the flame to medium before adding semolina.
  • Now add the roasted semolina in 4-5 small batches and stir well in between each addition to mix well without any lumps.
  • Now the water get absorbed by semolina and the mixture starts to thicken. Stir constantly by scraping the bottom too.
  • Once the moisture totally absorbed the rava starts to become fluffy  and transparent while stirring. Stop the flame at this stage. Do not make it totally dry at the stove because it does not tastes nice.
  • Serve hot with pazham, coconut chutney or sugar of your choice.
  • Note: Roasting semolina is important to get nice flavour and texture for the upma.
  • While adding semolina water should be rolling hot otherwise the upma gets a sticky texture.
  • You could add half small tomato after the onions get cooked if you wish this type goes well with chutney.
  • My mom adds a tablespoon of grated coconut with the roasted rava before preparing upma.
  • Adding cashewnuts is optional but adding gives richness and texture and taste to the upma. You could add extra ghee to make it like melt in mouth texture like hotels.
Upma Recipe