R001Palappam
The lace-edged fermented appam, the Syrian Christian breakfast bread
Photograph: Adobe Stock · representative of the dish
Plan ahead: plus 2–3 days sprouting, if you sprout your own.
The re-engineeringThe ratio is inverted. A standard upma runs roughly 2 parts semolina to 1 part vegetable by weight; this one runs 1 part semolina to 2.5 parts vegetable and sprouted pulse — 160 g of rava against 400 g of vegetables and 40 g of sprouting green gram. The oil is 10 g of sesame across four servings instead of the 30 g of coconut oil and the handful of cashews the dish usually carries.
Upma is the fastest hot breakfast in the South Indian repertoire and the one most easily rescued, because the semolina in it was never doing anything the vegetables could not do better. This version is closer to a vegetable dish that happens to contain grain than a grain dish with vegetables in it, and it holds together perfectly well — the trick is roasting the rava properly and keeping the water ratio tight. In the Kerala trial, broken-wheat upma measured GI 41, the second-lowest value in the whole set, which is the argument for the broken-wheat version in the swaps.
Before you start: Upma moves fast from the moment the water goes in, and lumps form in seconds. Have the rava roasted and beside the hob, all the vegetables cut, and the water already hot before you light the flame.
Vegetable Upma
Active 25 minutes Total 30 minutes
Scale
4 servings
Ingredients — tap to tick off
- ✓160 g (1 cup) coarse semolina (rava)
- ✓10 g (2 tsp) gingelly (sesame) oil
- ✓5 g (1 tsp) black mustard seed
- ✓10 g (2 tsp) black gram dal (urad dal), skinned
- ✓60 g (about 6) shallots, thinly sliced
- ✓15 g (a 3 cm piece) ginger, finely chopped
- ✓10 g (2) green chillies, slit
- ✓1 sprig curry leaves
- ✓400 g mixed vegetables, cut to 5 mm dice — carrot, French beans and peas, or whatever is in the fridge
- ✓100 g sprouted green gram (from 40 g dry)
- ✓3 g (½ tsp) M07 salt or plain salt
- ✓500 ml hot water
- ✓juice of half a lime
Allergens: Sesame, mustard, gluten (wheat).
Equipment: Wide heavy pan, 26 cm, with a lid. Substitute: any deep frying pan. Non-stick makes the final stirring easier and the semolina less likely to catch.
Per serving (estimated)
| Energy | 213 kcal |
| Protein | 11 g |
| Fibre | 9 g |
| Net carbohydrate | 34 g |
| Total carbohydrate | 43 g |
| Sugars | 4 g |
| Fat | 3 g |
| Saturated fat | 1 g |
| Sodium | 210 mg |
From ICMR-NIN IFCT 2017 and USDA FoodData Central. Per-serving figures stay the same when you scale.
Method — tap a step to mark it done, tap a time to start a timer
- Roast the semolina in the dry pan over a medium-low flame, stirring, until it smells nutty, feels loose and free-flowing, and has barely coloured, . Tip it onto a plate. Unroasted rava is the single cause of gluey upma.
- Heat the sesame oil in the same pan and add the mustard seed. When the popping has finished, 20–30 seconds, add the urad dal and fry until it turns pale gold, 30–40 seconds.
- Add the shallots, ginger, green chillies and curry leaves and cook until the shallots are soft and translucent at the edges, .
- Add the vegetables and the sprouts with a pinch of the salt. Cook on a medium flame, stirring, until the vegetables have lost their raw look and the carrot has just begun to give under a spoon but still has bite, . They will finish cooking in the steam.
- Pour in the hot water with the rest of the salt and bring it to a full boil.
- Rain the roasted semolina in with one hand while stirring continuously with the other. This is the step that decides the dish: added in a heap it lumps instantly and no amount of stirring afterwards will fix it.
- Cook, stirring, until the semolina has absorbed all the visible water and the mass pulls away from the sides of the pan in one piece, . Cover, take off the heat, and stand .
- Fluff with a fork, squeeze the lime over it, and serve. The acid is not a garnish; it is what makes a low-salt upma taste finished.
Why this worksRoasting drives moisture out of the semolina and sets its surface proteins, so each grain hydrates separately instead of gluing to its neighbours — the difference between upma and paste. Loading the pan with 500 g of vegetables and sprouts against 160 g of rava cuts the energy density of the whole dish, and people eat a fairly consistent weight of food, which is the mechanism doing the work here.
Sourcing note
Buy coarse semolina — bombay rava, sooji, or the coarser upma rava — rather than the fine flour-like grade, which turns to paste. Any South Asian grocery has both, and Italian semola rimacinata is too fine. Frozen mixed vegetables are entirely acceptable here and save all the chopping; add them straight from frozen at step 5 and give them 2 minutes longer. For sprouts, soak 40 g of whole green gram 8 hours, drain, and keep it in a damp cloth or a covered colander for 2–3 days, rinsing twice a day, until the tails are 5–10 mm. Shop-bought mung sprouts work; use 100 g.
If you are watching…
Blood sugar: 34 g of net carbohydrate for a 250 g plateful, which is the best volume-to-carbohydrate ratio in the chapter. Broken-wheat upma measured GI 41 in the Kerala trial; no measured value exists for semolina upma, so none is given here.
Blood pressure: 210 mg with M07, about 300 mg with plain salt. The lime is doing part of the work the salt would otherwise do.
Cholesterol: 1 g of saturated fat. Sesame oil is 16.25% saturated against coconut oil's 90.86%, and the traditional handful of cashews would add about 4 g of fat a serving.
Swap it
Broken wheat (nurukku gothambu) for the semolina → the measured GI 41 version, coarser and nuttier, and it needs 400 ml more water and 15 minutes longer. The best change on this page.
Ragi or oats for a third of the semolina → more fibre, softer texture, and it catches more readily on the pan.
200 g vegetables instead of 400 g → the conventional upma, and about 40 kcal more per 100 g of food. This is the ratio this recipe exists to argue against.
Coconut oil for sesame → about 2 g more saturated fat a serving and a more Kerala aroma. Defensible in a dish where the oil is this small.
Scale it
At eight servings use two pans. One pan of 800 g of vegetables steams rather than fries and the upma goes wet.
Make ahead · store · freeze
Best within the hour. Fridge 2 days in a covered box; it firms up and reheats acceptably with a sprinkle of water. Freeze 1 month, with the texture noticeably coarser on thawing. Reheat in a covered pan with 2 tablespoons of water, 4–5 minutes, or steam it 5 minutes, which is better. The roasted semolina itself keeps 2 months in a jar, so roast 1 kg at a time.
Leftovers
Press cold upma into a flat cake, cut it into squares and crisp them in a dry non-stick pan 3–4 minutes a side — the best thing to do with leftover upma and better than the original for some people.
Troubleshooting
Lumpy: the semolina went in as a heap, or the water was not at a full boil. Rain it in and stir without stopping.
Gluey, pasty upma: the rava was unroasted, or it was fine rather than coarse grade.
Dry and crumbly: too little water, or it stood too long uncovered. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of hot water, cover, and give it 2 minutes.
Watery, will not come together: too much water for the grade of rava. Cook it uncovered 2 minutes more, stirring.
Serve with
R011 Cherupayar Curry · R089 Kerala Kitchen Salad · R107 Sambharam
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