Upma is a South Indian dish that is normally made for breakfast. It is very easy and takes only minutes to cook. We can make upma with vermicilli, oats, rice, left over idlis, poha and so on. Of all the types, rava upma is the most common one I grew up with. This is the dish that is mostly looked up to when unexpected guests arrive.
As common as it is, people often do not make it for its simplicity for fear of being ridiculed. It does sound funny, but even my mom has mentioned that people will mock if she made rava upma because it is too easy. Well, I certainly do not care for the mocking since I am all for easy stuff. I jazz it up with onions and ginger to make it extra special though. Off to the recipe.
Rava Upma
Upma with rava (sooji / semolina).
Ingredients:
- oil - 1 tsp
- mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp (kadugu)
- urad dal - 1/2 tsp (ulutham paruppu)
- channa dal - 1/2 tsp (kadala paruppu)
- peanuts - few
- curry leaves - few
- onion - 1/2 cup - chopped
- green chilly - 1
- ginger - 1 tsp (chopped ginger bits)
- water - 1 cup
- salt - to taste
- rava - 1/2 cup
Instructions:
Dry roast rava until a nice aroma floats. Keep aside.
Heat oil and splutter mustard seeds. Add urad dal, channal dal, peanuts and curry leaves. When the dals turn golden brown, add onion, green chilly and ginger.
When the onion is cooked, add water and salt. Bring the water to a boil and add the rava stirring continuously. Cover and simmer for a few minutes. When the rava is cooked turn off the stove and fluff up the upma with a spoon.
Serve with chutney or pickle.
1. Onion and ginger can be omitted if needed and it makes for a much quicker upma.
2. Continuous stirring while adding the rava is necessary to avoid lumps.
3. I dry roast the rava in bulk and store in air tight containers.
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Pictorial
1. Take rava in a pan and dry roast until a nice aroma floats.
2. Roasted rava. Keep aside.
3. Heat oil and splutter mustard seeds. Add urad dal, channa dal, peanuts and curry leaves.
4. When the dals turn golden brown, add the onion, green chilly and ginger bits.
5. Saute until the onions are cooked.
6. Add salt and water in the ratio 1: 2 for rava : water.
7. Bring the water to a boil.
8. Add the roasted rava stirring continuously to avoid lumps. Close the vessel and simmer.
9. About five minutes later, open the vessel. 
10. Fluff the upma with a spoon. Serve with chutney or pickle.
Easy and tasty upma ready.
Enjoy!
 Upma on http://cooksjoy.com/blog "Pin It")
A great friend of the family used to babysit me all the time, take me for the weekends, came to all our family gatherings, etc. She always made this for me. I didn’t know until recently, that this is considered a breakfast food, since Pushpa made it for me all day, all night, as a side dish to almost every dinner, because it was my favorite. She moved back to India when I was about 10. I’ve spent the last 20 years looking for a recipe for Upma the way Pushpa made it, and this is it! Unfortunately, my county has less than a 1% Indian population, and some of these ingredients aren’t sold locally. Pushpa used Cream of Wheat in her Upma, and I can buy that here. I can get onions, oil, ginger, peanuts, and mustard seeds here too, but there is nowhere in a 30 mile radius to buy curry leaves or dal. I can get brown lentils, but that’s about it. I was also wondering what type of green chili you used. Are there any possible substitutions for the curry leaves, or dals from this recipe? Thank you in advance!
You could totally skip curry leaves. Dals add a bit of crunch and you can use any dal.
I used the green chilly from the Indian stores that is hotter than jalapeno. Again, you could use any chilli available to you.
Thank you for the advice! I can’t wait to make a batch!
Anytime fav for breakfast / dinner…Looks yum
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i love rava upma a lot…upma looks too tempting..loved ur 1st pic more..too good with nice dark BG!!