Here’s one for the days you wake up late and hungry. Or a one-pot recipe for when you don’t want to wash a ton of dishes later. The champion among upmas- gothambu rava upma.

Upma refers to a basic preparation of just about any key ingredient cooked with a tempering of mustard, urad dal and curry leaves, a spoon of grated coconut and a dash of salt. Because besides your typical gothambu (wheat rava) upma, semiya/vermicelli upma etc, we also make ‘kappa upma’ with tapioca, ‘bread upma’ and even ‘idli upma’! Yup! They’re all super easy. Let me know in the comments if you would like me to share any of those recipes.

How Amma taught me to make it

So today, I will share with you the most basic wheat rava/ Bombay rava upma recipe, as taught to me by my Mom. It’s one of the first dishes I learnt to make when I started living alone. And as any novice will agree, if you are not taught right, there are a million ways to get even boiling water wrong! So I will share 2-3 pro tips from my Mom that ensure our upma turns out right every single time.

First, dry roast the rava before you start. That means heat it on the pan at medium heat for 2-3 minutes without oil or anything at all. Even if the packet you are using says roasted rava. My aunt adds a spoon of ghee at this stage and it smells heavenly. But then, you have to work on breaking the lumps.

(Of course, if this is that time when your tummy is already squealing for attention, you can totally skip this step!)

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The second trick is the measurements. For one person, rava: water: salt ratio is 1/2 cup: 1 cup: 1 teaspoon. If you add vegetables, maybe add about a quarter cup more of water. 

Then, you have the choice of adding rava to water or water to rava. Go with rava to water and do it this way- when the water boils in the pan, add the rava slowly with one hand, while stirring the mix with the other to make it uniform. This ensures that you don’t get lumps.

And the last pro tip is, add the salt to the water, before adding the rava. This way, you are assured of uniform salt in the dish. So, here’s the recipe at a glance:

Serves: 1
Time: Approx 15 minutes

Ingredients:

Rava, Mustard, Urad dal, Green chilli, Ginger, curry leaves, Onion
Optional: Carrot (or beans or green peas), Grated coconut

Method:

1. Dry roast 1/2 a cup of rava. Set it aside and transfer to a plate when done.
2. Chop 1 onion, 1 inch of ginger,and 2 green chillies.
3. Heat 2 teaspoons of oil in the . tava and add 1 tsp mustards. Let them splutter.
4. Add 1 tsp urad dal. It browns quickly. Lower the heat if necessary.
5. Add the ginger, green chillies and about 10-12 curry leaves (1 stalk).
6. Add the chopped onion. Saute.
7. Lower the flame, grate a carrot directly into the pan.
8. Add 1 and 1/4 cup of water. Add 1 tsp of salt to it.
9. When the water boils, add the roasted rava, stirring the pan to avoid lumps.
10. Keep closed for 10 minutes.
11. Turn off the heat in 10 minutes and garnish with grated coconut.

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Tastes amazing with coconut chutney but the on a lazy day, you can enjoy it with pickle. And curd. Some also love it with sugar.