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Home » Recipes » Breakfast

Upma Recipe (Rava Upma)

Published: Jun 20, 2019 · Modified: Apr 26, 2022 by Bhavana Patil ·This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

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This easy Upma Recipe is a classic Indian breakfast prepared with roasted semolina (sooji), and a few spices in South Indian homes and restaurants. Rava Upma is an easy, healthy, nutritious, and filling dish. Also known by other names like sooji ka upma, uppittu, uppumavu or uppeet.

You can make this dish in less than 15-20 mins. I've grown up eating other upma recipes like Semiya Upma, Avarekalu Upma, Bread Upma for breakfast.

rava upma served on a banana leaf garnished with roasted cashew and coriander leaves with side of coconut chutney
rava upma

What is Upma?

Rava Upma is also known as uppumavu or uppittu. This breakfast recipe is very common in South India, Maharashtra, and Sri Lanka. This thick, porridge-like breakfast recipe is made from course dry-roasted semolina.

Rava Upma or Uppittu recipe, is one of the most common breakfast recipes prepared in Karnataka. In many hotels and tiffin centers, this Uppittu and Kesaribath are served together as chow chow bath. In some places, Kharabath is served instead of uppittu.

Today I am sharing the basic version of Karnataka style upma, just like the hotel ones. It's a very simple recipe with easily available ingredients at home.

My mom always uses Bansi Rava (Medium Yellow Rava) and iron Kadai, but I used Bombay Rava (fine white ones) and a steel pan.

This is a no onion rava upma recipe. For variations, we can add onions and finely chopped vegetables, masala powders, or spices and call it masala upma or vegetable upma.

Water to rava ratio and oil + ghee decide the texture and softness of the dish. So if you like it dry, use rava and water in the ratio of 1:2.5. But I have used 1:3 to get soft hotel-style upma. 

Rava Upma Ingredients

To make this rava upma recipe, gather all ingredients.

  • Rava/Semolina/Sooji: I have used fine variety sooji in this recipe. You can also use coarse variety. Semolina is available in Indian grocery stores.
  • Oil: Use any cooking oil.
  • Mustard seeds, cumin, urad dal & chana dal: added for tempering.
  • Cashews: added for crunch and taste. It's optional.
  • Green chilies: I have used 2 Thai green chilies.
  • Curry leaves: added to enhance the flavor.
  • Ginger: use minced or grated ginger.
  • Hing (Asafoetida): used for flavoring. You can also use gluten-free asafoetida.
  • Onion: I have used finely chopped onions.
  • Milk: adding milk enhances the flavor of the upma, however, you can skip and replace it with water.
  • Lemon juice: freshly squeezed lemon juice tastes the best.
  • Garnish: use freshly chopped coriander leaves.
Rava Upma Ingredients
upma ingredients

How to make Upma

Start by roasting the sooji along with one teaspoon of cumin (jeera) 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.

step to roast semolina and jeera collage

Add oil to a heavy bottom pan, add mustard seeds, chana dal, urad dal, cashew nuts, and saute for 1 minute until they start changing color.

Next, add chopped ginger, green chilies, asafetida, and curry leaves. Saute another 20 secs.

step to temper upma with spices curry leaves ginger collage

Next add water, milk and let the water come to a boil. Do not add salt directly at this stage; milk will curdle.

Once the water & milk comes to a boil, add salt, and start adding the (roasted sooji + jeera) a little at a time. Stir continuously after each addition in one direction with a spatula to avoid lumps.

step to boil water and milk and then add roasted rava collage

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

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

step to cook and add ghee and cilantro collage

Serve hot with coconut chutney, pickle, and sambar.

What to serve with Rava Upma?

Serve upma with coconut chutney, kesari bath, sambar, or peanut chutney powder, and a cup of filter coffee.

