Vegetable Dalia Upma

Tired? Don't feel like making rice/rotis and an entire meal? Here's a quick dish that is light, both physically as well as physiologically. Yes, you guessed it. I am back with another variant of my darling: upma. If you have mixed vegetables in the freezer like I usually do, this meal can be whipped up very quickly.

1 cup Broken Wheat (Dalia)

1 Onion, chopped

1 cup Mixed vegetables, chopped and cooked (I used carrots, peas, potatoes and beans)

1 tbsp Oil

1/2 tsp Urad Dal

1/2 tsp Chana Dal

1/4 tsp Mustard Seeds

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

7-8 Curry Leaves

1 Red Chilli

¼ tsp Turmeric Powder

1 tsp Green Chilli paste

1 tsp Ginger Paste

Salt to taste

Coriander Leaves for garnish

Heat the oil in a kadhai. Add the urad and chana dals. When the urad dal begins to brown a little, add the mustard and asafoetida. When the mustard splutters, add the curry leaves, onions, red chilli, ginger and chilli pastes and fry for a couple of minutes. Add the turmeric powder and fry for a minute more. Add the mixed vegetables and the broken wheat and fry the entire mixture for 1-2 minutes. Add 2 cups of boiling hot water and salt to this.

Mix well, cover and cook for 5-7 minutes on a low flame.Mix well, garnish with coriander leaves and enjoy it as a snack or a light meal.

Arisi Upma

Here I am with yet another variant of upma. It is a well established fact that I love this snack. I haven't made it that often with rice rava. And that's probably only because I didn't have easy access to rice rava. This is an absolute favourite with S and I.


1 cup Rice Rava/ Idli Rava
1 tbsp Oil
1/4 tsp Mustard Seeds
1/4 tsp Asafoetida
1/2 tsp Urad Dal
1/2 tsp Chana Dal
1 Red Chilli
1 Green Chilli
1/2 tsp Ginger Paste
7-8 Curry Leaves
Coriander leaves for garnish (optional)
Salt to taste

Heat the oil in a kadhai and add the urad and chana dals. When the urad dal starts to brown, add the mustard and asafoetida. When the mustard splutters, add the red and green chillies, curry leaves and ginger paste. Add the rice rava and fry for 2-3 minutes. Add 2 cups of boiling water to this. Add the salt and mix well. Cover and cook for 5 minutes. The upma is done when the rava sets and is not sticky. Add the coriander leaves, if using.

Enjoy this upma with some lime pickle on the side. It's guaranteed to remind you of everything homely and nice.

Bread Upma

Weekend mornings. Don't we live for them? I think I most definitely do. I don't like waking up and having to think about what to make for breakfast. To emerge victorious here, we used to step out of home for a leisurely breakfast at our favourite south indian restaurant, Naivedyam. Of late, we've gotten bored of that routine. So, on most days, it is a fruit shake followed by a full fledged meal.

On one weekend morning, we were up fairly early. We had 5 slices of bread left over from the week and a couple of potato buns from my baking escapade. Since we weren't in the mood for eggs on toast, I decided to make this spicy upma.

6-8 slices Bread, torn to small bits

1 Onion, choped finely

1 tsp Oil

¼ tsp Cumin Seeds

¼ tsp Mustard Seeds

¼ tsp Asafoetida

7-8 Curry Leaves

¼ tsp Turmeric Powder

1 tsp Chilli Powder

1 Green Chilli, slit

Salt to taste

Heat the oil in a kadhai and add the mustard, cumin and the asafoetida. When the mustard splutters, add the green chilli and the onion. Add the curry leaves and fry for a couple of minutes. Add the chilli powder, turmeric powder and the salt. Add the bread and mix well. Sprinkle some water over the bread. Cover and cook for 5-7 minutes. Enjoy your breakfast with a cup of coffee or tea.

