Easy and healthy breakfast dish prepared with rava / semolina, spinach, and tomato as main ingredients. It is basically another variety of popular rava upma recipe with spinach and tomato flavor.

Rava Upma or Uppittu recipe is one of the common breakfast recipes prepared in Karnataka. Today when I saw a bunch of spinach in the refrigerator, I decided to give a twist to the regular rava upma and make it more healthy. Trust me, my husband could not figure out that I had added spinach in the upma, but he did ask about the green color.

This recipe is an easy and healthy way to feed your kids hidden green leafy veggies into their diet. My blog's other Upma recipes are Restaurant Style Rava Upma, Avarekalu Upma, Cauliflower Upma, Vermicelli Upma.

Check out the blog post on how to make Instant Rava Upma mix recipe at home.

Which Semolina/Sooji/Rava can I use for this recipe?

There's a huge variety of semolina/rava available in the market. Most commonly used are bansi rava and bombay sooji rava, which are readily available in Indian grocery stores or amazon. I have used roasted bombay sooji rava for this recipe.

How to make Spinach Upma

Add chopped spinach(palak), tomato, green chilies, and blend to a smooth paste without adding any water in a blender.

Start by roasting the sooji until it's fragrant on a medium-low flame in a pan. Do not burn or brown the sooji from the bottom, so be careful. Remove it into a clean, dry bowl or plate. Note: You can do this step of roasting sooji in advance and save time for busy mornings.

Add oil to a heavy-bottom pan. Add mustard seeds, jeera (cumin) seeds, urad dal, and cashew nuts, and saute for 1 minute until they start changing color. Next, add chopped ginger and curry leaves. Saute for another 20 seconds.

Add spinach tomato puree to this pan and cook for 2-3 minutes. It slightly changes its color.

Later add the water, salt and let it come to a boil. Once it starts boiling, start adding the roasted sooji at a time. Stir sooji continuously after each addition in one direction with a spatula to avoid lumps.

Then cover the pan with a lid and set heat to low. Let it remain like that for 2-3 mins still all moisture is absorbed. Turn off the heat.

Remove lid, add lemon juice, coriander leaves, and two tablespoons of ghee. Ghee is optional but recommended. Mix well.

Serve the spinach upma hot with coconut chutney, pickle, sambar.

What to serve with Spinach Upma?

Serve Spinach Upma with coconut chutney, sambar, or peanut chutney powder and a cup of filter coffee.

Tips

Do not burn the rava while roasting it. Keep the flame on medium-low and mix it constantly until it fragrant. Adding cumin or jeera while roasting rava enhances the upma flavor. But you can completely avoid jeera if you don't like.
You can roast upma rava beforehand and store it in an airtight container. This saves a lot of time during the busy morning or days.
Sooji to water ratio is another important aspect to get restaurant style upma. So use 3 cups water for 1 cup of sooji - this results in soft and creamy consistency. I have tried 2.5 cups, but I think 3 cups works best.If you like even more thin or watery consistency upma use 4 cups of water for 1 cup of sooji.
Please do not reduce or skip the quantity of oil and ghee. You cannot achieve the restaurant style soft texture. You may use even more for a softer and tastier upma.
Do not add all the rava to the water in one go. Add the roasted rava little at a time stirring after each addition. This way the upma will not form any lumps.
Don't forget to add lemon or lime juice along with coriander for garnish at the end it really helps to enhance flavors of the upma. Some people also add 2 tablespoon of fresh grated coconut in the end.
The final texture of upma also depends on the type of rava/sooji.
Tastes the best when served hot or warm.
Do not skip curry leaves. More the better.
Add more green chilies If you like spicy upma.
This recipe can also be made using bansi rava (Yellow colored sooji) but I highly recommend to use rava sooji(fine variety) for this recipe.

Variations

Add vegetables of your choice like peas, carrot, beans, capsicum and corn to make healthy vegetable spinach upma.
You can also add onions to this recipe.
You can use bansi rava (yellow-colored sooji) as well.
A few people also add grated coconut before serving.

More Breakfast Recipes

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