Vegetable Upma

               The hot steaming delicipus Upma is traditionally a south indian breakfast dish.It is very popular mainly because of its ease of preparation. Though the main ingredient being semoina/sooji or rava ,it can be made healthy and colourful by adding  some fresh cut vegetables. It is served with cocunut chutney or sometimes with sambhar . Here follows the recipe.

Ingredients:

Rava /Sooji/Semolina -1 Cup

Water -1 1/2cup (+ 1/2 cup buffer)

Chopped Onion

Chopped Vegetabls: carrot,beans ,capsicum and grean peas

Milk -2 tbsps (Optional)

Green Chillies -3 nos

Ghee -2 tbsps

Ginger -I inch piece finely chopped

salt to taste

Coriander for garnishing

Asafoetida - a pinch

For the seasoning:

Mustard - 1/2 tsp

Urad dal - 1/2 tsp

Curry Leaves : few strands

Oil - 1 tbsp

Method :

1)Dry roast sooji well in a kadai till you get a nice aroma. When the rava turns slightly reddish in color, you can transfer it to a plate to cool down. Since I had bought double roasted sooji, I skipped this step. 

2)Heat oil in a pan . When the oil is hot enough add the above mentioned seasoning items once the mustard splutters. 

3)Add the chopped onions and saute till they become translucent.To this ,add chopped ginger and green chilies and saute for 2 min . 

4)Add the chopped veggies and saute them well until they are cooked and soft .You can sprinkle some water to speed up the process.(Do not overcook as the vegetables will again cook when you add water later ). 

5)Add 1 and 1/2 cups of water to this ,required salt,turmeric , asofoetida , 2 tbsps of milk (optional)and bring it to boil.After adding rava , the rava will quickly absorb the water and it becomes thick. Do not panic, the rava is getting cooked by absorbing water .
Once the water boils ,add the roasted sooji little by little and mix well without any lumps. 

6)Add 1 tpsp of oil initially and keep stirring.Then add 2 tbsp of ghee and stir forming a ball like and till it doesn't stick to the kadai. Your vegetable upma is ready to serve . 

7)Serve this hot ,steaming upma with coconut chutney topping it with a tbsp of ghee.Tips.
Adding 2 tbsps of milk to Upma makes it very soft and gives a bright ' white ' color to the Upma (incase you don't add turmeric). 

 
8)The amount of water required for upma sometimes depend on the quality of sooji/rawa .I usually add 1 and 1/2 cup of water initially. If you feel the rava is not cooked enough, then add the remaining water that we have kept as buffer by sprinkling and constant stirring. 

 
9)After you add salt to the boiling water ,taste the water to adjust the salt level for your upma. In case after you add sooji, you find the salt is less, dissolve salt in little amount of water and sprinkle it over the rava and stir well so that salt mixes well.