Check out what my friends are up to: DK , Siri, Srivalli, Ranji, PJ, Curry Leaf, Medha, Priya, Bhawna, Raaji, Ruchii, Anu, Kamala, Roopa, Divya Kudua, Rekha, Divya M, Lakshmi, Lakshmi Venkatesh, Sripriya, Viji, Kamalika, DK, and Pavani.

Capsicum Semia Upma

I have talked often about my undying love for upma. It is funny how I don’t make it very often anymore. I think that’s what blogging does to me. I want to make newer stuff so that I can update my blog and thanks to that, I forget about my favourite foods. Because I’ve already blogged about them, I don’t bother to make them. Have you faced this too?

Anyway, here’s a simple breakfast number that doubles up as a lunch or dinner number when you’re rushed for time. It combines two of my favourites, capsicum and upma, in one dish.

1 cup Roasted Vermicelli

1 Onion, finely chopped

1 Capsicum, finely chopped

1 tsp Chilli Powder

1 tsp Turmeric Powder

1 tsp Oil

1 tsp Cumin Seeds

1/2 tsp Mustard Seeds

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

Salt to taste

Heat the oil in a pan and add the mustard, asafoetida and cumin seeds. When the mustard splutters, add the onions and fry for 2-3 minutes. Add the chopped capsicum and fry for 2-3 minutes. Add the chilli powder, turmeric powder and salt. Add the roasted vermicelli along with a cup of hot water. Cover and cook for 5 minutes.

This is off to me for the WBB: Express Breakfasts.

Oats Upma

Every month, Coffee usually sends us on a trip around the blogosphere. It reminds me of school and the projects we completed while there. She gives us a task and we come back and present it in class (read blog). Sometimes she goes on leave and we have substitute teachers. This month's substitute class teacher is Pavani and she sent us all to bring back a one pot meal.

I'm probably the biggest upma lover around and can make upma with just about everything. Nandita's Oats for Dinner is something I've been making even before I discovered the doctor or her blog, but it fitted in perfectly with the theme this month. Plus, the two pictures look so similar that you could easily interchange them and not really get to know. There are a few changes and my recipe is here:

Ingredients:

1 cup Roasted Oats

1 Onion, chopped

1 cup Mixed vegetables, chopped and cooked (I used carrots, beans, cauliflower and peas)

1 tbsp Oil

1/2 tsp Urad Dal

1/2 tsp Chana Dal

1/4 tsp Mustard Seeds

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

7-8 Curry Leaves

½ tsp Chilli Flakes

¼ tsp Turmeric Powder

1 tsp Green Chilli paste

1 tsp Ginger Paste

Salt to taste

Coriander Leaves for garnish

Heat the oil in a kadhai. Add the urad and chana dals. When the urad dal begins to brown a little, add the mustard and asafoetida. When the mustard splutters, add the curry leaves, onions, ginger and chilli pastes and fry for a couple of minutes. Add the chilli and turmeric powders and fry for a minute more. Add the mixed vegetables and the oats and fry the entire mixture for 1-2 minutes. Add 2 cups of boiling hot water and salt to this. Mix well, cover and cook for 5-7 minutes on a low flame.

I'm a one dish meal queen in any case and this blog is full of these time saving meals. I will bookmark this round up as I have Meeta's Mingle One-Dish Dinners and Mallugirl’s Express Cooking challenge. They're any working girl's real best friends.

M.L.A. Pesarattu

Elaborate breakfasts are only on weekends. But then again, at times we miss breakfast completely on weekends and go straight to lunch. But then there are Saturdays. Then there those 'odd' Saturdays when I get to stay home and S gets to go to work. (That will change in 2008, thankfully!)

When I remember during the week, I prepare dosa or pesarattu batter so that I don't have to think too much about what to make for breakfast. I don't ferment my dosa batter at all (much to the shock and disgust of many Tamil food connoisseurs) and my favourite dosas are the ones I make for myself just as soon as I've ground the batter. They're like my little treat for all the effort I've just put in.

