
Here is one classic, traditional dish!
This dish was prepared for Yummy Aid Contest 2008 at Office, a charity program conducted every year since. This was only a start. Later it was conducted in a more professional manner by setting stalls etc.
Got much appreciation then. You may please try and let me know in the comments section
World’s Healthiest Breakfast in Traditional Kerala Style!
A mouth-watering dish, indeed! ![]()
Ingredients needed:
Two and half cups white oats
A tablespoon each of urad (whole) and chana dal
A teaspoon of mustard seeds
Two small onions finely chopped
One tomato chopped
A small piece of ginger, grated
Two green chillies chopped
Three and half cups water
Salt to taste
Three tablespoons of sunflower oil
Cashew nuts, Resins and Curry leaves to garnish
Preparation Method:
Pour the oil in a kadai and heat it. Add mustard seeds. When they begin to crackle add both dal and fry. Then add the onions and fry till they are translucent. Add curry leaves.
Add the tomato, ginger and chilies and fry until the raw smell of ginger goes. Add the water and salt and let it come to a boil
Now lower the heat and gradually add the oats and keep stirring until it comes to a porridge consistency. If you cook further you would end up with a very dry upma which will stick to your throat and will be a terrible experience. Too much watery is also not good. Switch off the stove and let the upma cool down a bit. It will thicken on its own. Garnish with Cashew Nuts, Resins and curry leaves fried in Pure Ghee!
Eat it with pickle and curd. This upma is ideal for those who hate oats porridge particularly kids. :)
Note:
If you want it to more nutritive, you can add vegetables like carrots and cabbage. In that case after adding the onions, ginger and tomatoes add the vegetables and stir fry them until the vegetables become soft and then add the water and follow the above-mentioned preparation/procedure.

Tail end (വാൽകഷ്ണം):
At the Yummy Aid at Office, my team had won first prize for 4 consecutive years! Those themes were super as I remember, Backyard Kitchen, Know your roots etc. Once, with all kinds of dishes only from Plantain tree, stem, flower…. It was the coolest! If it was today, I would have named the stall as ‘വാഴ’ (Banana Tree) 🤣
Those big trophies we bagged now must be lying on some account manager’s desk or drawer for various reasons!😒
Fivestar Chefs were invited by the company to evaluate and find the winner! Serious event it was! Later due to competition between accounts, some of the account managers were distributing money to its own team to buy from their own stalls to bag the most popular stall award! However, Good amount was collected for the charity!
Later to give others a chance too😂, I stepped out by distributing മോരും വെള്ളം (butter milk) free to all in that year of my exit from the event!
The end (ശുഭം):
As I had mentioned in the beginning, this was just a start of Yummy Aid and there were no professional judges to evaluate the dishes then. When introduced my dish, Upma, to one of the local judges from the office, (guess she was from visa processing division) she simply refused to taste it by saying “I don’t like Upma from my childhood!” It was so inappropriate to get such a remark, that too from the judge, even if she hates upma from childhood! Although it was so discouraging to the team, my dish got finished first as I remember, collecting a fair amount of money by charging ₹10 or something for a couple of scoops!

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