Semolina upma with carrot

Upma or upumav is a South Indian breakfast dish, popular in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. There are many different variations of it too. I modified an online recipe to accommodate the ingredients I had.

Firstly, the rava or sooji has to be roasted. So you need..

Semolina - 1 cup

Roast on low flame for about 10 minutes or until it becomes fragrant. Keep aside.

For the seasoning, you need..

Olive oil - 1 tsp

Carom seeds - 1/4 tsp

Curry leaf - a handful

Onion - 1

Green chili - 1

Ginger - 1"

Heat a shallow saucepan. Add oil. When the oil warms up, add carom seeds, then curry leaves. After a few seconds, add minced chili and ginger, and thinly sliced onion. Stir for a few minutes until the onions become soft. 

For the next steps, you need..

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Water - 2 and 1/2 cups

Carrot - 2 small, grated

Coriander leaves - a few

Add salt and mix. Add water and bring it to a boil. Now add roasted rava in small batches, stirring well in between.  Add carrot and coriander leaves too. Stir well to combine, all on low flame. The rava will absorb the moisture. Serve hot.

Upma is normally had with pickle. We combined ours with aaloo mattar. It worked! :-)