When I was newly married, I called my MIL to ask for the recipe for Pesarattu, a type of dosa made with green moong beans. She gave me a recipe that was so complicated that I decided this was not for me. I like Pesarattu, but it didn't seem worth all that effort. And she told me that I should make upma along with it and serve the two together. I told her that I could, at best, make any one item for breakfast. But one Friday, I'd made Pesarattu, and had left over batter. So, on Saturday, I made upma and together whipped up a proper Andhra style breakfast: M.L.A. Pesarattu.

I devised my own sweet way of making Pesarattu. When it is my way, it has to be the simple way. Here goes:

1 cup Whole Green Gram, soaked overnight

3 Green Chillies

2" piece Ginger

Salt to taste

Wash the green gram and grind to a paste along with the chillies and ginger. Use enough water to get a dosa batter consistency. Add the salt.

For the Upma:

1 cup Rava (Sooji/Cream of Wheat)

2 Onions, sliced
1 tbsp Oil
1/4 tsp Mustard Seeds

1 tsp Cumin Seeds
1/4 tsp Asafoetida
1/2 tsp Urad Dal
1/2 tsp Chana Dal
1 Red Chilli
1 Green Chilli
1/2 tsp Ginger Paste
7-8 Curry Leaves
1 tbsp Ghee (Clarified Butter)
Coriander leaves for garnish
1/2 tsp Sugar
Salt to taste

Heat the oil in a kadhai and add the urad and chana dals. When the urad dal starts to brown, add the mustard, cumin and asafoetida. When the mustard splutters, add the onions, red and green chillies, curry leaves and ginger paste. Add the rava and fry for 2-3 minutes. Add 2 cups of boiling water to this. Add the salt and sugar and mix well. Cover and cook for 5 minutes. The upma is done when the rava sets and is not sticky.

To proceed:

Heat a tawa and smear a little oil on it. Simmer the flame and pour a ladleful of the batter in the centre of the tawa. Quickly spread the batter while forming concentric circles (spiral actually!).

Add a little oil on the sides and centre. Usually not more than 1 small spoonful per dosa. When crisp, carefully turn the dosa over and allow the other side to cook a little. Place some upma along the diameter of the dosa and fold the sides over.

Serve this with some chutney or pickle. It is quite filling and you can go on for a few hours without a complaint from your tummy.

Wishing all of you a very happy holiday season.

Semia Upma

I don't work on Saturdays. But S goes to work on odd Saturdays of the month. After a nice party with the neighbours last night, we went to bed only at 1 a.m. or so. I, as usual, woke up early and asked S if he wanted me to make lunch or if he'd get a dabba at work. Initially he said he'd grab a bite at work and that I needn't bother. A little later, he said, "I want to eat Semia Upma for lunch." I had only 15 minutes and so didn't add any vegetables. It was ready in a jiffy.

Semia Upma always brings back memories. Of the first time I tried to make it. And my weekend trips from hostel. Amma had a mental timetable of sorts and would make different things for breakfast everyday, trying not to repeat a dish in a week. And somehow Semia Upma invariably landed on her timetable for Saturday mornings. I was studying in Pondicherry and would come home on most weekends. I'd land up on Saturday morning and find Semia Upma on the table. After a while I asked Amma, "Why don't you make something else?" And she said, "I could. But don't you like this?" I said, "Yeah, but I get this every time I come home." She hadn't realized that I only had breakfast at home on Saturdays and Sundays and thought that she has been dishing out varieties. She then started treating me to different stuff.

But I still love this upma and with roasted vermicelli, it is ready within minutes.

Ingredients:

1 Cup Roasted Vermicelli

1 Onion, chopped

1 tsp Oil

1/4 tsp Mustard Seeds

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

1/4 tsp Urad Dal

1/4 tsp Chana Dal

1 Red Chilli

1 Green Chilli

1/2 tsp Ginger Paste

7-8 Curry Leaves

Salt to taste

Heat the oil in a kadhai and add the urad and chana dals. When the urad dal starts to brown, add the mustard and asafoetida. When the mustard splutters, add the red and green chillies, curry leaves and ginger paste. Add the onions and fry until they turn translucent. Add the vermicelli and fry for 2-3 minutes. Add 1 cup of boiling water to this. Add the salt and mix well. Cover and cook for 5 minutes.

