Oats Upma is a delicious, comforting breakfast recipe where vegetables, Indian spices and herbs are cooked together to create a savoury porridge like dish. Its a healthy way to start the day, a great way to load your breakfast with veggies and fiber and comes together in one pot.
Heat one and a half teaspoon oil in a pan. I use olive oil for cooking, but any oil is fine. Add the mustard seeds and wait for them to splutter. As they start to splutter add the Urad Dal and Chana Dal. Fry this on low flame for a minute
Add the onions and saute till transparent. To this add the chopped garlic and curry leaves. Be careful not to burn the garlic but wait for the flavor of garlic and curry leaves to start wafting through air
Add the remaining vegetables and saute for 3-4 minutes. You can cover the pan for faster cooking
Once the vegetables are semi cooked, add the oats and all the masala and salt. Cook the oats on a low flame for 4-5 minutes. At this point, you have to dry roast the oats
Once the oats have roasted for a while, add the water and increase the flame. Let the water reduce and in a few minutes you will see the oats getting a nice creamy consistency. Let the water reduce further and switch off the flame once you are satisfied with the amount of liquid. I don't like to dry this too much as oats can become a little cloggy
Sprinkle with chopped coriander. I sprinkled some nice curly parsley that I had sitting in the fridge and it tasted yumm with the oats
Serve hot!
Notes
I go crazy with the vegetables and even add cauliflower, mushrooms, beets to mine. Basically whatever catches my fancy!
You can add a sprinkle of lemon juice on top to give it a bit of tang.