Sooji Upma with Five Treasures

Add a dash of color and goodness of vegetables to your breakfast

Five Treasure Rawa Upma

Sunday morning, and time to decide  what to make for breakfast. Something that is filling –have a pile of household work to do after that first meal. And if it is not tasty and piping hot on a rainy morning, why are we thinking of something other than two slices of bread?

Rawa Upma

My heart and thoughts were in Chennai where Mom must be tossing up something nice and  missing us. 

I was mentally in Bengalooru too, where I’ve had lovely “Khara Bath”. And lo..I’d decided on what to make.  A five treasure upma, with “Bansi Rawa”—that  slightly larger variety of semolina/sooji.

Five colors that add crunch,taste and flavor

The “treasures” I had handy were nicely cut lobia—a variety of beans that is not the usual French beans—corn, strangely grown in India and sold as “American Sweet corn” by vendors on the roadside in Chandni Chowk, sharp and fiery looking red chillies  whose bark seems worse than bite, the can’t-do-without onions, and the colourful Ooty carrots.

In less than 12 minutes the breakfast was ready, and we were ready to hog!

Roasted Sooji or Rawa

Ingredients

Semolina/sooji/rawa—1 cup

Your own variety of treasure—totalling about 3 cups

Water-3 cups

Salt to taste

Curry leaves-a few

Vegetable oil-3 teaspoons

Ghee/clarified butter-2 teaspoons

Chopped green coriander- a tablespoon full

South Indian Tempering – One table spoon full

Traditional  South Indian tempering/seasoning

Procedure:

Dry roast the sooji, till you can take in a lovely aroma, and the tiny grainy things in the pan turn golden in colour. Take out in a plate.

In the pan, add the oil, and place on the gas. When it turns hot, add the onions, sauté  for a minute. 

Now add the other treasures , processed such that they don’t take more than two minutes to cook as you sauté. Add the salt, and stir.

Five treasures and shoji simmering away

Now add three cups of water, and when it boils, add the ghee. Reduce the gas flame, and gradually add the roasted rawa , holding the plate on one hand, and stirring the ingredients in the pan, with the other. When the rawa has been blended with the water and vegetables, place a lid on the pan, and cook in lowest flame, for about five minutes.

Open the lid, and check. By now the water would have all been absorbed, the rawa cooked , and the vegetables forming a nice colourful ring on top.

You can empty this in any tableware of your choice, and garnish  with coriander and South Indian tempering, and serve.

But I prefer to throw in the coriander and the  South Indian tempering –which can conveniently be  kept ready  to be used in two or three items over the next two or three days--,  onto the Upmaand mix it all nicely, and make individual plates.

Upma with green chutney

To do this, grease any small bowl/cup/muffin mould, and pack it with upma, tight. Quickly invert it onto a plate when it is still hot, garnish as you fancy. Many do it with fried cashew nuts, but  for the calorie –conscious, a dash of green or red, is perfect. Serve with any chutney, or gooey pickle