Oats Upma with vegetables - Indian Oats Breakfast Recipe

I have been getting requests for sharing healthy as well as easy to prepare recipes. Oats upma is one such, you hardly need 15 mins for the entire process. You can chop the vegetabes parallelly as you dry roast the oats and then you can prepare this upma in less than 5 mins. Eat it hot and it tastes heavenly with  all those crunchy veggies. This oats upma can be served plain, drizzled with few drops of lemon juice or also served with coconut chutney. You will enjoy every spoonful of it.

Ingredients

Oats - 1 cup
Water - 1 cup or little less than that
Onion - 1
Green chilli - 1
Mixed vegetables - as per preferance (carrots, beans, cooked peas, corn, capsicum etc)
Salt, hing, turmeric powder as per taste
Corriander leaves - a fistful, chopped finely (optional)
Lemon juice - 1 tsp (optional)

To Temper

Oil - 2 tsps
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Channa dal - 1 1/2 tsp
Urad dal - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - few

Method

1. Dry roast the oats until you get a nice aroma, say for 3-4 minutes approximately. Parallelly chop the vegetables into small cubes.
2. Heat a pan, add oil and do the tempering. Then add green chillies and onion and saute until the onion turns transparent. Then add the vegetables and saute for few more minutes. Now add salt, turmeric powder and hing and half quantity of the water and allow to boil.
3. Then add the oats and mix well. Oats will imediately absorb all the water. Stir well and drizzle the remaining water and mix well. Keep covered and cook for 5-7 minutes or until done. Stir inbetween. If the mixture looks very dry, drizzle few more drops of water and cover and cook again. 
4. Once done, turn off the flame and add lemon juice. Mix well and garnish with coriander leaves. Serve Hot!

Note:

• You can add ginger for an enhanced flavor and to aid the digestion process.
• Adjust the water quantity as per the quality of your oats. Start with half the ratio of oats and then drizzle little by little. This way you can have the right texture for the upma.

Sponge Dosa - Soft Sponge Dosai Recipe

Bored of preparing the regular dosa varieties? Try this sponge dosa, it is very soft and spongy and stays like that even after 4-5 hours of preparation. It tastes great with any chutney varieties. You don't have to add any cooking soda/baking powder for this recipe.

Ingredients

Idly rice - 1 cup
Poha - 1/2 cup
Urad dal - 1/4 cup
Fenugreek seeds - 1 tsp
Salt as needed

Method

Wash and soak rice, urad dal and fenugreek seeds for a minimum of 3 hours. After 3 hours, wash poha and add it in the mixer. Then add the soaked ingredients, grind to a smooth batter adding required amount of water. Transfer to a wide vessel, add salt, mix well and allow to sit overnight to get fermented.

In the morning, you can use this batter for preparing soft and spongy dosas. Heat a tawa, pour a ladle of this batter, add few drops of oil and cover with a lid. Cook until u hear a SSS sound or until one side of the dosa turns golden brown in color.  Now, take out the dosa from the tawa. You don't have to cook the other side as we are cooking this keeping covered.  Just make sure you keep the flame on medium throughout the process. These dosas are crispy outside and super soft inside. Yumm!

Poori/Puri Recipe - How to make puffy Poori

Poori is a yummy breakfast recipe that is loved by everyone irrespective of their ages. My mom used to make this for all sunday breakfast. The peas masala that she makes as a side is an ultimate combo. All my school friends love the combination. At times my mom used to prepare this specially for them. After marriage I had not prepared it often, but now since my little one loves it I have started making it frequently. That too a puffy and soft poori is a bit tricky one to prepare. Consistency of the dough, rolling the poori, oil temperature are the key things to be noted down. Now to the recipe!

Ingredients

Wheat flour - 1 cup
Oil - 1 tsp (optional)
Salt - as needed
Warm Water - as needed, 1/3 cup approximately is what I used

Method

1. In a wide boil add the flour, salt and oil and mix well.  Add warm water little by little and knead to a soft dough. The dough should be little stiffer than the chapati dough, but not too stiff. Knead the dough well for few mins, this makes the dough smooth and soft. Do not allow the dough to sit for a long time as we do for chapati. Start making balls and roll them immediately
2. Divide the dough into small equal portions and make balls out of it. Roll them evenly into circles. Do not roll them too thin, else the pooris will not puff up. Keep the rolled dough in a paper or plate without overlapping and keep covered
3. Meanwhile heat oil for deep frying. Check the temperature of oil, put a small piece of dough. It should rise immediately, that's the correct temperature. Now start making poori's.
4. Drop the rolled dough gently by sliding on the sides of the pan, after a second, press it with a slotted ladle. It will puff up, now flip it to the other side and allow to cook for few seconds. Remove and lower the flame till u drop the next poori .Drain in a tissue paper. Keep the flame in medium high and repeat the same for remaining pooris. If you feel the oil temperature is too high, switch off the flame for few seconds and turn it on.