‘Millets Puli Upma’ is a slight variation of traditional ‘Puli Upma / Pindi Upma’, one of the tastiest upma dishes prepared in South Indian Households. Puli in Tamil means Tamarind. As the name suggests, this delicacy tastes sour with the right balance of spiciness in it. Piping hot ‘Millets Puli Upma’ complements the snowy, cold winters or the windy rainy days perfectly.

Puli Upma, is one of the staple breakfast options in any Brahmin households in South India. It is also known as Pindi Upma in Andhra, Huri Uppitu in Karnataka and Podi Upma / Udhiri Maavu Upma in regions of Tamil Nadu .

How to make Millets Puli Upma / Millets Pindi Upma?

Traditional version uses rice flour as the main ingredient. Rice flour dough mixed with tamarind water and other spices, sauteed over low flame till it gets crumbly. The consistency is flaky (Udhiri) and sand-like texture. This recipe uses more amoubt of oil than other upma varieties. Also, it takes more time to prepare than its counterparts. But the end product is worth all the efforts. It tastes heaven with the slight pungent flavour of Mor Milagai (green chilles soaked in buttermilk + salt concoction and sundried).

Here, I have used Sorghum (Cholam / Jowar) flour along with little bit of rice flour. Other ingredients, the process and the outcome are all similar to the traditional version of Puli Upma. Here’s the recipe of ‘Millets Puli Upma’ in a simple format.

Ingredients

• Sorghum Flour – ¾ cup
• Rice Flour – ¼ cup
• Imli Paste – ½ to ¾ tbsp (adjust as per your taste)
• Hing – ½ tsp
• Red Chilly Powder – ½ tsp
• Salt to taste
• Water – ¾ cup

For Tadka:

• Mustard Seeds – ¼ tsp
• Urad Dhal – ½ tsp
• Channa Dhal – ½ tsp
• Mor Milagai – 3 or 4, finely chopped
• Onion – 1 medium-sized, finely chopped
• Curry Leaves – few, torn into pieces
• Gingelly Oil – ¼ cup approx. 60 ml

Method

• In a large bowl, take millet flour, rice flour, salt, hing and red chilly powder. Mix well.
• Combine imli paste with ½ a cup of water. Add it to the flour mix.
• Mix well and form a soft chapathi-like dough by gradually adding the remaining ¼ cup of water.
• Let it rest for 10 minutes.
• In a heavy-bottomed kadai, heat 2 tbsp of oil.
• Add mustard seeds, let it splutter. Add urad dhal and channa dhal, let them turn golden in colour.
• Add finely chopped mor milagai and sauté till it turns brown in colour.
• Add chopped onions and curry leaves.
• Once onions turn translucent, add the dough mix.
• Sauté continuously to scramble the dough into smaller chunks. Keep the flame to low-medium.
• Add remaining 1 tbsp of oil and sauté till upma gets crumbly and flaky in texture.
• Sprinkle little bit of water and level the surface of upma. Keep it covered for a minute or two. This step is done to get the golden-coloured porukku (thick, crunchy layer at the bottom of the kadai) that tastes heaven while relishing it with upma.
• Switch off the flame and serve hot.

Notes

• The consistency of the dough mix should be soft like chapathi or murukku dough. If it is hard, upma will be dry. If the dough is sticky, upma will have lots of lumps with some of them under-cooked.
• Saute the upma only till it gets to sand-like texture. Overdoing this will result in hard and dry upma.
• This recipe is supposed to be tangy and spicy. Adjust spiciness and sourness as per your taste.

Happy Cooking!