Bread Upma

Bread upma is Neha’s favourite choice of breakfast and snack item. But hubby is not too fond of it. So I mostly make this when I have an alternate breakfast for him. Today was one such day, made some dosa for hubby and this upma for Neha. I have lot of childhood memories with this upma. My dad used to make it when we were small kids and he used to put lot of ghee in it and sometimes an egg too, making it very rich and tasty. 

After marriage, when I made this for the first time, I was a bit disappointed to realise that hubby didn’t share my liking for this and thus this item never surfaced up much in my kitchen till Neha became 4-5 years old and I decided to make this for her. To my surprise and pleasure, she liked it and told me to make it again and again. Thank God !! Though she is a hardcore papa’s girl, at times she gives me such great happiness 🙂 So, since then this is made only for mom and daughter duo and papa is always given an alternate option 🙂 leaving me to wonder what is there in this not to like? He loves breads but …. 

I always love such one pot meals, easy to make, not much of pots n pans to clean and ofcourse healthy n tasty too. Just be creative and use any assortment of vegetables and make it. No hard and fast rule about the ingredients. Just use whatever you have in your kitchen pantry.

Ingredients:

• Bread slices 6-8
• Salt to taste
• Cabbage a small piece
• Green peas boiled a handful
• Carrot 1
• Capsicum half
• Tomato 1
• Onion green chillli 1-2
• Turmeric powder 1/4 tsp
• Red chilli powder 1/2 tsp
• Mustard seeds 1/2 tsp
• Refined oil 2 tbsp
• Ghee/butter 1 tbsp
• Coriander leaves 3-4 sprigs

Method:

• Cut the bread slices roughly with your hand into 1-1.5 inch pieces and keep aside.
• Chop all the vegetables finely.
• Heat oil in a flat non stick pan or a big Kadhai.
• Add mustard seeds and allow it to splutter. Add the chopped onion and green chillies.
• Once onion turns slightly pink in colour, add finely chopped cabbage, carrot and tomato.
• Add turmeric, chilli powder and salt and cover the pan and cook for 5 minutes.
• Open the lid and add the bread pieces, capsicum and boiled peas.
• Add ghee or butter and stir it gently so that everything gets mixed well.
• After 3-4 minutes garnish it with Finely chopped coriander leaves and serve hot.

Notes:

• You can add finely chopped cauliflower, beans or boiled corn to this upma.
• Those who eat egg can finally garnish this upma with some scrambled eggs to make it more rich in protein.
• Any bread of your choice can be used in this recipe. Better to use breads which are atleast 2 days old.
• This is a healthy one pot meal with all the required carbohudrates, proteins and fats with the mineral from vegetables.