Upma is a popular South Indian breakfast made with cream of wheat or semolina flour (called rava or suji locally), veggies, spices and herbs. The upma recipe I share here is adapted from my mom’s recipe and continues to be a favorite in my home. The ingredients used to flavor the rava upma (also called suji ka upma) give it a deliciously satisfying taste that will make this dish one of your new preferred go-to breakfasts.
About Upma Recipe
Upma is a flavorful, tasty, savory and popular South Indian breakfast that is made with cream of wheat or semolina flour (called rava or suji), a few lentils, nuts, vegetables, herbs and spices.
This traditional dish involves cooking roasted rava in water that has been flavored by ghee (or oil), cashews, urad dal (white lentils), chana dal (husked and split bengal gram), onion, ginger and additional herbs and spices. Sugar can be added for a mildly sweet and savory dish.
Table of Contents
This steaming hot breakfast dish can be made vegan by using oil instead of ghee. Full of warmth, flavor and deliciousness, this upma tastes so good. So why not take a break from that boring oatmeal and try something new? You can’t lose!
The main ingredient in any upma recipe is rava. Also called ‘suji’ or ‘sooji‘ in Hindi and ‘cream of wheat’ or ‘semolina’ in English, it is simply granulated wheat. Thus this breakfast food is known as Suji ka Upma in North India.
What really makes an upma recipe special are all the fried and sautéed ingredients that are used for tempering. These ingredients can vary depending on the recipe, but usually include some sweet, savory and nutty flavors.
Upma is a traditional breakfast served in restaurants throughout South India, including Maharashtra. It is also a common breakfast prepared in South Indian homes. In fact, upma was a regular breakfast or evening snack in my house while growing up.
What is Rava
Rava is coarsely ground wheat to a fine or semi-fine texture. It is not floury but has a fine grainy texture. Rava is also called cream of wheat or farina or semolina flour in English.
To make upma, use the finer textured rava. You can also use the rava variety sold as Bombay rava in the Indian market.
Pro Tip to Make Upma Quicker
This warm, homemade breakfast can be made relatively quickly, especially with this one easy tip. In the step-by-step photo guide below, you will see the first few steps of roasting the rava (cream of wheat).
This can easily be done ahead of time and I actually recommend roasting your rava and keeping it in an air-tight container right after purchase. This will help it stay good longer and prevent it from becoming moldy or spoiled.
Having your rava already roasted means this hot breakfast of upma recipe can be prepared in only 15 to 20 minutes. Roasted rava can also be used in a variety of other recipes, including Rava Cheela and Rava Pongal.
How to make Upma Recipe
Prep and Roast Rava
1. Prep the ingredients first to make upma recipe. Take 1 cup rava (fine variety) and set it aside. Next gather the aromatics, lentils, nuts, spices and herbs ready. You will need:
- ⅓ cup finely chopped onions
- 1 teaspoon chopped green chillies
- 1 teaspoon finely chopped ginger
- 2 tablespoons coriander leaves (cilantro)
- 8 to 10 curry leaves
- 10 to 12 cashews
- 1 teaspoon chana dal (hulled and split bengal gram)
- 1 teaspoon urad dal (hulled and split black gram)
2. Heat a pan or kadai first. Add 1 cup rava or cream of wheat (fine variety).
3. Begin to roast the rava. Stir often while roasting the rava.
4. The rava or sooji grains should become fragrant and start to look dry, separate and crisp. Don’t brown the rava.
5. Once the rava becomes fragrant and starts to look dry and crisp, switch off the flame and put the roasted rava on a plate and set aside.
Fry and Sauté Spices, Nuts & Aromatics
6. In a pan, heat 2 tablespoons ghee (clarified butter) or oil. You could use sunflower oil or peanut oil or safflower oil or any neutral tasting oil.
7. Lower the heat. Add 1 teaspoon mustard seeds. When you hear the crackling sound of mustard seeds, it means they are getting fried.
8. Now add the following ingredients:
- ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1 teaspoon chana dal (husked and split bengal gram)
- 1 teaspoon urad dal (husked and split black gram)
9. Stirring often fry until the chana dal and urad dal begin to brown a bit.
10. Immediately add 10 to 12 cashews and begin to fry on a low to medium-low heat.
11. By the time the cashews get golden the dals should also be golden.
12. Now add the ⅓ cup of finely chopped onions.
13. Sauté the onions until they soften and become translucent on a low to medium-low heat.
14. Then add 1 teaspoon chopped green chillies, 1 teaspoon chopped ginger and 8 to 10 curry leaves.
You can also add 1 dried red chilli (halved and with seeds removed) at this step.
