There's something about idli, dosa, pongal, appe etc that never fails to satisfy our soul. In fact, these South Indian food items make for a classic breakfast meal and are loved by people across the country. Another such popular South Indian breakfast option is upma. Quintessentially prepared with rava/sooji, curry leaves and a few spices, this dish is quick, fulfilling and very easy to make. Moreover, upma is loaded with nutrients and can be considered a healthy food option to start your day with. However, if you look around, you will find several upma recipes around that are whipped up using various cereals including, oats, aval(chiwda), bread and more.
We bring a traditional Tamil-style upma recipe that includes broken rice instead of rava in the dish - it's called arisi upma. Here, raw rice and toor dal are pounded together to get a coarse mix, which is added to a pool of flavourful spices like mustard seeds, curry leaves, cumin seeds etc to prepare a porridge-like dish.
Arisi upma is generally served with coconut chutney. But you can enjoy it as is or pair it with some ketchup. The best part is, this dish needs no cutting or chopping of vegetables in the process and is prepared in less than 30 minutes.
Here's The Step-By-Step Recipe For Arisi Upma:
Ingredients:
Raw rice - 1 cup
Toor dal- 2 tablespoon
Black peppercorn- 1 teaspoon
Salt- to taste
Oil- 2 tablespoon
Mustard seeds- 1 teaspoon
Cumin seeds- 1 teaspoon
Whole dry red chilli- 2
Curry leaves- 6-8
Grated coconut- 1-2 tablespoon
Hing- half teaspoon
Method:
Clean the rice and toor dal in running water. Spread on a base and let them dry.
Now, take the dried dal, rice, black peppercorn and salt in a grinding jar and blend them together. Do not use any water.
Heat oil in a cooker, add hing, whole red chilli, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, grated coconut and curry leaves and let them temper.
Now, add some water to it and add the blended rice-dal mix and pressure cook till it gets a porridge-like consistency. You can also use a saucepan to cook the dish. In this case, boil the rice for 10-15 minutes on low flame.
To garnish: If you like some extra crunch in your food, add some roasted chana dal and peanut on the top, while serving. You may also add some chopped coriander leaves and lime juice to it.
Try arisi upma at home and start your day with a wholesome meal. And don't forget to let us know how you like it.
About Somdatta SahaExplorer- this is what Somdatta likes to call herself. Be it in terms of food, people or places, all she craves for is to know the unknown. A simple aglio olio pasta or daal-chawal and a good movie can make her day.