Millet Rava Upma Recipe

Rajan loves cooking dishes from his native Indian cuisine. He likes to share his favourite recipes with his online readers.

Upma is a breakfast dish usually prepared with rava or wheat semolina. In this recipe, I used millet rava, and I also incorporated a few vegetables to make it healthier—and more colorful! Although upma is traditionally a breakfast dish, you can have it for lunch or dinner as well.

Since millet rava is not readily available in many places, I used whole millet to make rava first—and then used that to prepare the upma. In this recipe, I used browntop millet but you can use any type of millet you have on hand. In the video below, I will show you the process I. used for making the rava.

Do try this delicious and nutritious recipe and share your experience.

Cook Time

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup browntop millet or any siridhanya millet rava
• 1 cup water for soaking the millet rava
• 3 tbsp any cold-pressed oil (I used groundnut oil)
• 1/4 tsp jeera (cumin seeds)
• 1/4 tsp rai (mustard seeds)
• 1/4 tsp chana dal (split and skinned bengal gram)
• 1/4 tsp urad dal (split and skinned black gram)
• 1 medium onion, chopped small
• 2 green chillies, split in half
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• 15-20 kadi patta (curry leaves)
• 2 tbsp green peas
• 2 tbsp chopped carrot
• 2 tbsp chopped green bell pepper
• 1 medium tomato, chopped small
• 1/2 tsp sendha namak (rock salt)
• 1 tbsp chopped hara dhania (cilantro)
• Cilantro, for garnish
• 1 fresh red chilli, split, for garnish

Instructions

1. To make the millet rava from millet, put the millet in a grinder jar and give 1-2 second pulses 5-6 times or until it is coarsely ground. Do not grind it too fine. Sieve out the ground millet and separate the fine rava from the bigger millet pieces.
2. Dry-roast the millet rava on low heat. Stir constantly until you can smell its aroma and it is slightly brown. Transfer to a plate and let it cool down completely.
3. Wash the millet rava once and drain out the water. Add 1 cup of water, cover it with a lid and let it soak overnight.
4. The next morning, the rava will be ready to make upma. Keep a pan on low-medium heat and add 3 tbsp oil. Once the oil is hot, add the jeera and rai. Let them crackle.
5. Reduce the heat to low and add the chana dal and urad dal. Saute for 1-2 minutes until they just change in colour.
6. Add the chopped onion, slit green chillies and turmeric powder, raise the heat to low-medium and saute for 1-2 minutes until the onions change a bit in colour.
7. Add the kadhi patta and mix well. Add the green peas, chopped carrot, chopped bell pepper and chopped tomato. Mix well and saute for about 1 minute.
8. Reduce the heat to low and cover with a lid. Cook for about 2 minutes.
9. Add the water the millet rava has been soaked in and salt and mix well. Raise the heat to low-medium and let the water come to a boil.
10. Add the soaked millet rava, a little at a time, mixing it in simultaneously. Add some hara dhania, mix well and reduce the heat to low. Cover with a lid and cook for about 2 minutes.
11. Remove the lid and stir-cook the upma until all the water dries out, about 3-4 minutes.
12. Millet rava upma is ready to serve. Serve it as shown in the video.

Notes

• When you grind the millet you will get a mix of fine ground millet rava and some broken millet. You can use the broken millet to make dalia or porridge, halwa etc. Store it in an airtight jar for use later.
• The millet rava can also be used to make idli, dosa etc.

Millet Rava Upma Recipe

© 2021 Rajan Singh Jolly