15. Mix well and sauté for a few seconds.
Boil Water
16. Then add 2.5 cups water to this mixture.
17. Add salt as required. Mix well and check the taste of water. It should be a bit salty but not too much.
In case if the salt becomes less in the dish, you can always sprinkle some salt from the top when eating.
18. Then add ½ to 1 teaspoon sugar.
Sugar is optional and you can skip it. We prefer a slight sweet taste in the upma and hence we add it.
19. Stir again. On a medium to high flame, heat the water and let it come to a rolling boiling.
Make Rava Upma
20. When the water comes to a rolling boil, lower the flame to its lowest. Then add the rava in 4 to 5 batches with a spoon.
21. Once you add the first batch of rava, stir and mix immediately so that the roasted rava gets mixed evenly with the water.
22. Then add the next batch of rava. Mix and stir again very well ensuring that the batch of rava is mixed evenly in water.
23. Continue to add and stir the rava up to the last batch.
24. Quickly stir and mix very well. The rava grains will absorb water, swell and get cooked.
25. Cover and allow the rava upma to steam for 2 to 3 minutes on a low heat.
26. Then turn off the heat. In the below photo, the rava is cooked well and the suji ka upma is ready.
27. Lastly add about 2 tablespoons of chopped coriander leaves (cilantro). You can add more coriander leaves if you like.
28. Mix again.
30. Serve upma hot or warm with slices of lemon or a side of lemon pickle or coconut chutney.
You can opt to drizzle half to one teaspoon of ghee while serving. If you like you can garnish with some coriander leaves.
I also sprinkle some sev (fried gram flour vermicelli) on upma while serving. Though this is not the way upma is traditionally served, the folks at home prefer this Mumbai style. You can also serve it with idli podi.
Expert Tips
- Roasting rava: For an even roasting or toasting of rava, you need to stir rava often on a low or medium-low heat of the pan. See for signs of color change and the rava granules looking separate, crisp with a nice toasted aroma.
- Adding rava in batches: Always add rava to the hot water in batches. After adding each batch mix the rava evenly with the water. This ensures that your upma will turn smooth and soft.
- Fats: Upma recipe can be made with both ghee (clarified butter) or oil. With ghee the suji ka upma tastes better though. You can even drizzle a bit of ghee when serving upma. I also on occasions make upma with coconut oil. You can use oils like sunflower oil or safflower oil or peanut oil or any neutral tasting oil.
- Rava and water proportion: For a softer rava upma, you can use the proportion of 1:2.5 or 3 for rava and water respectively. Which means that for 1 cup of fine rava you can add 2.5 to 3 cups water.
- Variations: There are a few variations, you can make like tomato upma recipe or vegetable upma or even ragi rava upma. I have listed them in the FAQs section below.
- Serving suggestions: Upma is best served piping hot or warm. Like me, you can top it up with some sev or bhujia with a drizzle of lemon juice. You can even serve suji ka upma with coconut chutney or lemon pickle or idli podi.
- Scaling and storing: You can easily halve or double this recipe. Leftover rava upma can be refrigerated for a couple of days. You can even freeze it. While reheating, sprinkle some water and reheat the upma in a pan.
FAQs
Use Kesari rava or Bombay rava as they are a fine variety of rava. Idli rava is used for making idli.
Yes, you can. Check the method I have listed in the below question.
Either steam the vegetables separately and then add once the rava is mixed with the water.
Or after sautéing onions, add the veggies (grated carrots, green peas, grated potatoes, finely chopped french beans, chopped capsicum) and sauté until lightly golden. Add water and follow the recipe. You can garnish upma with grated coconut.
Upma becomes lumpy when the rava is not mixed very well with the water. So add rava in batches and mix each batch of rava evenly in the water.
Remember to use fine rava for this recipe. If you use a coarser rava, you will have to add more water so that the upma does not become lumpy.
Rava has to be roasted very well. If the rava is not roasted properly the upma will become sticky.
More Questions Answered
Can I skip green chillies?
Yes, you can. Some crushed black pepper can be added in place of green chillies.
Can I add peanuts?
Yes, you can add peanuts. Fry or roast the peanuts separately and then add as a topping or garnish on the upma while serving.
Can I add tomatoes?
