VEGETABLE UPMA

It’s important for me to keep my blog filled with the basic recipes as well as different, difficult ones that one has never tried to prepare. The reason being if its a person who is just starting to try her/his (or bachelors) culinary skills, I assume they would require to make something very basic dishes like dosa, upma, pohe, idli, dhal etc. But keep in mind, even if its not a very fancy dish, one needs to know thoroughly how to make them, otherwise sometimes the simplest of the simple recipes can get spoilt.

Below is the recipe for UPMA (Uppittu). This one is VEGETABLE UPMA.

Rawa – 1 cup
Water – 2½ cups

Veggies required: (all fine chopped)
Onion (1)
Carrot (1)
Capsicum (1)
Potato (1)

Tomato (1) optional
Peas (½ cup)

Curry leaves – 1 strand
Coriander leaves - ½ cup
Coconut – 1 tblspn
Grated Ginger (optional)
Green chillies – 4-5
Salt to taste

For tempering (tadka):
Oil - 4tspns
Mustard - 1tspn
Bengal gram -1 tspn
Black gram – 1 tspn
Turmeric (optional)

Preparation:
1. Fry rawa on a low flame for about 5-10 minutes until its gives a good aroma. Take care not to burn it. Spread it on a plate.
2. Take oil in a big pan (kadai), add mustard, Bengal gram, black gram, curry leaves, green chillies all one after another in the same order.
3. Now add onions and fry till they are translucent. Add turmeric or you can skip this.
4. Add the other veggies and pour in water and add enough salt and coconut, coriander leaves.
5. Let the vegetables get cooked. Once it’s cooked, add the rawa and keep it on a low flame covered for 2-3 mins.
6. Its important to serve your food nicely. To serve upma I use this method. I fill it in a bowl till the brim and toss it upside down. Before doing it add a slice of tomato and coriander leaves chopped in the bowl and then add upma. The result is what you can see above.