Couscous Upma

A delicious and a very healthy breakfast dish made from Couscous and stir fried vegetables…

Couscous provides plenty of taste and nourishment for a perfect meal. It is one of the healthiest grain-based products around.  Its glycaemic load for every gram is 25% lower that of pasta. Not only that, couscous is also known to have superior vitamin content over pasta. To prove this, it should be said that couscous contains twice the content of niacin, riboflavin, vitamin B6 and folic acid compared to pasta. It also contains more thiamine and pantothenic acid.

Couscous is also a very good source of protein since it has 3.6 grams of protein in every 100 calories. Its protein content is the same as that of the pasta but a bit higher than white rice. Also, it would be interesting to note that couscous only has 1% ratio of fat to calorie making it one good alternative to rice and pasta if you want your food to be lower in fat content.

Upma is a south Indian dish and is usually made with Semolina (called Rava or Suji in India). There are many other ways Upma could be prepared, incorporating variations in flavour and using different core ingredients. This variation is obtained by varying or emphasising particular spices like mustard seeds, curry leaves, ginger etc. 

Ingredients

1 cup Couscous

2 table spoon oil/ghee

Peanuts (Optional)

Mustard seeds

Cumin seeds

Curry leaves

Chopped Green Chillies

Chopped Coriander (Cilantro)

Lemon Juice

¼ cup chopped carrots

¼ cup green peas (optional) (you can choose your veggies)

1 medium size tomato, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped

Salt  to taste

Pinch of turmeric powder 

2 cups of boiled water

Cooking Method

1. Take a mixing bowl and soak the couscous in the boiled water for about 15 minutes. You don’t need to boil it separately as couscous cooks very fast. After about 15 minutes you will see it has become fluffy and soft enough to be eaten.
2. Now, take a sauce pan and add 2 table spoons of oil/ghee in it. Let the oil heat.
3. Add few cumin seeds and mustard seeds and as they start popping add the curry leaves and chopped green chillies. Stir fry for about 30 seconds.
4. Now add all the chopped vegetables and stir fry for about 2-3 minutes.
5. Add salt and turmeric powder to the stir fried vegetables. Cover the lid and let the vegetables cook for another minute.
6. Now mix the soaked couscous with the stir fried vegetables and stir nicely.
7. Add some lemon juice to it and garnish with freshly chopped coriander (cilantro).
8. Your yummy couscous upma is now ready to be served.