You can add tomatoes. Add them when the onions soften. Then sauté until the tomatoes soften.
How to make ragi rava upma?
Roast both the rava and ragi flour separately. Follow this recipe. When the water comes to a rolling boil, add the rava and ragi.
Depending on the amount of ragi and rava added you will need to increase the water quantity. Do roast ragi really well as undercooked ragi can cause stomach aches.
What is urad dal and chana dal and what are their english names?
Chana dal is called Bengal gram in English. These are black chickpea lentils. Urad dal are called as black lentils or white lentils.
They are shaped like mung beans except that the husk is black in color and the lentils are in white color. The other name for it is vigna mungo or black matpe beans.
More Tasty Upma Variants To Try!
Breakfast Recipes
Bread Snacks
Breakfast Recipes
South Indian Food Recipes
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Upma Recipe (South Indian Rava Upma)
Ingredients
For roasting rava
- 1 cup rava – finer variety (sooji or cream of wheat or semolina)
Other ingredients
- 2 tablespoons Ghee (clarified butter) or oil
- 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
- ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1 teaspoon chana dal (split and husked bengal gram)
- 1 teaspoon urad dal (split and husked black gram)
- 10 to 12 cashews – optional
- ⅓ cup onions – finely chopped or 1 medium-sized onion
- 1 teaspoon green chilli – chopped or 1 green chilli
- 1 teaspoon ginger – finely chopped or 1 inch ginger
- 1 sprig curry leaves or 10 to 12 curry leaves
- 2.5 cups water
- salt as required
- ½ to 1 teaspoon sugar or add as required, optional
- 2 tablespoons coriander leaves – chopped (cilantro)
Instructions
Preparation
- Finely chop 1 medium sized onion, 1 to 2 green chillies and 1 inch ginger and some coriander leaves.
- Also set aside the remaining ingredients.
Roasting rava
- Heat a pan or kadai first. Add rava or cream of wheat.
- Begin to roast the rava. Stir often while roasting the rava.
- The rava or sooji grains should become fragrant and start to look dry, separate and crisp. Don’t brown the rava.
- Switch off the flame and then add the roasted rava in a plate and keep aside.
Frying and sautéing
- In a pan, heat ghee or oil. add the mustard seeds.
- When you hear the crackling sound of mustard seeds, it means they are getting fried.
- Now add the cumin seeds along with chana dal and urad dal.
- Fry till they begin to brown a bit or get lightly golden
- Immediately add cashews and begin to fry. By the time, the cashews get golden the lentils will also get golden.
- Now add the finely chopped onions. Saute the onions till they become translucent.
- Then add the chopped green chilly, ginger, curry leaves. Sauté for a few seconds. You can also add 1 dried red chilli at this step.
Boiling water
- Then add 2.5 cups water, sugar and salt as required. Mix well and check the taste of water. It should be a bit salty but not too much.
- Sugar is optional and you can skip it.
- On a medium to high flame, heat the water and let it come to a rolling boiling.
Making upma
- When the water comes to a rolling boil, lower the flame to its lowest. Then add the rava in 4 to 5 batches with a spoon.
- Once you add the rava, mix and stir immediately. The entire batch of rava should get mixed with the water evenly. Then add the next batch of roasted rava. Mix and stir again.
- This way keep on adding and stirring the rava up to the last batch.
- Quickly stir and mix well. The rava grains absorb water and thus swell and get cooked.
- Cover and allow the rava upma to steam for 2 to 3 minutes on a low heat.
- Then switch off the flame. Here the rava is cooked and the upma is ready.
- Lastly add chopped coriander leaves. Mix again.
- Serve upma with coconut chutney or lime slices or lime pickle.
Video
Notes
- Roasting rava: The rava has to be roasted evenly. For this you need to stir rava often on a low or medium-low heat of the pan. See for the signs of the color change and the rava granules looking separate, crisp with a nice toasted aroma.
- Adding rava in batches: Always add rava to the hot water in batches. After adding each batch mix the rava evenly with the water. This will make sure that your upma will turn smooth and soft.
- Avoiding lumpy and sticky upma: To avoid lumps add rava in batches and mix each batch of rava very well with the water. Remember to use fine rava for this recipe. If you use a coarser rava, you will have to add more water so that it does not become lumpy. If the rava is not roasted properly the upma will become sticky.
- Oil or ghee: You can easily make upma with either oil or ghee. With ghee the upma tastes better though. You can even drizzle a bit of ghee when serving upma.
