How to Make Apoorva Sripathi’s Vegetable Upma, a Delicious and Quick Savoury Breakfast

The fact that there is so much vitriol online is a given these days. That the majority of it is directed at upma (from time to time), a quick-to-make savoury breakfast dish, is undeserved. 

Talk about it to any South Indian child (or adult) and the response is the same: slander and hate about its lacklustre, sometimes gloopy, consistency; its mild flavours; and prudent existence. In the ’90s, a popular Indian company that makes jams, ketchup, and squashes, featured an advertisement where a boy ladles upma into a sundae bowl. Onto a bed of roasted cashew nuts and two sticks of carrot, he liberally pours tomato ketchup onto the mound, creating what he called an “upma sundae” to make it more palatable. The slogan for the ketchup was “add it and eat anything”. Even upma, especially upma.

The word upma comes from the Tamil words, uppu and maavu (as in salt and flour), because that is all one ideally needs to make upma – semolina and salt. But it is not restricted to just a single dish; you can make upma with just about anything: leftover bread, broken rice, leftover idlis, roasted vermicelli, cracked wheat, flattened rice, chapathis, millets, and even oats. Each home cook also has their own version of the semolina upma – with or without onions, served alongside chutney and sambar, mutton curry or pickle. Some even eat it with a spoonful of sugar or yoghurt.

What I love about the upma is that there are endless possibilities, where there is magic happening in the kitchen to bring together ingredients that seem to be uninspiring into a dish that is sustaining and quick. The upma can be as frugal as you want it to be or lavishly studded with cashews and ghee. Either way, it is the saviour of the home cook, offering both pleasure and value.

Serves 4

Ingredients

2 cups coarse semolina (I find that fine semolina makes the upma too sloppy)

3-4 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 teaspoons black mustard seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon urad dal (optional)
1 teaspoon grated ginger
4-5 curry leaves
2 green chillies, slit from the stalk
2 shallots, finely chopped
2 small carrots, finely chopped
¼ cup frozen peas
4-4.5 cups of water
Salt, to taste (perhaps starting with 1.5 teaspoons)
1 teaspoon asafoetida
1 tablespoon ghee/coconut oil (as garnish)
A handful of coriander, finely chopped (garnish)

In a dry work on medium-high, roast the semolina until fragrant, around 5-7 minutes. It is best to keep moving the grains around with a ladle so they don’t burn. (You can roast all the semolina you have and store in an airtight jar to save time in future). Remove from the wok and pour onto a clean, dry plate to cool.

In the same wok (or saucepan), add the vegetable oil and once it’s hot, add the mustard seeds and wait for them to pop. You can turn the flame on high, give it a quick stir, and stand aside. Once the mustard seeds pop and dance, add the cumin and the urad dal and stir. Then add the ginger, curry leaves, green chillies, and shallots. Fry until the onions are soft; some caramelisation or browning of the onions is great here. Add the carrots and peas and fry for a minute or two. If the wok is dry, sprinkle in some water and cover and cook.

Add the 4 cups of water, salt and asafoetida and bring everything to a rapid boil before adding all the semolina. Lower the flame, mix well to avoid lumps and stir till all the water is absorbed. Close with a lid and let the upma steam for two minutes. If you find that the upma is catching at the bottom, give it a quick stir and sprinkle about two to three tablespoons of water and mix again.

The upma is done when the grains aren’t individually standing out and have combined to make a hefty porridge. Switch off the flame, add the ghee/coconut oil and the finely chopped coriander and fluff it up well. Serve hot with a spicy pickle or a spoonful of sugar or yoghurt and store the leftovers once cooled down in an airtight container and refrigerate.

Notes: You can omit everything else but the mustard seeds, onions, curry leaves, ginger, salt and water and a squeeze of lemon before eating. The amount of oil is necessary to make an upma that is fluffy and soft. If you prefer something gloopier, add 4.5 cups of water.



Apoorva Sripathi is a writer and editor from Chennai, and the co-founder of the independent magazine CHEESE. She also writes shelf offering, a food and culture newsletter. You can find all her work at apoorvasripathi.com. All photography by Apoorva Sripathi.

You can read all of Apoorva’s recipes on Something Curated here.