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    Home » Breakfasts / Snacks

    Upma Recipe (South Indian Rava Upma)

    Published: Feb 26, 2015 · Last Modified: Aug 24, 2022 by Kanan Patel / 16 Comments

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    Upma Recipe (South Indian Rava Upma) Pin

    Looking for a quick 20 minutes breakfast recipe for your busy weekdays? If Yes, then this South Indian Rava Upma recipe will be a keeper. Plus, it tastes too good with a cup of chai or coffee.

    How to make Upma Recipe (South Indian Rava Upma)

    Traditional South Indian Upma Recipe

    This authentic rava upma recipe is made from semolina (sooji or rava). And it has a light fluffy texture. It is usually served with chutney (mostly coconut chutney) and south Indian filter coffee. Or it can be enjoyed just plain or with a sprinkle of sev on top.

    The different verity of upma recipes

    • Oats upma  
    • Quinoa upma  
    • Bread upma  
    • Semiya upma  
    • Aval upma (poha upma)
    • Tomato upma
    • Vegetable upma
    • Idli upma
    • Dalia upma

    Which type of rava is used for rava upma?

    • To make rava upma, coarse semolina (sooji or rava) is used. There are two kinds of rava available in the market. One is fine verity also known as Bombay rava and second is coarse.
    • You can use roasted rava which is easily available in the market. In this case, skip the roasting step and your upma will be ready in 10 minutes only.
    • Or you can buy the regular unroasted verity and dry roast them at home. Let it cool down and store in the container. So whenever you want to make rava upma for breakfast, you will have roasted semolina ready and breakfast will be done in a jiffy.  

    How to make Rava Upma?

    1. Heat the oil or ghee in a pan on medium heat. Once hot add mustard seeds and let them pop.
    2. Then add urad dal and chana dal, saute for 30 seconds.
      raosting urad dal, chana dal
    3. Add cashews.
    4. Fry till dal and cashews are light brown in color.
      fry cashews for upma
    5. Then saute in green chili, ginger and curry leaves for a minute.
    6. Add chopped onions along with salt.
      saute ginger, green chili and curry leaves
    7. Mix well and cook.
    8. Cook till onions turn soft and translucent. please don’t brown the onions.
      cooking till onions are soft
    9. Add rava.
    10. Roast rava for 6-7 minutes with stirring continuously. rava will change its color very slightly not a major change.
      Roasting semolina for rava upma
    11. While you are roasting the rava, warm up the water. I microwaved the water for 1-2 minutes. You can heat the water on the stove top as well.
    12. Once rava is roasted, add water with stirring constantly. So there will be no lumps. If you dump all the water at once and then you start mixing. This way you will have big lumps of sooji. So to avoid that always do both tasks (adding water and mixing) together.
      warm up the water and add to roasted sooji
    13. Rava will absorb the water and will look like this.
    14. Cover the pan and LOWER the heat.
      add water, mix, cover and cook upma
    15. Cook on low heat for 3-4 minutes. If needed, stir once halfway through.
    16. Add lemon juice.
      add lemon juice to cooked rava upma
    17. sprinkle chopped cilantro leaves
    18. Mix well. It is ready to serve.
      garnish with cilantro and upma is ready

    For the variation, you can try adding steamed or boiled veggies (corn, carrot, beans, peas) after onions are cooked.

    How to serve South Indian upma?

    • Upma is served as a breakfast or evening snack with coconut chutney
    • It can be served with a cup of tea of coffee.
    • To serve it Mumbai style (hotel style), Sprinkle 1-2 tablespoons of fine sev on top.
    • It can be packed into the kid’s lunchbox or adult’s snack box.
    Upma Recipe topped with sev

    Tips to make the best upma recipe:

    • Making upma is very easy if you get the semolina and water ratio correct.
    • If more water is added then it gets loose and sticky. If less water is added then it becomes dry.
    • The quantity of water always depends on the quality of rava. But the usual proportion of Sooji:Water should be 1:2. Meaning you need double amount of water than sooji. In short, for 1 cup sooji, you need 2 cups of water.
    • There is one more reason for sticky upma – If the sooji is not roasted properly. So take your time, roast on medium-low flame for about 6-7 minutes.
    Upma Recipe (South Indian Rava Upma)
    Step by Step Photos AboveWant to make it perfect first time? Don't forget to check out Step-by-Step photo instructions and helpful Tips & Tricks !!
    Upma Recipe (South Indian Rava Upma)
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    Upma Recipe (South Indian Rava Upma)

    5 from 6 votes
    Tried this recipe? Leave a comment and/or give ★ ratings
    South Indian Upma Recipe (rava upma) – a traditional South Indian breakfast recipe made from semolina. It is usually served with chutney on the side.
    Author: Kanan
    Course: Breakfast
    Cuisine: South Indian
    Calories: 364kcal
    Servings 2 Servings
    Prep Time 5 minutes
    Cook Time 15 minutes
    Total Time 9 minutes
    US measuring cups are used (1 cup = 240 ml) See details

    Ingredients  

    • 1 ½ tablespoons Oil or Ghee
    • ½ teaspoon Mustard seeds
    • ½ teaspoon Urad dal (split, skinless black gram)
    • ½ teaspoon Chana dal (Split bengal gram)
    • 6 Cashew nuts halved or broken
    • 1 teaspoon Ginger paste or freshly grated or crushed
    • 1 Green chilies chopped finely
    • 7-8 Curry leaves
    • ½ cup Red onion chopped
    • Salt to taste
    • ⅔ cup Sooji (rava or semolina)
    • 1 ⅓ cup Water
    • 1 ½ teaspoons Lemon juice
    • 2 tablespoons Cilantro or coriander leaves chopped finely

    Instructions 

    • Heat the oil or ghee in a pan on medium heat. Once hot add mustard seeds and let them pop.
    • Then add urad dal and chana dal, saute for 30 seconds.
    • Add cashews. fry till dal and cashews are light brown in color.
    • Then saute in green chili, ginger and curry leaves for a minute.
    • Add chopped onions along with salt, mix well and cook till onions turn soft and translucent.
    • Now add rava and roast for 6-7 minutes with stirring continuously.
    • While you are roasting the rava, warm up the water in microwave or stove top.
    • Once the rava is roasted, add water with stirring constantly. So there will be no lumps. Sooji will absorb most of the water.
    • Cover the pan, LOWER the heat and cook on low heat for 3-4 minutes. If needed, stir once halfway through.
    • Add lemon juice, sprinkle chopped cilantro leaves
    • Mix well and turn off the stove

    Video

    Nutrition

    Calories: 364kcal | Carbohydrates: 48g | Protein: 9.3g | Fat: 15.2g | Saturated Fat: 2.3g | Cholesterol: 0mg | Sodium: 591mg | Potassium: 240mg | Fiber: 3.8g | Sugar: 2g | Calcium: 20mg | Iron: 3.2mg
    *Nutrition information is a rough estimate for 1 serving
    Did you make this recipe?Snap a pic, mention @spice.up.the.curry or tag #spiceupthecurry. I would love to see.

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    1. brinacyl

      November 28, 2018 at 9:40 am

      Greetings from Pakistan Kanan. Thank you for the delicious recipe. I have tried your louki kofta as well and is one of my favourites.5 stars

      Reply
      • Kanan

        January 03, 2019 at 4:20 pm

        very glad to know that you liked.
        Thank you for the feedback

        Reply
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    Kanan

    Hi, I'm Kanan Patel. I share easy, delicious vegetarian recipes (mostly Indian) and Eggless baking recipes that you can sure count on!

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