Oats Upmaઓટ્સ ઉપમા
Upma made with oats instead of semolina: lighter, higher in fibre and ready in twenty minutes. With vegetables stirred through it becomes a balanced breakfast rather than just a filler.
Ingredients
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- 1 cup oats
- 2 tbsp oil or ghee
- Mustard seeds, cumin, urad dal, curry leaves
- 1 onion, 1 carrot, ¼ cup peas
- 2 green chillies, ginger
- 2 cups hot water, salt
- Lemon and coriander
Method
- Dry roast the oats for 3 minutes and set aside.
- Temper oil with mustard seeds, cumin, urad dal and curry leaves.
- Sauté the onion, ginger, chillies and vegetables until tender.
- Add hot water and salt, bring to a boil, then stir in the roasted oats slowly.
- Cover for 3 minutes, finish with lemon and coriander and serve.
Tips
- Roasting the oats keeps the upma from going gluey.
- Always use hot water.
Storing and reheating
Eat it within twenty minutes of making it. Oats keep drinking up liquid, so the upma sets into a solid mass quickly. It keeps a day in the fridge but turns cake-like as it cools. To reheat, sprinkle over two spoons of hot water, cover and steam three minutes. It does not survive a long day in a tiffin.
What you can swap
- Thick rolled oats suit this method best. With instant oats, use only a cup and a half of water and switch the heat off the moment they go in, or you get porridge. Steel-cut oats will not cook through this way at all.
- No urad dal? Use chana dal or skip it. It is not there for flavour but for a bit of crunch in the tempering, and a few roasted peanuts do the same job.
- Instead of carrot and peas, use finely chopped capsicum, French beans or sweetcorn. If you add tomato, put it in after the other vegetables and cook until it breaks down, otherwise the upma tastes sour.
- With no lemon, add a pinch of amchur along with the vegetables. Added at the end, amchur keeps a raw, dusty taste.
What to serve with it
A weekday breakfast. Serve with chaas, plain curd or green chutney, and coconut chutney if you happen to have it. It also stands up as a light dinner, in which case a couple of papads alongside make it a meal.
Mistakes to avoid
- Do not use the rava upma water ratio for every kind of oats. One cup of rolled oats takes two cups of water; give instant oats that much and you have porridge.
- Do not leave the pan on the flame after the oats go in. Switch the heat off and cover for three minutes. The residual steam is enough, and continued heat makes the oats sticky.
- Do not add the water while the vegetables are still half raw. The oats only get three minutes, and carrot and peas will not soften in that time. They must be fully cooked before the water goes in.
- Squeeze the lemon with the heat off. In a hot pan the lemon's fragrance disappears and the sourness turns slightly bitter.
Questions people ask
Which oats should I use for upma?
Thick rolled oats. The flakes stay whole, so they take up water without collapsing. Instant or quick oats are closer to powder and dissolve. Look for the word rolled, or thick, on the packet.
Can sticky oats upma be fixed?
Partly. Put a teaspoon of oil in a kadhai and toss the upma on high heat for two or three minutes to drive off the extra moisture, which separates the grains a little. It will never be fully fluffy. Next time, dry roast the oats properly first.
Can I make it the night before?
It will not be good; the oats absorb liquid overnight and set solid. Instead, chop the vegetables and dry roast the oats the night before and keep them in boxes. In the morning the tempering and the rest take about eight minutes.