Garnish with coriander and scraped coconut if you like. Team it up with your favourite pickle and get set for the day.

Rava Upma

I can write pages and pages about my love for this dish. I have blogged about several kinds of Upmas. The perfect cure for any time hunger pangs. This, however, is the basic dish. Amma would add fried cashewnuts and srpinkle coconut over this, but I just eat it with some chivda or pickle.

Ingredients:

1 cup Rava (Sooji/Cream of Wheat)

1 tbsp Oil

1/4 tsp Mustard Seeds

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

1/2 tsp Urad Dal

1/2 tsp Chana Dal

1 Red Chilli

1 Green Chilli

1/2 tsp Ginger Paste

7-8 Curry Leaves

1 tbsp Ghee (Clarified Butter)

Coriander leaves for garnish

1/2 tsp Sugar

Salt to taste

Heat the oil in a kadhai and add the urad and chana dals. When the urad dal starts to brown, add the mustard and asafoetida. When the mustard splutters, add the red and green chillies, curry leaves and ginger paste. Add the rava and fry for 2-3 minutes. Add 2 cups of boiling water to this. Add the salt and sugar and mix well. Cover and cook for 5 minutes. The upma is done when the rava sets and is not sticky.

Add the ghee and mix well. Add chopped coriander and serve with sambar and chutney or any pickle. Or just sprinkle some chivda or sev on the upma and say good bye to hunger pangs.

Wheat Dalia Upma

Here's yet another upma variant. Wheat dalia or bulgur replaces rava in this easy recipe. Sometimes you realize that healthy eating needn’t necessarily mean tasteless food.



1 cup Wheat Dalia
1 Onion, sliced
1 tsp Oil
1 tsp Cumin Seeds
¼ tsp Mustard Seeds
7-8 Curry Leaves
½ tsp Chilli Flakes
1 tsp Green Chilli paste
1 tsp Ginger Paste
Salt to taste

Heat the oil in a kadhai. Add the mustard, cumin and asafoetida. When the mustard splutters, add the curry leaves, onions, ginger and chilli pastes and fry for a couple of minutes. Add the dalia and fry the entire mixture for 3-4 minutes. Add 2 cups of boiling hot water and salt to this. Mix well, cover and cook for 5-7 minutes on a low flame.



Enjoy it as a snack or a light meal. You could team it up with dal, sabzi, or sambar and make it a complete meal.

W is for Wheat Dalia. And this is my third W entry to Nupur's A-Z of Indian Vegetables.

Mixed Vegetable Semia Upma

I must be the biggest upma fan there ever was. Like I mentioned in an earlier post, I can make upma out of anything and eat it. I am itching to make upma out of corn next. I hope to find corn dalia in the market shelves some day and I shall try to make that.

This, however, is a pretty standard upma. But it looks and tastes so good that I can make this every week and not tire of it.

Ingredients:

1 cup Roasted Vermicelli (Semia)
1 Onion, chopped
1 cup Mixed vegetables, chopped and cooked (I used carrots and beans)
1 tbsp Oil
1/2 tsp Urad Dal
1/2 tsp Chana Dal
1/4 tsp Mustard Seeds
1/4 tsp Asafoetida
7-8 Curry Leaves
½ tsp Chilli Powder
¼ tsp Turmeric Powder
1 tsp Green Chilli paste
1 tsp Ginger Paste
Salt to taste
Coriander Leaves for garnish

Heat the oil in a kadhai. Add the urad and chana dals. When the urad dal begins to brown a little, add the mustard and asafoetida. When the mustard splutters, add the curry leaves, onions, ginger and chilli pastes and fry for a couple of minutes. Add the chilli and turmeric powders and fry for a minute more. Add the mixed vegetables and the vermicelli and fry the entire mixture for 1-2 minutes. Add 1 cup of boiling hot water and salt to this. Mix well, cover and cook for 5-7 minutes on a low flame.

