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Upma
Also known as उपमा · உப்புமா · uppuma · rava upma
Semolina toasted then cooked soft with mustard seeds, curry leaves, ginger and cashews. A warm, savoury breakfast that eats like polenta.
Typical serving
360 kcal
usually 280–460 kcal
 Protein | 9 g |
|---|---|
 Carbs | 50 g |
 Fat | 14 g |
Reference figures for a dish as it is commonly cooked — never a measurement of your plate. The range is the honest part: two kitchens make this differently. In the app, a photograph replaces the guess.
Ingredients
Serves 2 · dimmer marks are storecupboard
- 130gbulgur — wheat rava, the coarse cracked kind — fine semolina works the same way and drinks a little more water
- 20gcashews
- 1½ tbspghee
- 1onion
- 2green chillies
- 1 thumbginger
- 15curry leaves
- 1 tspmustard seeds and urad dal
- ½lemon
- 1 handfulcoriander
Method
6 steps
grill · 8mRava dry-roasted in the pan with no fat at all, moved constantly, until it smells nutty and a pinch rubbed between the fingers is dry and separate. Skipped, upma sets into glue, which everyone who cooks it learns exactly once.
boil · 5mWater measured and put on: a little over twice the volume of the rava, and actually boiling when it goes in. Cold water into hot rava lumps on contact.
fry · 8mCashews in the ghee until they colour and out, then mustard seeds and urad dal until they pop and go gold, then curry leaves, chilli, ginger and onion cooked soft.
fold · 4mRoasted rava in and turned through the fat, then the boiling water poured in a thin stream with the other hand stirring the whole time.
steam · 8m walk awayLid on, lowest heat, until every bit of water has gone and the surface is pocked with little craters.
finish · 3mCashews back on, lemon and coriander off the heat. It should mound on the spoon rather than pour off it.
Worth knowing
The rava must be dry-roasted before any water arrives — skip it and upma turns to glue, which every South Indian learns exactly once.
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