Tips to Make Best Upma

  • Do not burn the Rava while roasting it. Keep the flame on medium-low and mix it constantly until it is fragrant. Adding cumin or jeera while roasting rava enhances the flavor. But you can completely avoid jeera if you don’t like it.
  • 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 of water for 1 cup of sooji - this results in a soft and creamy consistency. I have tried 2, 2.5 cups, but I think 3 cups work best. If you like even more thin or watery consistency upma use 4 cups of water for 1 cup of sooji.
  • I have added 2.5 cups of water and ½ cup of milk to this recipe. Milk is optional but it definitely adds to the flavor.
  • Please do not reduce or skip the quantity of oil and ghee. You cannot achieve the restaurant-style soft texture.
  • Do not add all the rava to the water in one go. Add the roasted rava a little at a time stirring after each addition to avoid lumps.
  • Do not skip curry leaves. More the better.

Variations

  • You can make many variations of upma by replacing sooji with other ingredients like Bread Upma, Vermicelli Upma, Poha, Sabudana Upma, Broken Wheat/Dalia upma, oats upma.
  • Masala upma is a variation of rava upma, also known as kharabath in most tiffin centers in Karnataka. We generally use vangibath powder along with red chili powder for this.
  • You can also add vegetables of your choice like peas, carrot, beans, capsicum, and corn to make a healthy vegetable upma recipe.
  • You can make this recipe using bansi rava (yellow colored sooji), but I highly recommend using rava sooji (fine variety). 
  • Few people also add grated coconut before serving.
Restaurant Style Upma Recipe

FAQs

Which Semolina can I use for this recipe?

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

What is the difference between bansi rava and sooji rava?

Both kinds of semolina (rava) are obtained from wheat but different varieties. Bansi rava is darker in color than plain sooji rava. Both are coarsely ground forms of wheat where sooji rava is a finer version of the two.

More Breakfast Recipes

  • Vegetable Panniyaram (Paddu)
  • Karnataka Style Mandakki Usli
  • Hariyali Poha
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  • Idli
  • Dosa
  • Pongal

Explore more Breakfast recipes for your next meal.

Tried this recipe?Don’t forget to give a ★ rating below
rava upma served on a banana leaf garnished with roasted cashew and coriander leaves with side of coconut chutney

Restaurant Style Upma Recipe (Rava Upma)

Bhavana Patil
Restaurant Style Upma Recipe (Rava Upma) is a Indian breakfast made with roasted semolina and few spices.
4.91 from 10 votes
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Servings: 2
Calories : 132
Course: Breakfast, brunch, Main Course
Cuisine: Indian, Karnataka Style, South Indian
Diet: Vegetarian
Method: Stovetop
Prep Time : 5 minutes
Cook Time : 15 minutes
Total Time : 20 minutes

Ingredients
  

Measuring cup used 1 cup = 250 ml

  • 1 cup sooji/semolina/rava
  • 1 teaspoon jeera (cumin) seeds
  • 2 tablespoons oil or ghee
  • 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
  • 2 teaspoons split urad dal
  • 2 teaspoons split chana dal
  • 8-10 cashew-nuts
  • 1 teaspoon ginger minced
  • 3 green chilies finely chopped
  • 2 stalks curry leaves
  • a big pinch asafetida(hing)
  • 2.5 cups water
  • ½ cup milk
  • salt to taste
  • juice of half lemon
  • 2 tablespoons coriander leaves (cilantro)
  • 2 tablespoons ghee

Instructions
 

Stovetop Pot Method:

  • To make this upma, firstly gather all ingredients .
  • Start by roasting the sooji along with 1 teaspoon of cumin (jeera) until it’s fragrant on medium low flame in a pan. Do not burn or brown the sooji from 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 in a heavy bottom pan, add mustard seeds, channa dal ,urad dal ,cashew nuts and saute for 1 minute until they start changing color.
  • Next add chopped ginger ,green chillies ,curry leaves and asafetida (hing). Saute another 20 secs.
  • Next add water, milk and let the water come to boil.Do not add salt directly at this stage, milk will curdle.
  • Once the water & milk comes to a boil, add salt ,start adding the (roasted sooji + jeera) little at a time.Stir sooji  continuously after each addition in one direction with a spatula to avoid lumps.
  • Then cover the pan with 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 2 tablespoon of ghee.Ghee is optional but recommended.Mix well.
  • Serve the upma hot with coconut chutney ,pickle ,sambar .

