Cornmeal Upma

Cornmeal’s semolina like texture and its orange – yellow hue instantly attracted me when I saw it for the first time in a grocery shop. I promptly bought one box of cornmeal and did what any Indian would do, if she had a bag of semolina. Prepare upma, of course. From then onwards, Cornmeal upma has been on my breakfast list. Here follows my recipe for the cornmeal upma. To add a little boost of protein, I used some frozen soybeans /edamame in the upma.

 

Ingredients for Cornmeal upma:
Cornmeal - 3/4 cup
Onion & tomato – 1 each
Fresh soybeans – 1 / 4 cup
Green chillies – 4 (I used small, serrano peppers)
For tadka - 2 Tbsp oil, a few curry leaves, 1 tsp each of chanadal, urad dal, mustard seeds & cumin seeds
Water – 3 cups

Preparing Cornmeal Upma:
Dry roast the cornmeal for about 5 minutes in a wok / pan and set aside. Finely chop onion, tomato and the green chillies. Heat the oil in a wok / pan. When the oil is hot, add chanadal, uraddal, cumin seeds, mustard seeds and curry leaves in that order. When the chana and urad dals turn red and the mustard seeds start to splutter, add green chillies and fry for a few seconds. Then add chopped onion and stir. Lower the heat and close the lid. Keep stirring in between and when the onion turns almost translucent, add tomato and fry for a couple of minutes. Then add soybeans, water and salt and increase the flame. When the water starts to boil, add the cornmeal and lower the heat. Cover the lid and cook till it is done. Serve warm with chutney or chutney powder.

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Green Cabbage Curry with Soybeans

I love my mom’s cabbage curry with green peas. Today, I substituted edamame / green soybeans for peas in her recipe. Since the soybeans were frozen variety, they didn't need much cooking and I just tossed them at the end.


Now coming to the recipe, You would need -
Chopped green cabbage - 2 cups
Edamame / Soybeans - 1/4 cup
Coconut grated (fresh or frozen)- 1/4cup
Chana Dal (Bengal gram) - 1 tsp
Urad Dal (Black gram)- 1 tsp
Mustard seeds (Rai) - 1/2 tsp
Jeera (Cumin Seeds) - 1/2 tsp
Red Chillies – 6 or more (broken into bits)
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves – A few (If you can get)
Oil - 1 tbsp
Salt - As needed


Heat oil in a pan. To the oil, add chana, urad, mustard, cumin seeds, red chillies and curry leaves in that order. When they all start to sizzle and the dals turn red, add the cabbage, salt and turmeric powder. Lower the flame and close the lid. Stir in between.
When it is almost done, add the soybeans, coconut and saute for a couple of minutes more and turn off the stove.
The green cabbage & soybeans curry is ready to serve.

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