Coriander Upma
A savoury rava porridge - makes for a brilliant breakfast, evening snack or light dinner
Ingredients
- 1 cup Rava semolina
- Coriander Leaves handful
- 2 Green Chilies small ones
- 3 tbsp Gingelly Oil or Ghee
- 1 tsp Mustard Seeds
- 1 tsp Chana Dal
- 1/4 cup Cashews (optional)
- 1 sprig Curry Leaves
- 1 tsp Ginger finely chopped
- 1 Onion finely chopped
- 2½ cups Hot Water
- 1 tbsp Lemon Juice
- 1 tbsp Ghee (optional)
- Salt as per taste
Instructions
Prep Work
- The first step is to make the coriander and chilli paste. Take the smallest jar of the mixer, add 2 small green chillies along with a whole handful of coriander leaves along with the thin stems. Grind it to a smooth-ish paste.
- Cut all the vegetables, curry leaves and cashew nuts and keep them handy next to you.
- I prefer to use hot water. So I always have a liter of water ready next to me while making upma.
How to make Upma
- Place a pan on medium flame, add the cooking oil. Once the oil is warm, add the mustard seeds.
- Once the seeds start sputtering, add chana dal and cashews. (I add a lot of cashews cos my kid loves it - this is completely optional)
- Once the dal and cashew nuts are toasted in the oil, add curry leaves, ginger and green chilies. Reduce the flame to low and stir them.
- Next, add the finely chopped onion in the pan, and saute it until the onions are translucent (cooked).
- Add the diced vegetables to the pan now; they will cook fast - maybe just 2 minutes. (This is an optional step - you can skip this if you are not planning to add any vegetable)
- Once the vegetables are cooked, add the rava and give it all a good mix. Roast the rava along with the oil and the onions for at least 4-5 minutes so that the oil absorbs well into the rava.
- Now, add the coriander-chilli paste and mix well with the rava.
- Add hot water slowly from the sides of the pan, while stirring to ensure that rava does not turn into clumps. (It will mostly not happen, because of having sautéed the rava in oil)
- You will see that Upma has started to come together, all that needs to happen is for the rava to cook. The cooking will take place rather quickly so, do make sure to keep stirring until all the water gets used up.
- If you feel that the rava has not cooked but all the water is used up, you can add some more hot water. Rava usually tends to absorb any amount of water.
- Once you see the rava cooked, switch off the flame. Close the lid of the pan and let it steam-cook for another 10 minutes.
- After ten minutes, squeeze in lemon juice and give it all a good mix.
- Serve the delicious plate of Coriander Upma with Coconut chutney or you can eat it as is. You could also add a teaspoon of ghee on top - now that is heaven!