Video

YouTube video

Notes

  1. 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.
  2. 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 ,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
  3. In this recipe I have added 2.5 cups of water and ½ cup of milk.Milk is optional but it definitely adds to the flavor and makes upma smooth
  4. 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.
  5. 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
  6. Do not skip curry leaves.More the better.
  7. Tastes the best when served hot or warm.
 
Note:Nutrition values are my best estimates. If you rely on them for your diet, use your preferred nutrition calculator.

Nutrition

Serving: 1cupCalories: 132kcalCarbohydrates: 21gProtein: 3.5gFat: 4gSaturated Fat: 0.3gTrans Fat: 0.1gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 179mgPotassium: 191mgFiber: 2gSugar: 2.7gVitamin A: 400IUVitamin C: 46.2mgCalcium: 170mgIron: 7.7mg
Keyword karnataka style, rava upma, restaurant style, sooji upma recipe, upma recipe, uppitu recipe, vegan
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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Anonymous says

    April 27, 2020 at 8:30 pm

    Tried it, very nice. Water measur is 4 cups to 1 cup of sooji, else sooji seemed like raw

    Reply
    • bhavana says

      April 28, 2020 at 7:43 pm

      Thank you.Yeah 1cup sooji to 4cups water also works very well when u want really restaurant style upma.3:1 also works equally good.

      Reply
  2. Reshma says

    May 06, 2020 at 5:57 am

    5 stars
    Upma recipe is awesome ,first time he.made upma is delicious. Thank you Bhavana.???

    Reply
  3. Reshma says

    May 06, 2020 at 5:59 am

    5 stars
    Upma recipe is awesome , upma is delicious for the first time. Thank you Bhavana.???

    Reply
    • bhavana says

      May 06, 2020 at 11:47 pm

      Thank you so much reshma.Glad you liked it!

      Reply
  4. Nilay says

    May 14, 2020 at 11:02 am

    I tried it. It's very nice. Thank you Bhavana ma'am.

    Reply
    • bhavana says

      May 14, 2020 at 11:37 am

      Thank you for trying and letting me know .Glad you liked it Nilay

      Reply
  5. Renu says

    February 11, 2021 at 1:49 pm

    Wow! upma using milk. Not heard of it, surely I have to try . Thank you for posting this

    Reply
    • Bhavana Patil says

      February 11, 2021 at 1:58 pm

      Hey Renu, Milk enhances the flavor and also makes it soft..Let me know if you give a try.

      Reply
      • Anonymous says

        July 19, 2021 at 9:24 pm

        Hi every time I try, it comes out very well
        I added a tip from another recipe.
        Add 2 tbsp whisked curd just before switching the flame off.
        It gives creamy texture
        Sumali

        Reply
        • Bhavana Patil says

          July 19, 2021 at 10:26 pm

          Thank you so much for your feedback Sumali. I will definitely try adding curd and see next time.. Thank you again 🙂

          Reply
  6. Kess says

    March 04, 2022 at 7:57 am

    Hi!

    Do you have keto version of this?

    Also do you have a tamarind rice keto version, I've a few of your keto recipes already and they came out FANTASTIC!!!!

    Reply
    • Bhavana Patil says

      March 05, 2022 at 9:30 am

      Hi Kess, Yes, I do here is the keto version of upma https://www.indianveggiedelight.com/cauliflower-upma-keto-upma/. Unfortunately don't have tamarind rice keto version.

      Reply

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