Semiya upma is a delicious upma variant made with vermicelli, aromatics, spices, cashews and herbs. This dish is also called as vermicelli upma or seviyan upma and has unique flavors and textures.
It is very different from the popular South Indian breakfast recipe of upma. A vegan recipe.
Upma is a savory breakfast dish from the South Indian cuisine and made with various ingredients – semolina, oats, millets, quinoa, bread, flattened rice etc.
Not only the hero ingredient can be different but the additional vegetables, spices etc can also be unique.
Traditionally the most popular upma is made from rava (cream of wheat).
It is such a popular version that you will find it being made in homes for breakfast and also served in restaurants.
Vermicelli upma is another version of this savory dish where the hero ingredient is vermicelli – also known as seviyan in Hindi and semiya in few South Indian languages.
This version of upma with vermicelli is also easy to make and tastes equally good.
Semiya are mostly known and used for making Seviyan Kheer or Semiya Payasam. But there are few more vermicelli recipes that are made with semiya like Seviyan Biryani, Meethi Seviyan, Semiya Kesari, Seviyan Pulao etc.
Vermicelli are either made from whole wheat flour or all-purpose flour or rava (semolina) or rice flour or ragi flour. While making semiya upma,
I prefer semiya made from whole wheat flour or rice flour or ragi flour as they are more healthy than the ones made from all-purpose flour.
I make upma many times for breakfast. In Maharashtra, Upma and Poha are two popular breakfast recipes. Upma is traditionally served with coconut chutney or lime pickle or lime slices.
It can also be had plain. Ideally, it should be eaten hot or warm.
Semiya upma is light on the stomach. To make this easy vermicelli recipe more nutritious and flavorful add veggies like grated carrots, steamed peas, grated cabbage, boiled sweet corn and steamed green beans.
Sometimes I add steamed green peas and grated carrots to this dish.
This vermicelli recipe that I have shared here is quick to prepare since I have not added any vegetables as they take more time to cook.
So the recipe comes together in less than 30 minutes.
You can serve semiya upma hot or warm with coconut chutney or accompanied with lemon wedges or lemon pickle. It also tastes good as is without any sides.
How to make Semiya Upma
Roasting semiya
1. Firstly heat a heavy kadai or pan. Keep the heat to a low. Take the semiya strands and break them.
Add the semiya strands in the kadai.
You will need 1 cup of broken semiya strands or 185 grams semiya.
You can also use rice semiya or ragi flour semiya instead of whole wheat semiya.
Note that if you are using packaged roasted semiya then I would still suggest roasting them lightly for a few minutes.
On low heat begin to roast the semiya stirring often.
Roast till the semiya strands become golden. Some strands won’t become golden but it is alright as they are roasted and cooked.
Let the mustard seeds begin to crackle.
When the mustard seeds start crackling, then add ½ teaspoon cumin seeds and 1 teaspoon urad dal (husked and split black gram).
Stir and fry till the urad dal starts turning light golden.
As soon as urad dal starts turning light golden, at that time add cashews. You can also add roasted peanuts instead of cashews.
Then add the following ingredients:
- ½ teaspoon finely chopped ginger – You can skip ginger if you do not like its flavor.
- 1 green chili (chopped)
- 7 to 8 curry leaves (chopped)
- 1 dry red chili (broken and seeds removed)
- Then add 2 cups of water. You can add water as per the vermicelli package instructions. So add water as required.
E.g. If your vermicelli package mentions adding 1.5 cups of water for 1 cup of vermicelli then add 1.5 cups of water only.
- Mix very well.
- They taste good as is. But a drizzle of lemon juice elevates the flavors more.
