Upma is another easy to cook SouthIndian Tiffin recipe that can be served during Breakfast,Dinner or even during that 4pm Hunger pang 😋😋 We are a proud Upma family 😉 and whenever I see lame Upma Jokes in Tamil it irritates me a lot. 🤦🤦
From the cult Idli Upma to slightly hipster Quinoa/Pasta/Couscous Upma there are so many various combinations you could try using a simple base recipe. Cook the grains separately, cook the veggie mixture and mix everything together. Thats what I usually do (except for Rava & Samba Ravai Upma)
Key Points to remember :
- Always add generous amount of oil while preparing the veggie mix
- Adding vegetables to Upma is based on your preference. I usually add Onions,Carrot,Beans,Potatoes,Tomato & green peas
- You can either use green chillies or red chilli powder to add spice to Upma
- If you are using Vermicelli brands like Bambino, Savorite make sure you first cook the Vermicelli separately and then add it to the veggie mixture
- If you are going to cook veggies and Vermicelli together, then kindly keep an eye on the water being added to pan. Like my Amma says “semiya moozhgira alavukku thanni vidanum” (which means says if you have boiled water until rim of a vessel, add Vermicelli just upto the rim and it should not overflow in the vessel. That might result in uneven cooking of Upma, and texture may not be the best.
In the below recipe I just used onions + tomatoes. As mentioned earlier you can add any vegetable of your choice.
| Prep Time | 10 minutes |
| Cook Time | 25 minutes |
| Servings |
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Ingredients
- 2 cups Vermicelli
- 1 onion
- 2 Tomatoes
- 1 green chilli
- 1/2 tsp finely chopped ginger pieces
- 1 green chilli
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 1/2 tbsp salt
- 2 tbsp Oil
- 1/2 tsp Mustard Seeds
- 1/2 tsp urad dal
- 1/2 tsp Channa Dal
- Few Curry leaves
- 4 cupss water to cook Upma
Ingredients
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Instructions
- Boil water in a sauce pan. Add a pinch of salt and less than a teaspoon of oil
- Once it comes to rolling boil, add Vermicelli to it
- In approximately 8-10 minutes you can see the vermicelli is almost 80% cooked
- Drain the water and wash it in cold water to prevent Vermicelli from further cooking and let it cool for 5-10 minutes. In the meantime lets prepare the veggie mixture
- Heat oil in a Kadai. Add Mustard seeds, Urad dal and Channa Dal. Let them splutter
- Add curry leaves, slit green chilli, onions,ginger and tomato. Saute for a minute or two in medium flame
- Once onions become slightly pink in color add salt, turmeric powder
- Add little water just to soften the veggies and once the tomatoes are cooked, add the vermicelli
- Use a fork and mix everything well
- Adjust salt
- Close the pan, turn the flame to low and let the Vermicelli get cooked for 5 minutes
- Serve Upma with Chutney or sugar. I like to eat ti with my leftover curries from previous night 🙂 Here is a pic of my simple Semiya Upma with Paneer gravy
