Uppumavu Recipe | Upma Recipe | How To Make Perfect Upma At Home | Kerala Style Rava Upma Recipe

Upma Recipe With Step By Step Photos And Video

Upma or Uppumavu is a quick and easy South Indian Breakfast. This recipe is suitable for our tired or lazy days. Very simple procedure and ready within ten minutes. But you know, there are many upma haters in our family. Let us surprise them with this tasty, non-sticky and aromatic upma.

What is upma or Uppumavu ?

Upma is an easy aromatic south Indian breakfast dish made with semolina. Rather than the name upma, uppumavu is quite familiar for the majority of Keralites including me. Just like that, upma is called uppittu or kharabath in Karnataka, uppuma in Tamil Nadu and uppindi and upma in Andra.

Just like the difference in its name, you can feel considerable difference in its consistency, flavor and taste. In each state the major ingredient will be semolina or rava. But the difference in tempering and cooking oil provide unique taste and flavor in each state.

Today, the recipe I share here is the Kerala uppumavu recipe. Luckily, we got chances to stay and feel the culture and taste of these south Indian states and of course I have tasted upma from Tamil Nadu, Andra and Karnataka, so I am giving this note from my experience.

How to Make Kerala uppumavu ?

Making Kerala uppumavu is very easy. The dry roasted semolina is simmered in spicy and aromatic boiling water. Today, I am sharing the easiest upma recipe in which the semolina is flavored with curry leaves, shallot, green chilies, ginger, coconut oil and ghee.

What are the Ingredients of Uppumavu ?

Semolina : - The major ingredient of uppumavu is semolina. Semolina is the hard grains left after milling the flour. It has a grainy consistency. It is also known as cream of wheat or semolina flour in English. Other names are rava in Tamil and Malayalam, sooji in Hindi.

Oil : - To make Kerala style uppumavu, use coconut oil. If you don't like its flavor, then use any oil of your choice. I usually prefer to use coconut oil with a few teaspoons of ghee. Ghee will make the upuma aromatic.

Spices :- Only shallots, green chilies, ginger and curry leaves are necessary.

Seasoning method: You can try different seasoning methods, just like using mustard seeds along with split back gram and split chickpeas. A pinch of asafetida can be used.

How to Make the upma non-sticky?

You can make a non-sticky and dry upma very easily by following a few tricks

Dry roast the semolina perfectly
Use enough oil for cooking.
Add semolina only when the water come to a rolling boil.
Stir continuously while adding the semolina. Stop stirring as soon as the addition is stopped.

Serving suggestions

Upma is generally made in Kerala houses for breakfast and sometimes as an after school snack. You can serve with a spoonful of sugar and a cup of hot coffee. But I usually serve with small ripe bananas, sometimes with boiled Nendran or with omelet. Upma with kadala ularthiyathu is another combination.

Upma Recipe | Rava Upma | Uppumavu Recipe | How To Make

Perfect Rava Uppuma | Kerala Style Upma Recipe | Sooji Ka Upma

South Indian Breakfast With Semolina

Preparation time: 10 minutes / Cooking time: 10 minutes / Total time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

1.5 cup semolina / rava
1/2 cup shallots, peeled and finely chopped (or one small sized onion, peeled and finely chopped)
2 to 3 green chilies, chopped finely
1.5"piece ginger, peeled and chopped finely
1 spring of curry leaves
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
2 tbsp oil
1 teaspoon ghee
2.5 cups of water
Salt as needed

How To Make Uppumavu At Home- video

Uppumavu Preparation with Step by Step photos

Uppumavu or Upma preparation is quite an easy task. It will be ready within ten to fifteen minutes. Try to cook in a thick bottomed and wide mouthed pan for convenience.

Step 1 : - Dry Roasting

This is a crucial step, only the perfectly dry roasted rava will give you the perfect dry upma. If you skip this step, the upma will be sticky and tasteless.

Heat one wide mouthed and thick bottomed wok over high flame. When the wok turns hot, reduce the flame to medium or low. Do not over heat the pan. If you over heat the wok, the semolina or rava will burn quickly.
Put 1.5 cups of semolina and dry roast it with continuous stirring.
After a few minutes, the semolina will turn aromatic and dry. You can see the difference, the rava grains will shrink and will turn a little bit darker in color.
Immediately transfer into a dry bowl and set aside.

You can store the dry roast the semolina in air tight containers. After dry roasting, wait till the semolina comes to room temperature, then store in a clean and dry bottle. Even if I bought double roasted semolina, I would like to dry roast it again before use. Try to use large grained semolina for best results.

Step 2: - Making uppma

To make upumavu, I will recommend you to use a non-stick pan, especially if you want to reduce the oil consumption. Otherwise, the semolina will stick to the bottom very quickly.

Keep the same pan over high flame. Pour 2 tablespoons of oil and 1 teaspoon ghee. If you prefer vegan upma, you can skip ghee. Ghee is to get some extra flavor.
When the oil turns hot, put 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds. The mustard seeds will crackle immediately.
When the crackling stops, reduce the flame to medium and put one spring of curry leaves. More curry leaves means more flavor.
Put 1/2 cup finely chopped shallots (or one small sized onion, finely chopped), 2 to 3 green chilies, and ginger.
Sauté till the shallots turns translucent. Never over cook or brown the shallots.
Increase the flame to high and pour 2.5 cups of water and salt to taste. Depending on the type of semolina and the extend of dry roasting, the amount of water will vary. Usually it will come around 2.5 cups to 3 cups.
Wait till the water come to a rolling boil.
Hold the bowl with the roasted semolina with one hand and slowly add it in water. Stir continuously while adding the semolina. This will help to avoid lumps and even cooking.
Once added the semolina fully in water, stop stirring, reduce the flame to low and leave it untouched until the water evaporates fully.
Then start stirring and breaking the lumps till you get a dry upma.
When the upma comes in a lump free and dry texture, stop stirring.
Serve hot and enjoy.