Upma Recipe (Rava Upma)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

FAQs

More Breakfast Recipes

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

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