Upma in a package
Upma is an Indian dish, often served for breakfast, made of refined wheat grains (known as sooji).
It’s essentially the Indian answer to our boring Uncle Ben’s Cream of Wheat breakfast. And if anyone is looking for a healthy, filling, warm breakfast dish to add to their bagel-cereal-oatmeal-breakfast lineup, I’d heartily recommend it.
The problem, for me, is that I can’t make upma from scratch. It doesn’t seem all that hard — but I can’t do it. I’ve watched my mother-in-law make it, I’ve gotten directions from her. I’ve called her when it went horribly wrong and tried the corrections she suggested — but to no avail. For some reason, I always either burn it, or turn it into a gloppy gluey mess.
Finally, I gave up and just tried the pre-packaged mixtures from the Indian store. It’s waaaayy easier and it tastes pretty good, too. Especially if you cook it with frozen peas and top it with a bunch of stuff like cashews, coconut flakes, cilantro and sev (those little fried vermicelli noodles which you can also buy in bags at the Indian stores). I like to eat it with a few spoonfuls of plain yogurt on the side. As an added bonus, you can even make it in the microwave.
Finished and plated.
When my in-laws make this dish, they fill little metal cups (shaped like ramekins) with the finished upma, then invert it on a plate so the whole things comes out in a pretty little circular shape. I don’t have those metal cups, so I shaped mine by hand.
The MTR brand package of upma costs $1.79 at my grocery store, and one package easily makes enough food for two people — probably for three. Simply follow the directions on the back, which indicate you bring to a boil 2 cups of water (I add just a smidgen more water) , add the mixture, and stir for a few minutes. Add a pat of butter and stir.
Done. I also add frozen peas in as a I mix, to give the meal a little color.
Each serving as 4 grams of fat and 165 calories, although it’s unfortunately pretty high in sodium with 530 mg. Ingredients are: Semolina, refined palm-based veg. fat (uh oh), salt, chick pea, lemon powder, green chili, ginger, sugar, curry leaves and mustard.
As a side note, I’ve had upma two ways: One is the way shown in my photograph, which is rather dry. The other, which I’ve had in some restaurants, is a more watery, soupy way (like how we often think of cream of wheat). I’m supposing that it is just personal preference. If you would prefer this dish more soupy, I think you could just add more water as you cook it — and probably some more ghee or butter.
Although I’m curious to hear from people with more upma experience than me — how do you make yours? Watery or dry?
Mmm, we love upma! We’ve tried every brand of packaged upma, so I can say with authority that Priya brand is the best. It has a generous amount of vegetables (dehydrated–you cook them first), nuts, and spices. I like to make it smooth and porridge-y, not too dry and not too watery.
I haven’t seen the Priya brand, but maybe I just haven’t been looking for it – I’ll buy a couple of those next time and try them out. It would be nice to already have the vegetables in the mixture itself. Thanks for the rec!
Dry. My mom toasts it in a separate pan from the spice temper, then dumps in the cream of wheat or sooji and then adds just enough water to make it moist but still keep it “dry” overall. She also adds a ton of veggies, although I really loathe it when she adds broccoli. My preference is for peas or frozen mixed vegetables + lots of coriander.
I never bothered with indian grocery store sooji-I would totally use cream of wheat.
I like mine dry, but I when I eat it with yogourt it becomes very moist and creamy. It is very simple to make and cheaper if you do it yourself- I have a recipe on my blog if you are interested.
I love yogurt with mine, too – -probably too much yogurt, actually
Mmm… Upma. It is very much like Cream of Wheat or grits, and is really yummy and quick to make. I buy fine sooji at the Desi grocery near us, roast it brown in pan and set it aside while roasting curry leaves, mustard seed, cumin, urad dal, black pepper, onions, ginger-garlic paste, green chili, carrots and cashews. Also, I’ll have a pot of boiling water on the ready. Once veggies and all else are browned, I’ll pour these into water with a little olive oil, turn down the heat, and stir. I’ll add just enough water to allow the upma to take on the consistency of firm mashed potatoes. It’s really yummy with moong dal dosa and peanut chutney!