Spicy Sooji (UPMA)

Spicy Sooji (UPMA)

Hello,

            First I want to wish everyone a Very Happy New Year, may this New Year bring new beginnings for you, lots of luck, happiness and stay healthy. Since it is a brand new beginning for all of us, I thought today I‘d give a nice healthy breakfast recipe. Though this once I eat for any time of the day, it feels me up for sure.

            There are many variations to this recipe as well, but today I will give a quick version as I know living away from our country and working full time it is hard for everyone to spare the time that they actually would wish to spend cooking. I will also add some other variations that can be done to this recipe in my tips section.

Ingredients

1-cup sooji (cream of wheat – coarse)

½ cup beated yogurt or ¾-cup buttermilk

½-cup water

1 small onion sliced or diced

1 green chili finely chopped

1-tablespoon urad dal (black gram without skin)

1-tablespoon chana dal (yellow split peas)

1-teaspoon mustard seeds

2 tablespoons peanuts

5-6 curry leaves

Pinch of turmeric

Pinch of hing (Asafoetida)

2 tablespoons of oil

Salt to taste

Method

1)      Take a pan to medium heat and put oil in it.

2)      Once the oil is heated, add ingredients in the increment of 5 seconds, urad dal, chana dal, mustard seeds, curry leaves, hing, and peanuts. Wait until tempered properly.

3)      Add green chilies, onion and sauté them till translucent. Then add turmeric.

4)      Add sooji, roast it, until turns light pink, and give nice aroma. At that point, add salt to it.

5)      Now turn the flame to low and add the yogurt or buttermilk while stirring it and then add water.

6)      Turn the flame back to medium and keep stirring until it starts getting thick. Turn the gas off right before you think you got the consistency you want. Its ready t serve hot.

Tips

1)      You can garnish it with cilantro

2)      You can always add other vegetables as per your liking. Some that are commonly used are green peas, carrots, green peppers, tomatoes etc. Add these vegetables after you sauté the onions usually.

3)   You can add rasins and cashews for garnishing.

Try and Enjoy until next time..........for Khichadi recipe...:)