Bread Upma
In India, amongst all the other beautiful dishes – and gosh, there are so many that I could hardly touch them all during our Indian cuisine week – there is something typical for the South of India that is called Upma. Upma is a popular breakfast dish, usually made from semolina, veggies, spices and nuts. Bread Upma, instead, is a delicious and quick variation of the traditional upma made from semolina. As the name indicates, it is made with bread instead of semolina. Bread Upma is as well a popular breakfast or snack dish in many Indian households, particularly when there’s leftover bread to use up. And as we had a small piece of bread left from the days before, this was just popping up in the right moment. Thank you Swasthi, you have been a big help and inspiration during this week! Check out her wonderful blog, guys!
I gave the recipe usually made my own twist. Necessarily, since we did not have any cashews or almonds at home, so I used walnuts instead and wow, this is really delicious too! For the rest, it’s what I always change: no onions, no garlic, no chili. A sattvik recipe for all those who follow this diet or simply cannot digest neither nor.
Here are the ingredients for my Bread Upma:
- Bread – I used my Holy Quinta Bread, a few days old and it worked perfectly. I can imagine that any bread works here.
- Tomatos – always use ripe ones!
- Spices – well here you can choose, I could not use all the spices that Indians usually use, because they are too specific (such as curry leaves). So basically I used curcuma (turmeric) powder, freshly chopped and with the knife mashed ginger and paprika powder instead of chili powder. You can add some cumin too, if you want. Or Garam Masala.
- Carrots – while this is not really common, I listened to Swathi’s words saying that you can basically add any vegetable of your choice to this dish. And well, since we have too many carrots for the moment, this was my choice 🙂 And it blended super well with the rest!
- Nuts – she uses cashews or almonds, in this recipe I had to take walnuts as this was what we had at home. And it was delicious!
- Fresh herbs – it gives this simple dish an extra flavor which I would not want to miss. See what you have at home, cilantro, parsley or basil, all is perfect.
- Oil – you can use any neutral oil here, olive, sesame or else.
- Salt and black pepper – feel free to season well or slightly, how you like it.
So, then let’s get started!
Bread Walnut Upma
Ingredients
- 2 slices (old) bread
- 1 medium to large ripe tomato
- 1-2 carrots
- 1 handful walnuts (or other nuts)
- 1 tsp fresh ginger, chopped and mashed with a knife
- 1/2 tsp turmeric powder (curcuma)
- 1/2 tsp paprika powder (here you can use chili powder)
- fresh herbs
- salt and black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Toast the bread, either in the pan without oil or in your toaster. Set aside.
- Cut the tomatos in cubes, peel and grate the carrot(s).
- In a pan, heat 1 tbsp of oil and fry the nuts on low to medium heat until golden brown. Take the nuts out of the pan, keep the rest of the oil in the pan.
- Add the ginger to the pan and fry for 1-2 minutes. Add the carrots and fry again for 1 minute. Stir constantly. Add the tomato cubes, the turmeric powder and cook (best with a lid, stirring regularily), until the tomatos turn mushy. In the meantime, cut the bread in small cubes.
- Add the paprika powder or chili powder. Season with salt and pepper.
- (Note: The following step I actually forgot, now that I am writing this recipe down, I have to admit … strangely, we were not missing the water a second, it was so delicious! If you are in a hurry, you might want to do it my way and just skip the next step…) Add 3-4 tbsp water. Cook, until the sauce turns thick.
- In the meantime, chop your herbs.
- Now add the nuts and the bread cubes, coat well with the gravy, but don't stir too much and too long, as the bread will start to turn mushy.
- Sprinkle with the chopped herbs and some fresh lemon juice (optional), and serve immediately.