Instant pot upma

I'm gonna share 3 of my tried and tested recipes for upma. My upma used to come out all sticky/gooey until I got it right with my friend Priya's Simple Rava Upma.

1) Vermicelli Upma
2) Rava/Sooji Upma with vegetables
3) Simple Rava/Sooji Upma

1) Vermicelli Upma (Kavitha Rangan's recipe on Fb Page - Instant Pot for Indian Cooking)

About 2 cups Vermicelli
3-4 Green Thail chillies - slit
Few Curry leaves
Coriander leaves
One onion sliced/chopped
In SAUTE high add 2 tsps oil.
When hot add 1 tsp black gram dhal, Channa dhal, 1 tsp mustard seeds, slit green chillies, curry leaves, and slit/chopped onion. 

SAUTE for 1-2 minutes, add vermicelli about 2 cups. 
SAUTE for a minute add 1 tsp turmeric, salt to taste and just enough water to cover vermicelli. 

Cover and cook in MANUAL for 1 min and after about a minute Quick Release the pressure (Vermicelli cooks very fast). 

Open and add  juice of half a lemon/lime (optional)
Add coriander leaves to garnish.
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2) Rava/Sooji Upma with vegetables

Dry roast 2 cups of upma/sooji and keep it aside. In IP it takes about 8-10 min in saute mode, stirring occasionally. While it is getting toasted, I chop half of an onion, 1 green chilly, 1/2 inch of ginger very finely. Followed by that i take a handful of green beans and chop it thin. I use one large carrot,  peel it out in layers using my potato peeler, and chop it finely. If you have a veggie chopper use that for beans and carrots - you get it done in under a minute.

While toasting the sooji/rava in instant pot, I keep the water to heat on my stove. Water quantity is 2X the amount of sooji. 4 cups in my case. By the time sooji is heated up, water will also be ready. I take about 1/4 cup of water in a separate vessel, and put chopped beans and chopped carrots in it for boiling. Add a teaspoon of coconut oil also to it. Let the water evaporate, so only the veggies remain.

Next, transfer the dry roasted sooji from IP into another vessel. Add 1 tblspoon coconut oil, mustard, and 1 tablespoon urad dal along with salt to your taste(I add 1 teaspoon) to your IP in saute mode. Once urad dal is light brown, add onion/green chilli/ginger/pinch of turmeric powder and saute for 3-4 mins. Next add the carrot/green beans which would have been half cooked. Mix it well. Next add the dry sooji, and mix well. Add water, stirring so it coats the sooji. Cover and keep for 4 mins in sealed mode. Open the lid after 4 mins, add small cubes of butter (1 table spoon), and start breaking apart the sooji, so the water vapor trapped inside will get out and makes it not sticky. Keep doing it till you feel it is fluffy soft consistency - about 2-3 mins. Keep it there for another 2 mins to settle, and enjoy.

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3) Simple Rava/Sooji Upma

This is my friend Priya's style (the original one :)

1. Roast Rava in a bit of oil or ghee (you need to do this even if you buy roasted Rava)  you can roast it in bulk and keep it in pantry too.  You need to roast it till it starts to turn light brown                    
2. Crack mustard,  then saute half an onion. After few minutes,  add chopped green chilies, ginger and curry leaves. After a minute add any chopped veggies and salt. Saute for another minute. Then add few cashews                    
3. While you are doing the sauteing,  boil water in a separate pan.  Add enough salt to the water too.
For 1 cup of Rava, I use 2 cups of water                    
4. Add roasted Rava to sauted veggies.  Now add boiled water and cover it for 1 or 2 minutes  



5. Add a bit of ghee,   reduce the flame, stir well and cover it for another minute


We have the rava upma with ripe banana, or pappads, chutney powder, chutney, sambar, chole etc.. whats your favorite combination?