Oats Upma

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and I spend the least amount of time preparing it. U doesn’t eat breakfast at home and I am lazy to prepare something just for myself. I usually make instant oatmeal in the microwave or eat puffed rice seasoned with some chili powder garlic & salt or munch on some junk. Last Friday I was out of instant oatmeal and I had a box of Quaker oats calling out to me as it was getting bored sitting in the pantry for almost 2 months. The last time I cooked something with these oats was over 2 months ago, oats pulihora. So I decided the rolled oats would be my breakfast for the day.  Since I tried pulihora tried  upma this time.

Last Thursday, Whole Foods finally decided to open a branch in my neighborhood and I was so excited that I visited the store on opening day itself. I went at the wrong time and the place was packed as it was lunch time and most of the people working nearby were at the store. I could not shop much and came back with a pack of fresh shelled green/English peas & a sandwich for lunch. When I decided to prepare oats upma for breakfast, I added some of the peas to make it more healthy and nutritious.

As I mentioned above, when it comes to preparing food just for myself, I am very lazy and want to be out of the kitchen as soon as possible. I did the tempering for the upma with little bit of cumin, mustard seeds, green chilies for spice, sautéed peas for a few seconds, threw in the oats & required amount of water and oats upma was done in less than 10 minutes. The taste was good and made it couple of times since then. This morning I made the upma again specifically to blog the recipe. My pictures are not as good and I got to click only 3-4 pictures as I spilled the glass of orange juice during the photo shoot. By the time I cleaned up the mess, my upma was cold and I did not have the patience nor the interest to continue with the photo session. And my stomach was rumbling 😛 Please excuse the pictures.

Total Time: 10 minutes
Preparation: 2 minutes
Cooking Time: 8 minutes
Serves: 1 (what you see in the bowl in the picture is what this recipe yields)

Ingredients:

• 1- 2 tsp. Oil (I used 2 tsps.)
• ¼ tsp. Cumin Seeds
• ¼ tsp. Mustard Seeds
• 2-3 Curry Leaves
• 2 small Green Chilies cut into ½” pieces (adjust to taste)
• 1/8 cup fresh Green Peas
• ¼ tsp. Salt (adjust to taste)
• ½ cup Old Fashioned Oats
• ¾ cup Water
• Cilantro to garnish (I did not use as I had none at home)

Preparation:

• Wash the green chilies and cut them. Wash & tear the curry leaves into two.
• In sauce pan heat oil, add mustard & cumin seeds. When the seeds splutter, add curry leaves and green chilies and sauté for few seconds.
• Add the green peas and continue to sauté for another ½ a minute or until peas start to change color.
• Add salt, oats and roast until oats are light brown. This takes about a minute.
• Add water and give a good stir and bring the water to a boil.
• Mix well, reduce the heat to medium-medium high and continue to cook for few more minutes until water evaporates. After adding water, it takes approximately five minutes to cook.
• Transfer oats to a serving bowl, sprinkle some cilantro and serve it hot.

Suggestions:

• To make oats upma more flavorful try adding some chopped onion and ginger to the tempering.
• I used 1: 1½ cups oats to water ratio. Oats upma was soft and a little mushy. I like it that way and if one wants grainy oats, reduce the quantity of water.