Food for thought (this time, Food with calories, taste, look and feel - not Bach's quotes or rand's ravings)
Upma is a simple South Indian dish made of semollina/rava/suji, sauted with mustard seeds, asafoetida, curry leaves, green chillies and onions. It is known to be a quick fix dish when sudden guests show up at your doorstep (which did happen a lot in 10-yrs-back-India and does still but lesser)
Upma became synonymous with anything quick-fix, at least in the southern indian slang. Again if you are living my age and have a tamil connection you may remember the Mamootty starrer "Azhagan" where he is a hotel business man risen from scratch and called to preside over a dance performance. He begins with "Naan upma maari" = "I am like Upma" - as he would have actually been invited as a quick replacement for the original chief guest who wasnt gonna make it!
That being a little bit of insight into the simple yet fun dish that is Upma, today, a saturday and my trusted and lovely cook absconding, i decided to make something to feed ourselves - chanced upon this MTR Ready to cook Upma! Ah what a relief from Bread omlette and i loved me more for stocking it.
I am not trying to review this little one. But I think this is one good snack / breakfast item that you may want to stock for those rush hours.Not that there are many more ;)
For Rs.7/- the 90g pack serves 2 light-eaters (good enough if served with ghee and sides, taken with some juice/fruit/coffee)You just need to boil twice the quantity (as the mix you are using) of water, with ghee/oil, mix it in and cook in low flame for 5-7 mins. Voila - breakfast ready!!!
Nutritional facts Per 100g:
- Calories - 411
- Protein - 9g
- Carb - 69g
- Sugars - 1g
- Fat - 11g
- Fibre - 0.4g
- Sat Fat - 8.6g
- Monounsat fat - 0.2g
- Polyunsat fat - 0.08g
- Trans fat - 0g
- Calcium - 29mg
- Iron - 2mg
- Sodium - 1.3g
- Vit A - 105micg
- Vitc C - 2mg
One tablespoon of ghee (for 90g) added when boiling would help the dish not to stick on the vessel.1tbsp of ghee = approx 15-20g has about 130-180 cals and 15-20g of fat.
Sides that go best with it: Coconut chutney, Onion/Tomato chutney, Pickle, Yogurt, even just sugar!
This is one serving that is giving me about 300-350 cals (half of the full packet + half of 1.5 tbsp of ghee) I had it with sugar, my childhood habit, piling on some 30 unnecessary calories :p But it was a happy Saturday morning breakfast!
Enjoy if you happen to try it!
