Instant Pot Vermicelli Upma (Semiya Upma)

This Instant pot Vermicelli Upma (Semiyan Upma) or Seviyan Upma is a traditional and popular South Indian breakfast made with vermicelli, vegetables, and few spices. This semiya upma is an easy one-pot healthy recipe that you can cook easily under 15 minutes in the pressure cooker.

Vermicelli is known by various local names in India. In Kannada it is known as Shavige, Telugu name for vermicelli is Semiya or sevalu, and Seviyan in North India.

Vermicelli Upma is a Kids friendly recipe. It can be served for breakfast or packed for lunch box for both kids and adults.

Kids love it because they think its kind of pasta or noodles. Vermicelli are made from either rice or wheat. I usually use wheat semiya of either Bambino or MTR Brand.

Today I am showing how to make Vermicelli Upma in Instant Pot Pressure Cooker. I prefer to use Bambino vermicelli to make this upma. 

The ratio of vermicelli and water is 1:1.25 in the Instant pot but may depend on the quality and type of vermicelli used.

You can make many variations of upma by replacing vermicelli (semiya) with other ingredients like Bread Upma, Rava Upma, Poha, Sabudana Upma, Broken Wheat/Dalia upma, rice upma, oats upma.

Now a days ready roasted vermicelli’s are also available in the market which makes the cooking faster and quicker.

Looking for more Breakfast ideas, then check Restaurant Style Upma Recipe, Mandakki Usli, Spicy Tawa Idli, Vegetable Paniyaram, Spinach Poori, Avarekalu Upma, Hariyali Poha, Palak Moong Dal Dosa.

Which Vermicelli can i use for this recipe?

There’s a huge variety of vermicelli varieties available in the market e.g. made from rice, semolina, or wheat flour.

I have used Indian vermicelli made up of wheat flour which is roasted and easily available in Indian grocery stores or amazon. 

How to roast vermicelli if you have unroasted variety?

If you have unroasted vermicelli or seviyan in your pantry then you need to roast in little oil for 3-4 minutes or till it gets light brown color.

I used roasted Bambino Vermicelli to make this seviyan upma, but you can use any other brand too.

Ingredients

First lets gather all the ingredients required for making Semiya Upma.

How to make Vermicelli Upma in Instant Pot

Firstly, dry roast the vermicelli in the instant pot itself until it turns light golden brown on Saute Mode. I have used store brought roasted bambino vermicelli for this recipe.

In SAUTE mode, Add ghee or oil, and once it's hot add mustard seeds, jeera, urad dal, chana dal and saute until dal changes into light golden brown.

Then add green chilies, ginger, curry leaves, hing and saute for few seconds.

Add chopped onion and saute until onion becomes light brown. 

Add chopped mixed vegetables, roasted vermicelli, turmeric powder, water, salt and mix well.

Furthermore, close the lid on the pot, and turn pressure valve to SEALING position.

Set the pot to MANUAL/PRESSURE COOK (High Pressure) and timer to 1 minute.

When the instant pot beeps, do a 5-minute NATURAL PRESSURE RELEASE (NPR), which means release pressure manually 5 minutes after the instant pot beeps. If you are in a hurry, you can also do a QUICK PRESSURE RELEASE (QR) manually.

Lastly, remove the steel insert from the instant pot and add lemon juice and garnish with fresh coriander leaves and gently fluff the vermicelli with a fork.

Vermicelli Upma is ready to be enjoyed with coconut chutney.

Stovetop Pot Method

I have also shared how to make stovetop vegetable vermicelli upma on my blog.

Tips & Variations

• Make sure to use roasted vermicelli, raw vermicelli will become mushy.
• You can use vegetables of your choice.
• For kids box, you can replace oil with ghee, which makes it a healthier choice. Also, you can reduce the green chilies.
• You can also add roasted cashews or peanuts (groundnuts) to make it more healthy and crunchier.
• If you do not have an Instant pot, Check the instructions to make seviyan upma on stovetop.
• You can double the recipe with the same cooking time.

Other Instant Pot Recipes

• Veg Biryani
• Beetroot Rice
• Spinach Rice
• Tomato Rice
• Cabbage Rice
• Coconut Milk Pulao