Healthy Breakfast Recipe || Quick and Easy UPMA

Healthy Breakfast Recipe. Quick and Easy UPMA recipe. Breakfast is one of the most important meals of the day and a healthy breakfast recipe is all you need to kickstart your day. Yummy breakfast can help you to feel good and if it is stuffed with those healthy ingredients, it can also help you to be energetic all day. 

But if you are working and living alone, preparing a tasty and healthy breakfast and reaching work at time can be a struggle. What are your options? Spend your time to google ‘best breakfast catering near me’ or prepare a fresh meal for yourself quickly because nothing beats a homemade healthy breakfast. 

When it comes to the breakfast food of India, there is a wide array of options that are available which can range from Indian delicacies to fast and nutritious continental options as well. The Indian breakfast options can differ from south Indian items like idli, dosa and vada to not Indian options like paranthas and cheelas, not to mention the pan India favourite puri, which might have a different name in another region of India.

So lets dive in to the world of healthy breakfast ideas and find the one that you are in mood to eat today!

Quick Upma Recipe

Upma is a south Indian breakfast food that is easy to make, light on the stomach and also cooks very very fast. Needless to say, Upma is also super yummy and quick to prepare as well. 

The process of preparing Upma starts with roasting semolina which is also called rava or suji. To save time, you can take an entire packet of semolina, roast it together  and store it in an air tight container to use as per your need. Once you have your roasted semolina available or prepared, also gather the following ingredients to enjoy your home cooked Upma. 

Roast Semolina

Ingredients

Oil or Ghee

Whole Spices: Mustard seeds or Cumin

Fresh Garlic (finely chopped)

Onion

Carrot

Beans

Corn

Peas

Tomato (Optional)

Green Chillies 

Lentils: Chana dal, skinned and split black lentil

Asafoetida or Hing (optional)

Step by Step Upma Recipe

Start by roasting the semolina on low flame till it becomes golden brown. Make sure that you keep stirring it to prevent it from burning which can happen very fast. When it becomes golden brown, keep it aside to make it crunchy and cool. 

Semolina after Roasting

Chop the onion, ginger and green chillies finely. If you are adding curry leaves or any other vegetables like beans or carrots to your Upma, chop them finely as well. 

Take one tablespoon of oil or ghee in a pan and heat it. 

As soon as the oil starts to get hot, add mustard and/or cumin seeds to it. 

Add the lentils to the oil and roast them while constant stirring. 

You can also add peanuts or cashews at this stage as well. Since we will be adding water to this later, make sure the spices and lentils are crunchy and well roasted without burning them. 

Add chopped garlic to this and mix them well. 

Then, add onions to the pan and cook them while stirring constantly. 

Saute the mixture for 3-5 minutes till the onions become transparent and then add your vegetables.

Add green chillies.

Finally, if you want to add a tangy flavour to your Upma, add chopped tomatoes.

Once the vegetables start to get soft, add water to the pan and wait for it to boil.

If you are adding vegetables to your Upma, make sure that you cover the pan and let them simmer on low flame till they are tender and cooked. 

Make sure the water is boiled and the vegetables are cooked properly before moving to the next step.

Now, it is time to add the key ingredient and to deal with the tricky part. 

Once the vegetables, onions and lentils are cooked in such a way that they can be eaten, start adding water to your pan. It is better if you can add warm or boiling water because it will help you to retain the taste in your vegetables and lentils by locking the flavours of the spices and curry leaves. If that is not possible, you can also add tap water at room temperature and wait for it to boil. 

Quick and Easy Breakfast Recipe- Upma

Once the water boils, check for the flavour. At this point, you can add salt, chilli powder and anything else that you need to enhance the taste off your Upma. 

Once you are satisfied, it is time to add the second key ingredient, the base of this delicious Upma which is your roasted semolina. 

Start adding the roasted semolina slowly and gradually in the water while stirring it constantly and mixing the two ingredients in perfect ratio. If done too fast, the added semolina will be clumped up in lumps and your Upma will be unevenly cooked and not tasty to eat. 

Make sure that the flame is on high and water is boiling as you add the semolina to the pan. 

If you are new to this, start adding the semolina in small batches. Add one batch of semolina, mix it properly with the water and then go for another batch. Make sure that there is not a lot of time gap between the process of adding these batches of semolina because it will make your Upma unevenly cooked. 

Just don’t be too fast or too slow!

And don’t forget to keep on mixing constantly with a spoon while adding the semolina!

Once all the semolina has been added to the pan, reduce the flame to medium or low and keep on stirring it to make sure that the ingredients are mixed well with each other and there are no lumps in the Upma. 

Cook till all the water is absorbed into the semolina and the Upma is smooth and consistent like a paste. Do not overcook the Upma though. Ideally, once the semolina is added to the pan, the Upma should be ready to eat in another 2-3 minutes of cooking over medium flame. 

Once cooked, cover the pan for about 5 minutes to let the ingredients infuse their flavour with the semolina and for the Upma to cool down.

Before serving, you can garnish the Upma with freshly grated coriander leaves to add flavour to it but it is completely optional to do the same. 

Serve the Upma hot with or without coconut chutney or your regular tomato ketchup!