- Rava and water proportion: For a softer rava upma, you can use the proportion of 1:2.5 or 3 for rava and water respectively. Which means that for 1 cup of fine rava you can add 2.5 to 3 cups water.
- Serving suggestions: Upma is best served hot or warm. You can top it up with some sev or bhujia with a drizzle of lemon juice. You can even serve upma with coconut chutney or lemon pickle or idli podi.
- Scaling and storing: You can easily halve or double this recipe. Leftover upma can be refrigerated for a couple of days. You can even freeze it. While reheating, sprinkle some water and reheat the upma in a pan or microwave.
Nutrition Info (Approximate Values)
This Upma recipe from the archives was first published on August 2009. It has been updated on November 2024.
Very nice direction. After reading the recepie supplied by you I have corrected the procedure I knew in general. Thanks.
welcome tapas. glad to know this.
Whenever I want to cook something I always visit ur blog. Very easy to cook reciepes with step by step pictures. Thanks for making cooking so interesting and easy.
welcome arti. glad to know this. thanks for sharing positive feedback on website.
Hi dassana,
Can’t tell you how much dependable your blog is to me 🙂 I love veggies and I have totally bowled my hubby with your recipes.
Esp for proportions, I cook for me and my husband, so your quantities match me perfectly.
I have one basic issue with recipes like these which require to fry chana/urad dal.
My dals turn very hard after the dish is done. Not sure why. I don’t fry them too much, but still happens.
Please advise why it could be happening and how do I avoid it?
thanks a lot aimee. they do turn hard when fried in dishes like these. for a softer texture, i would suggest to soak them in warm water for 30 to 40 minutes. drain and then fry them. they will be soft. usually when i make coconut chutneys too, the fried urad dal in the tadka has a bite. even for masala dosa, potato filling, i soak the chana dal and then add. this way they texture is softer.
I really enjoyed your upma recipe. This was just perfect for a quick hot lunch.
Thank you.
welcome manisha
Hello
ive been collecting all the ingredients from here and there, i just need to find the lentils for the dals. I know its silly of me, i got the semolina but i dont know how to roast it…. can u pls tell me? 🙂 i saw some ways on youtube but i prefer your way.
heat up a shallow pan and just add the semolina. on a low flame continuously stirring, dry roast the semolina till the grains become fragrant. you will see a slight change in color too, but don’t make them brown. then remove them on a plate carefully. since if they spread, it becomes kind of difficult to clean up.
i love this site. the best thing about is the step by step process of cooking through the PICTURES. thank-you. hope you post more pictures for these recipes, some of them don’t have it. It becomes so much easier to follow it visually. thanks
welcome sama and thanks for sharing your suggestion. yes, some recipes don’t have step by step photos. we are slowly updating those posts with step by step photos.
I tried kanda batata poha recipe it is amazing to cook !!!!!!!
thanks zinal
delicious thanks to my buddy atul
I made this today morning it’s turn out so delicious and parefct
Thanks for sharing
welcome madhuri
Wonderful 5 stars recipe! I made it today and loved it. I always try making Upma, but somehow doesn’t get taste right. I loved it today, when is made it with your recipe. Thanks a lot.
welcome sofiya. glad to know that you liked this upma recipe.
Hey I absolutely adore your website is there a way u can msg me all receipes new and ols ones as I love all the receipes. Many thanks
welcome shareen. there is no way, i can not email or send all recipes.
Awesome recipe!Tried upma for the first time and turned out perfect..Thanks for a wonderful recipe..Keep up the goodwork
welcome.
Nice, ravai vs water quantity is clearly mentioned. i get stuck during the rava cooking time. how much time is needed for the rava to cook in water?.
i have never measured the time. so not sure how much it takes. i usually see the consistency and know if the rava is cooked well or not.
Tried this recipe for my mom today. She is getting on in her years and has blood sugar. She can’t eat a lot of things she once used to enjoy. This worked beautifully even without the sugar. A big hug and thanks from my mom and me 🙂
thanks geetanjali for this sweet comment. please give me regards to your mother.
I just now subscribed, Dassana :). Your site is amazing. Gonna make upma again today ♡
thanks naznin
I tried it today with pretty much all the ingredients save urad dhal and cashews, I didn’t have them. This turned out really delicious. Thanks for this great recipe! I felt like a child again eating it.
welcome jacob. nice to know you liked the upma so much.