Mix well, garnish with coriander leaves and enjoy it as a snack or a light meal.

Mixed Vegetable Upma

My guess would be that Upma is the first thing that people learn to cook. At least in south indian homes. But then again, this is one of those dishes that takes years to master. Some people never learn at all and some can make yummy finger licking good upma each time.


I know people who wouldn't touch upma with a ten foot fork. And I know people who love upma. I fit very snugly into the "love" category. I make upma with everything I can find. Rava, Vermicelli, Wheat Dalia, Bajra Dalia, Makka flour, Oats, Rice Rava... I have even gone to the extent of mixing flours to make upma.

I was a Girl Guide and went on to receive the President's Award in 1991. I was chosen over thousands of people to receive it directly from the President of India at a function held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Being a Guide meant that I went to at least one camp a year if not more. And that meant that I ate loads of icky sticky upma. But I loved it. For years I'd come back home from a camp and then crib about Amma's semi dry upma. I told her she didn't know how to make upma and I would teach her. The smart cookie that I was. And the poor lady tried to make squishy upma. I have now outgrown my love for the gooey stuff and would settle for the semi dry version any day!

Finally, I learnt how to make good upma and I make it quite often. (Good here means upma like Amma's!) And the mixed vegetable version is something I love. It kind of makes the meal more nutritious, more filling and more "complete".

Ingredients:

1 cup Rava (Sooji)

1 Onion, chopped

1 Tomato, chopped

1 cup Mixed vegetables, chopped and cooked (I used carrots, beans, potatoes and peas)

2 tbsp Oil

1/2 tsp Urad Dal

1/2 tsp Chana Dal

1/4 tsp Mustard Seeds

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

7-8 Curry Leaves

1 Red Chilli, broken into pieces

1 tsp Green Chilli paste

1 tsp Ginger Paste

Salt to taste

1 tsp Ghee (Clarified Butter)

Coriander Leaves for garnish

Heat the oil in a kadhai. Add the urad and chana dals. When the urad dal begins to brown a little, add the mustard and asafoetida. When the mustard splutters, add the red chilli, curry leaves, onions, ginger and chilli pastes and fry for a couple of minutes. Add the tomato and fry for a minute more. Add the mixed vegetables and the rava and fry the entire mixture for 2-3 minutes. Add 2 cups of boiling hot water and salt to this. Mix well, cover and cook for 5-7 minutes on a low flame.

When done, take it off the heat and pour the ghee on top. Mix well, garnish with coriander leaves and enjoy it with some chivda and/or pickle.

Tomato Semia Upma

Quick breakfast. I wish I could find a way to get breakfast ready in a jiffy. I grew up eating an egg a day. But I avoid eggs now as the smell gets to me. I eat it once in a while, but not everyday. Muesli and cereals... yes, but not everyday again. I need variety. Even for breakfast. Yeah, that's me.

This morning I decided to make tomato semia upma. But I was lazy as always and didn't bother to keep my dal, chillies, curry leaves and ginger ready. But my upma came out very nice. The picture, however, will be put up later. I don't want to be late for this week's A-Z.

U is for Upma and this is my U entry to Nupur's A-Z of Indian Vegetables.

Ingredients:


1 cup Roasted Semia
1 Onion, sliced
1 Tomato, finely chopped
1 tsp Chilli Powder
1 tsp Turmeric Powder
1 tbsp Oil
1tsp Cumin Seeds
1/2 tsp Mustard Seeds
1/4 tsp Asafoetida
Salt to taste


Heat the oil in a kadhai and add the mustard, asafoetida and cumin seeds. When the mustard splutters, add the onions and fry for 2-3 minutes. Add the chopped tomato and fry for a minute or two more. Add the chilli powder, turmeric powder and salt. Add the roasted semia and along with a cup of hot water. Cover and cook for 5 minutes.


You may garnish it with scraped coconut and coriander leaves. (I, of course, did nothing.)